witha
memorable
history
that
had
its
relics
in
church
and
castle
)
was
one
of
those
excellent
musicians
here
and
there
to
be
found
in
our
provinces
,
worthy
to
compare
with
many
a
noted
Kapellmeister
in
a
country
which
offers
more
plentiful
conditions
of
musical
celebrity
.
Rosamond
,
with
the
executant
's
instinct
,
had
seized
his
manner
of
playing
,
and
gave
forth
his
large
rendering
of
noble
music
with
the
precision
of
an
echo
.
It
was
almost
startling
,
heard
for
the
first
time
.
A
hidden
soul
seemed
to
be
flowing
forth
from
Rosamond
's
fingers
;
and
so
indeed
it
was
,
since
souls
live
on
in
perpetual
echoes
,
and
to
all
fine
expression
there
goes
somewhere
an
originating
activity
,
if
it
be
only
that
of
an
interpreter
.
Lydgate
was
taken
possession
of
,
and
began
to
believe
in
her
as
something
exceptional
.
After
all
,
he
thought
,
one
need
not
be
surprised
to
find
the
rare
conjunctions
of
nature
under
circumstances
apparently
unfavourable
:
come
where
they
may
,
they
always
depend
on
conditions
that
are
not
obvious
.
He
sat
looking
at
her
,
and
did
not
rise
to
pay
her
any
compliments
,
leaving
that
to
others
,
now
that
his
admiration
was
deepened
.
Her
singing
was
less
remarkable
,
but
also
well
trained
,
and
sweet
to
hear
as
a
chime
perfectly
in
tune
.
It
is
true
she
sang
"
Meet
me
by
moonlight
,
"
and
"
I
've
been
roaming
"
;
for
mortals
must
share
the
fashions
of
their
time
,
and
none
but
the
ancients
can
be
always
classical
.
But
Rosamond
could
also
sing
"
Black-eyed
Susan
"
with
effect
,
or
Haydn
's
canzonets
,
or
"
Voi
,
che
sapete
,
"
or
"
Batti
,
batti
"
—
she
only
wanted
to
know
what
her
audience
liked
.
Her
father
looked
round
at
the
company
,
delighting
in
their
admiration
.
Her
mother
sat
,
like
a
Niobe
before
her
troubles
,
with
her
youngest
little
girl
on
her
lap
,
softly
beating
the
child
's
hand
up
and
down
in
time
to
the
music
.
And
Fred
,
notwithstanding
his
general
scepticism
about
Rosy
,
listened
to
her
music
with
perfect
allegiance
,
wishing
he
could
do
the
same
thing
on
his
flute
.
It
was
the
pleasantest
family
party
that
Lydgate
had
seen
since
he
came
to
Middlemarch
.
The
Vincys
had
the
readiness
to
enjoy
,
the
rejection
of
all
anxiety
,
and
the
belief
in
life
as
a
merry
lot
,
which
made
a
house
exceptional
in
most
county
towns
at
that
time
,
when
Evangelicalism
had
cast
a
certain
suspicion
as
of
plague-infection
over
the
few
amusements
which
survived
in
the
provinces
.
At
the
Vincys
'
there
was
always
whist
,
and
the
card-tables
stood
ready
now
,
making
some
of
the
company
secretly
impatient
of
the
music
.
Before
it
ceased
Mr.
Farebrother
came
in
—
a
handsome
,
broad-chested
but
otherwise
small
man
,
about
forty
,
whose
black
was
very
threadbare
:
the
brilliancy
was
all
in
his
quick
gray
eyes
.
He
came
like
a
pleasant
change
in
the
light
,
arresting
little
Louisa
with
fatherly
nonsense
as
she
was
being
led
out
of
the
room
by
Miss
Morgan
,
greeting
everybody
with
some
special
word
,
and
seeming
to
condense
more
talk
into
ten
minutes
than
had
been
held
all
through
the
evening
.
He
claimed
from
Lydgate
the
fulfilment
of
a
promise
to
come
and
see
him
.
"
I
ca
n't
let
you
off
,
you
know
,
because
I
have
some
beetles
to
show
you
.
We
collectors
feel
an
interest
in
every
new
man
till
he
has
seen
all
we
have
to
show
him
.
"
But
soon
he
swerved
to
the
whist-table
,
rubbing
his
hands
and
saying
,
"
Come
now
,
let
us
be
serious
!
Mr.
Lydgate
?
not
play
?
Ah
!
you
are
too
young
and
light
for
this
kind
of
thing
.
"
Lydgate
said
to
himself
that
the
clergyman
whose
abilities
were
so
painful
to
Mr.
Bulstrode
,
appeared
to
have
found
an
agreeable
resort
in
this
certainly
not
erudite
household
.
He
could
half
understand
it
:
the
good-humor
,
the
good
looks
of
elder
and
younger
,
and
the
provision
for
passing
the
time
without
any
labour
of
intelligence
,
might
make
the
house
beguiling
to
people
who
had
no
particular
use
for
their
odd
hours
.
Everything
looked
blooming
and
joyous
except
Miss
Morgan
,
who
was
brown
,
dull
,
and
resigned
,
and
altogether
,
as
Mrs.
Vincy
often
said
,
just
the
sort
of
person
for
a
governess
.
Lydgate
did
not
mean
to
pay
many
such
visits
himself
.
They
were
a
wretched
waste
of
the
evenings
;
and
now
,
when
he
had
talked
a
little
more
to
Rosamond
,
he
meant
to
excuse
himself
and
go
.
"
You
will
not
like
us
at
Middlemarch
,
I
feel
sure
,
"
she
said
,
when
the
whist-players
were
settled
.
"
We
are
very
stupid
,
and
you
have
been
used
to
something
quite
different
.
"
"
I
suppose
all
country
towns
are
pretty
much
alike
,
"
said
Lydgate
.
"
But
I
have
noticed
that
one
always
believes
one
's
own
town
to
be
more
stupid
than
any
other
.
I
have
made
up
my
mind
to
take
Middlemarch
as
it
comes
,
and
shall
be
much
obliged
if
the
town
will
take
me
in
the
same
way
.
I
have
certainly
found
some
charms
in
it
which
are
much
greater
than
I
had
expected
.
"
"
You
mean
the
rides
towards
Tipton
and
Lowick
;
every
one
is
pleased
with
those
,
"
said
Rosamond
,
with
simplicity
.
"
No
,
I
mean
something
much
nearer
to
me
.
"
Rosamond
rose
and
reached
her
netting
,
and
then
said
,
"
Do
you
care
about
dancing
at
all
?
I
am
not
quite
sure
whether
clever
men
ever
dance
.
"
"
I
would
dance
with
you
if
you
would
allow
me
.
"
"
Oh
!
"
said
Rosamond
,
with
a
slight
deprecatory
laugh
.
"
I
was
only
going
to
say
that
we
sometimes
have
dancing
,
and
I
wanted
to
know
whether
you
would
feel
insulted
if
you
were
asked
to
come
.
"
"
Not
on
the
condition
I
mentioned
.
"
After
this
chat
Lydgate
thought
that
he
was
going
,
but
on
moving
towards
the
whist-tables
,
he
got
interested
in
watching
Mr.
Farebrother
's
play
,
which
was
masterly
,
and
also
his
face
,
which
was
a
striking
mixture
of
the
shrewd
and
the
mild
.
At
ten
o'clock
supper
was
brought
in
(
such
were
the
customs
of
Middlemarch
)
and
there
was
punch-drinking
;
but
Mr.
Farebrother
had
only
a
glass
of
water
.
He
was
winning
,
but
there
seemed
to
be
no
reason
why
the
renewal
of
rubbers
should
end
,
and
Lydgate
at
last
took
his
leave
.
But
as
it
was
not
eleven
o'clock
,
he
chose
to
walk
in
the
brisk
air
towards
the
tower
of
St.
Botolph
's
,
Mr.
Farebrother
's
church
,
which
stood
out
dark
,
square
,
and
massive
against
the
starlight
.
It
was
the
oldest
church
in
Middlemarch
;
the
living
,
however
,
was
but
a
vicarage
worth
barely
four
hundred
a-year
.
Lydgate
had
heard
that
,
and
he
wondered
now
whether
Mr.
Farebrother
cared
about
the
money
he
won
at
cards
;
thinking
,
"
He
seems
a
very
pleasant
fellow
,
but
Bulstrode
may
have
his
good
reasons
.
"
Many
things
would
be
easier
to
Lydgate
if
it
should
turn
out
that
Mr.
Bulstrode
was
generally
justifiable
.
"
What
is
his
religious
doctrine
to
me
,
if
he
carries
some
good
notions
along
with
it
?
One
must
use
such
brains
as
are
to
be
found
.
"
These
were
actually
Lydgate
's
first
meditations
as
he
walked
away
from
Mr.
Vincy
's
,
and
on
this
ground
I
fear
that
many
ladies
will
consider
him
hardly
worthy
of
their
attention
.
He
thought
of
Rosamond
and
her
music
only
in
the
second
place
;
and
though
,
when
her
turn
came
,
he
dwelt
on
the
image
of
her
for
the
rest
of
his
walk
,
he
felt
no
agitation
,
and
had
no
sense
that
any
new
current
had
set
into
his
life
.
He
could
not
marry
yet
;
he
wished
not
to
marry
for
several
years
;
and
therefore
he
was
not
ready
to
entertain
the
notion
of
being
in
love
with
a
girl
whom
he
happened
to
admire
.
He
did
admire
Rosamond
exceedingly
;
but
that
madness
which
had
once
beset
him
about
Laure
was
not
,
he
thought
,
likely
to
recur
in
relation
to
any
other
woman
.
Certainly
,
if
falling
in
love
had
been
at
all
in
question
,
it
would
have
been
quite
safe
with
a
creature
like
this
Miss
Vincy
,
who
had
just
the
kind
of
intelligence
one
would
desire
in
a
woman
—
polished
,
refined
,
docile
,
lending
itself
to
finish
in
all
the
delicacies
of
life
,
and
enshrined
in
a
body
which
expressed
this
with
a
force
of
demonstration
that
excluded
the
need
for
other
evidence
.
Lydgate
felt
sure
that
if
ever
he
married
,
his
wife
would
have
that
feminine
radiance
,
that
distinctive
womanhood
which
must
be
classed
with
flowers
and
music
,
that
sort
of
beauty
which
by
its
very
nature
was
virtuous
,
being
moulded
only
for
pure
and
delicate
joys
.
But
since
he
did
not
mean
to
marry
for
the
next
five
years
—
his
more
pressing
business
was
to
look
into
Louis
'
new
book
on
Fever
,
which
he
was
specially
interested
in
,
because
he
had
known
Louis
in
Paris
,
and
had
followed
many
anatomical
demonstrations
in
order
to
ascertain
the
specific
differences
of
typhus
and
typhoid
.
He
went
home
and
read
far
into
the
smallest
hour
,
bringing
a
much
more
testing
vision
of
details
and
relations
into
this
pathological
study
than
he
had
ever
thought
it
necessary
to
apply
to
the
complexities
of
love
and
marriage
,
these
being
subjects
on
which
he
felt
himself
amply
informed
by
literature
,
and
that
traditional
wisdom
which
is
handed
down
in
the
genial
conversation
of
men
.
Whereas
Fever
had
obscure
conditions
,
and
gave
him
that
delightful
labour
of
the
imagination
which
is
not
mere
arbitrariness
,
but
the
exercise
of
disciplined
power
—
combining
and
constructing
with
the
clearest
eye
for
probabilities
and
the
fullest
obedience
to
knowledge
;
and
then
,
in
yet
more
energetic
alliance
with
impartial
Nature
,
standing
aloof
to
invent
tests
by
which
to
try
its
own
work
.
Many
men
have
been
praised
as
vividly
imaginative
on
the
strength
of
their
profuseness
in
indifferent
drawing
or
cheap
narration
:
—
reports
of
very
poor
talk
going
on
in
distant
orbs
;
or
portraits
of
Lucifer
coming
down
on
his
bad
errands
as
a
large
ugly
man
with
bat
's
wings
and
spurts
of
phosphorescence
;
or
exaggerations
of
wantonness
that
seem
to
reflect
life
in
a
diseased
dream
.
But
these
kinds
of
inspiration
Lydgate
regarded
as
rather
vulgar
and
vinous
compared
with
the
imagination
that
reveals
subtle
actions
inaccessible
by
any
sort
of
lens
,
but
tracked
in
that
outer
darkness
through
long
pathways
of
necessary
sequence
by
the
inward
light
which
is
the
last
refinement
of
Energy
,
capable
of
bathing
even
the
ethereal
atoms
in
its
ideally
illuminated
space
.
He
for
his
part
had
tossed
away
all
cheap
inventions
where
ignorance
finds
itself
able
and
at
ease
:
he
was
enamoured
of
that
arduous
invention
which
is
the
very
eye
of
research
,
provisionally
framing
its
object
and
correcting
it
to
more
and
more
exactness
of
relation
;
he
wanted
to
pierce
the
obscurity
of
those
minute
processes
which
prepare
human
misery
and
joy
,
those
invisible
thoroughfares
which
are
the
first
lurking-places
of
anguish
,
mania
,
and
crime
,
that
delicate
poise
and
transition
which
determine
the
growth
of
happy
or
unhappy
consciousness
.
As
he
threw
down
his
book
,
stretched
his
legs
towards
the
embers
in
the
grate
,
and
clasped
his
hands
at
the
back
of
his
head
,
in
that
agreeable
afterglow
of
excitement
when
thought
lapses
from
examination
of
a
specific
object
into
a
suffusive
sense
of
its
connections
with
all
the
rest
of
our
existence
—
seems
,
as
it
were
,
to
throw
itself
on
its
back
after
vigorous
swimming
and
float
with
the
repose
of
unexhausted
strength
—
Lydgate
felt
a
triumphant
delight
in
his
studies
,
and
something
like
pity
for
those
less
lucky
men
who
were
not
of
his
profession
.
"
If
I
had
not
taken
that
turn
when
I
was
a
lad
,
"
he
thought
,
"
I
might
have
got
into
some
stupid
draught-horse
work
or
other
,
and
lived
always
in
blinkers
.
I
should
never
have
been
happy
in
any
profession
that
did
not
call
forth
the
highest
intellectual
strain
,
and
yet
keep
me
in
good
warm
contact
with
my
neighbors
.
There
is
nothing
like
the
medical
profession
for
that
:
one
can
have
the
exclusive
scientific
life
that
touches
the
distance
and
befriend
the
old
fogies
in
the
parish
too
.
It
is
rather
harder
for
a
clergyman
:
Farebrother
seems
to
be
an
anomaly
.
"
This
last
thought
brought
back
the
Vincys
and
all
the
pictures
of
the
evening
.
They
floated
in
his
mind
agreeably
enough
,
and
as
he
took
up
his
bed-candle
his
lips
were
curled
with
that
incipient
smile
which
is
apt
to
accompany
agreeable
recollections
.
He
was
an
ardent
fellow
,
but
at
present
his
ardor
was
absorbed
in
love
of
his
work
and
in
the
ambition
of
making
his
life
recognized
as
a
factor
in
the
better
life
of
mankind
—
like
other
heroes
of
science
who
had
nothing
but
an
obscure
country
practice
to
begin
with
.
Poor
Lydgate
!
or
shall
I
say
,
Poor
Rosamond
!
Each
lived
in
a
world
of
which
the
other
knew
nothing
.
It
had
not
occurred
to
Lydgate
that
he
had
been
a
subject
of
eager
meditation
to
Rosamond
,
who
had
neither
any
reason
for
throwing
her
marriage
into
distant
perspective
,
nor
any
pathological
studies
to
divert
her
mind
from
that
ruminating
habit
,
that
inward
repetition
of
looks
,
words
,
and
phrases
,
which
makes
a
large
part
in
the
lives
of
most
girls
.
He
had
not
meant
to
look
at
her
or
speak
to
her
with
more
than
the
inevitable
amount
of
admiration
and
compliment
which
a
man
must
give
to
a
beautiful
girl
;
indeed
,
it
seemed
to
him
that
his
enjoyment
of
her
music
had
remained
almost
silent
,
for
he
feared
falling
into
the
rudeness
of
telling
her
his
great
surprise
at
her
possession
of
such
accomplishment
.
But
Rosamond
had
registered
every
look
and
word
,
and
estimated
them
as
the
opening
incidents
of
a
preconceived
romance
—
incidents
which
gather
value
from
the
foreseen
development
and
climax
.
In
Rosamond
's
romance
it
was
not
necessary
to
imagine
much
about
the
inward
life
of
the
hero
,
or
of
his
serious
business
in
the
world
:
of
course
,
he
had
a
profession
and
was
clever
,
as
well
as
sufficiently
handsome
;
but
the
piquant
fact
about
Lydgate
was
his
good
birth
,
which
distinguished
him
from
all
Middlemarch
admirers
,
and
presented
marriage
as
a
prospect
of
rising
in
rank
and
getting
a
little
nearer
to
that
celestial
condition
on
earth
in
which
she
would
have
nothing
to
do
with
vulgar
people
,
and
perhaps
at
last
associate
with
relatives
quite
equal
to
the
county
people
who
looked
down
on
the
Middlemarchers
.
It
was
part
of
Rosamond
's
cleverness
to
discern
very
subtly
the
faintest
aroma
of
rank
,
and
once
when
she
had
seen
the
Miss
Brookes
accompanying
their
uncle
at
the
county
assizes
,
and
seated
among
the
aristocracy
,
she
had
envied
them
,
notwithstanding
their
plain
dress
.
If
you
think
it
incredible
that
to
imagine
Lydgate
as
a
man
of
family
could
cause
thrills
of
satisfaction
which
had
anything
to
do
with
the
sense
that
she
was
in
love
with
him
,
I
will
ask
you
to
use
your
power
of
comparison
a
little
more
effectively
,
and
consider
whether
red
cloth
and
epaulets
have
never
had
an
influence
of
that
sort
.
Our
passions
do
not
live
apart
in
locked
chambers
,
but
,
dressed
in
their
small
wardrobe
of
notions
,
bring
their
provisions
to
a
common
table
and
mess
together
,
feeding
out
of
the
common
store
according
to
their
appetite
.
Rosamond
,
in
fact
,
was
entirely
occupied
not
exactly
with
Tertius
Lydgate
as
he
was
in
himself
,
but
with
his
relation
to
her
;
and
it
was
excusable
in
a
girl
who
was
accustomed
to
hear
that
all
young
men
might
,
could
,
would
be
,
or
actually
were
in
love
with
her
,
to
believe
at
once
that
Lydgate
could
be
no
exception
.
His
looks
and
words
meant
more
to
her
than
other
men
's
,
because
she
cared
more
for
them
:
she
thought
of
them
diligently
,
and
diligently
attended
to
that
perfection
of
appearance
,
behavior
,
sentiments
,
and
all
other
elegancies
,
which
would
find
in
Lydgate
a
more
adequate
admirer
than
she
had
yet
been
conscious
of
.
For
Rosamond
,
though
she
would
never
do
anything
that
was
disagreeable
to
her
,
was
industrious
;
and
now
more
than
ever
she
was
active
in
sketching
her
landscapes
and
market-carts
and
portraits
of
friends
,
in
practising
her
music
,
and
in
being
from
morning
till
night
her
own
standard
of
a
perfect
lady
,
having
always
an
audience
in
her
own
consciousness
,
with
sometimes
the
not
unwelcome
addition
of
a
more
variable
external
audience
in
the
numerous
visitors
of
the
house
.
She
found
time
also
to
read
the
best
novels
,
and
even
the
second
best
,
and
she
knew
much
poetry
by
heart
.
Her
favourite
poem
was
"
Lalla
Rookh
.
"
"
The
best
girl
in
the
world
!
He
will
be
a
happy
fellow
who
gets
her
!
"
was
the
sentiment
of
the
elderly
gentlemen
who
visited
the
Vincys
;
and
the
rejected
young
men
thought
of
trying
again
,
as
is
the
fashion
in
country
towns
where
the
horizon
is
not
thick
with
coming
rivals
.
But
Mrs.
Plymdale
thought
that
Rosamond
had
been
educated
to
a
ridiculous
pitch
,
for
what
was
the
use
of
accomplishments
which
would
be
all
laid
aside
as
soon
as
she
was
married
?
While
her
aunt
Bulstrode
,
who
had
a
sisterly
faithfulness
towards
her
brother
's
family
,
had
two
sincere
wishes
for
Rosamond
—
that
she
might
show
a
more
serious
turn
of
mind
,
and
that
she
might
meet
with
a
husband
whose
wealth
corresponded
to
her
habits
.
CHAPTER
XVII
.
"
The
clerkly
person
smiled
and
said
Promise
was
a
pretty
maid
,
But
being
poor
she
died
unwed
.
"
The
Rev.
Camden
Farebrother
,
whom
Lydgate
went
to
see
the
next
evening
,
lived
in
an
old
parsonage
,
built
of
stone
,
venerable
enough
to
match
the
church
which
it
looked
out
upon
.
All
the
furniture
too
in
the
house
was
old
,
but
with
another
grade
of
age
—
that
of
Mr.
Farebrother
's
father
and
grandfather
.
There
were
painted
white
chairs
,
with
gilding
and
wreaths
on
them
,
and
some
lingering
red
silk
damask
with
slits
in
it
.
There
were
engraved
portraits
of
Lord
Chancellors
and
other
celebrated
lawyers
of
the
last
century
;
and
there
were
old
pier-glasses
to
reflect
them
,
as
well
as
the
little
satin-wood
tables
and
the
sofas
resembling
a
prolongation
of
uneasy
chairs
,
all
standing
in
relief
against
the
dark
wainscot
.
This
was
the
physiognomy
of
the
drawing-room
into
which
Lydgate
was
shown
;
and
there
were
three
ladies
to
receive
him
,
who
were
also
old-fashioned
,
and
of
a
faded
but
genuine
respectability
:
Mrs.
Farebrother
,
the
Vicar
's
white-haired
mother
,
befrilled
and
kerchiefed
with
dainty
cleanliness
,
upright
,
quick-eyed
,
and
still
under
seventy
;
Miss
Noble
,
her
sister
,
a
tiny
old
lady
of
meeker
aspect
,
with
frills
and
kerchief
decidedly
more
worn
and
mended
;
and
Miss
Winifred
Farebrother
,
the
Vicar
's
elder
sister
,
well-looking
like
himself
,
but
nipped
and
subdued
as
single
women
are
apt
to
be
who
spend
their
lives
in
uninterrupted
subjection
to
their
elders
.
Lydgate
had
not
expected
to
see
so
quaint
a
group
:
knowing
simply
that
Mr.
Farebrother
was
a
bachelor
,
he
had
thought
of
being
ushered
into
a
snuggery
where
the
chief
furniture
would
probably
be
books
and
collections
of
natural
objects
.
The
Vicar
himself
seemed
to
wear
rather
a
changed
aspect
,
as
most
men
do
when
acquaintances
made
elsewhere
see
them
for
the
first
time
in
their
own
homes
;
some
indeed
showing
like
an
actor
of
genial
parts
disadvantageously
cast
for
the
curmudgeon
in
a
new
piece
.
This
was
not
the
case
with
Mr.
Farebrother
:
he
seemed
a
trifle
milder
and
more
silent
,
the
chief
talker
being
his
mother
,
while
he
only
put
in
a
good-humored
moderating
remark
here
and
there
.
The
old
lady
was
evidently
accustomed
to
tell
her
company
what
they
ought
to
think
,
and
to
regard
no
subject
as
quite
safe
without
her
steering
.
She
was
afforded
leisure
for
this
function
by
having
all
her
little
wants
attended
to
by
Miss
Winifred
.
Meanwhile
tiny
Miss
Noble
carried
on
her
arm
a
small
basket
,
into
which
she
diverted
a
bit
of
sugar
,
which
she
had
first
dropped
in
her
saucer
as
if
by
mistake
;
looking
round
furtively
afterwards
,
and
reverting
to
her
teacup
with
a
small
innocent
noise
as
of
a
tiny
timid
quadruped
.
Pray
think
no
ill
of
Miss
Noble
.
That
basket
held
small
savings
from
her
more
portable
food
,
destined
for
the
children
of
her
poor
friends
among
whom
she
trotted
on
fine
mornings
;
fostering
and
petting
all
needy
creatures
being
so
spontaneous
a
delight
to
her
,
that
she
regarded
it
much
as
if
it
had
been
a
pleasant
vice
that
she
was
addicted
to
.
Perhaps
she
was
conscious
of
being
tempted
to
steal
from
those
who
had
much
that
she
might
give
to
those
who
had
nothing
,
and
carried
in
her
conscience
the
guilt
of
that
repressed
desire
.
One
must
be
poor
to
know
the
luxury
of
giving
!
Mrs.
Farebrother
welcomed
the
guest
with
a
lively
formality
and
precision
.
She
presently
informed
him
that
they
were
not
often
in
want
of
medical
aid
in
that
house
.
She
had
brought
up
her
children
to
wear
flannel
and
not
to
over-eat
themselves
,
which
last
habit
she
considered
the
chief
reason
why
people
needed
doctors
.
Lydgate
pleaded
for
those
whose
fathers
and
mothers
had
over-eaten
themselves
,
but
Mrs.
Farebrother
held
that
view
of
things
dangerous
:
Nature
was
more
just
than
that
;
it
would
be
easy
for
any
felon
to
say
that
his
ancestors
ought
to
have
been
hanged
instead
of
him
.
If
those
who
had
bad
fathers
and
mothers
were
bad
themselves
,
they
were
hanged
for
that
.
There
was
no
need
to
go
back
on
what
you
could
n't
see
.
"
My
mother
is
like
old
George
the
Third
,
"
said
the
Vicar
,
"
she
objects
to
metaphysics
.
"
"
I
object
to
what
is
wrong
,
Camden
.
I
say
,
keep
hold
of
a
few
plain
truths
,
and
make
everything
square
with
them
.
When
I
was
young
,
Mr.
Lydgate
,
there
never
was
any
question
about
right
and
wrong
.
We
knew
our
catechism
,
and
that
was
enough
;
we
learned
our
creed
and
our
duty
.
Every
respectable
Church
person
had
the
same
opinions
.
But
now
,
if
you
speak
out
of
the
Prayer-book
itself
,
you
are
liable
to
be
contradicted
.
"
"
That
makes
rather
a
pleasant
time
of
it
for
those
who
like
to
maintain
their
own
point
,
"
said
Lydgate
.
"
But
my
mother
always
gives
way
,
"
said
the
Vicar
,
slyly
.
"
No
,
no
,
Camden
,
you
must
not
lead
Mr.
Lydgate
into
a
mistake
about
me
.
I
shall
never
show
that
disrespect
to
my
parents
,
to
give
up
what
they
taught
me
.
Any
one
may
see
what
comes
of
turning
.
If
you
change
once
,
why
not
twenty
times
?
"
"
A
man
might
see
good
arguments
for
changing
once
,
and
not
see
them
for
changing
again
,
"
said
Lydgate
,
amused
with
the
decisive
old
lady
.
"
Excuse
me
there
.
If
you
go
upon
arguments
,
they
are
never
wanting
,
when
a
man
has
no
constancy
of
mind
.
My
father
never
changed
,
and
he
preached
plain
moral
sermons
without
arguments
,
and
was
a
good
man
—
few
better
.
When
you
get
me
a
good
man
made
out
of
arguments
,
I
will
get
you
a
good
dinner
with
reading
you
the
cookery-book
.
That
's
my
opinion
,
and
I
think
anybody
's
stomach
will
bear
me
out
.
"
"
About
the
dinner
certainly
,
mother
,
"
said
Mr.
Farebrother
.
"
It
is
the
same
thing
,
the
dinner
or
the
man
.
I
am
nearly
seventy
,
Mr.
Lydgate
,
and
I
go
upon
experience
.
I
am
not
likely
to
follow
new
lights
,
though
there
are
plenty
of
them
here
as
elsewhere
.
I
say
,
they
came
in
with
the
mixed
stuffs
that
will
neither
wash
nor
wear
.
It
was
not
so
in
my
youth
:
a
Churchman
was
a
Churchman
,
and
a
clergyman
,
you
might
be
pretty
sure
,
was
a
gentleman
,
if
nothing
else
.
But
now
he
may
be
no
better
than
a
Dissenter
,
and
want
to
push
aside
my
son
on
pretence
of
doctrine
.
But
whoever
may
wish
to
push
him
aside
,
I
am
proud
to
say
,
Mr.
Lydgate
,
that
he
will
compare
with
any
preacher
in
this
kingdom
,
not
to
speak
of
this
town
,
which
is
but
a
low
standard
to
go
by
;
at
least
,
to
my
thinking
,
for
I
was
born
and
bred
at
Exeter
.
"
"
A
mother
is
never
partial
,
"
said
Mr.
Farebrother
,
smiling
.
"
What
do
you
think
Tyke
's
mother
says
about
him
?
"
"
Ah
,
poor
creature
!
what
indeed
?
"
said
Mrs.
Farebrother
,
her
sharpness
blunted
for
the
moment
by
her
confidence
in
maternal
judgments
.
"
She
says
the
truth
to
herself
,
depend
upon
it
.
"
"
And
what
is
the
truth
?
"
said
Lydgate
.
"
I
am
curious
to
know
.
"
"
Oh
,
nothing
bad
at
all
,
"
said
Mr.
Farebrother
.
"
He
is
a
zealous
fellow
:
not
very
learned
,
and
not
very
wise
,
I
think
—
because
I
do
n't
agree
with
him
.
"
"
Why
,
Camden
!
"
said
Miss
Winifred
,
"
Griffin
and
his
wife
told
me
only
to-day
,
that
Mr.
Tyke
said
they
should
have
no
more
coals
if
they
came
to
hear
you
preach
.
"
Mrs.
Farebrother
laid
down
her
knitting
,
which
she
had
resumed
after
her
small
allowance
of
tea
and
toast
,
and
looked
at
her
son
as
if
to
say
"
You
hear
that
?
"
Miss
Noble
said
,
"
Oh
poor
things
!
poor
things
!
"
in
reference
,
probably
,
to
the
double
loss
of
preaching
and
coal
.
But
the
Vicar
answered
quietly
—
"
That
is
because
they
are
not
my
parishioners
.
And
I
do
n't
think
my
sermons
are
worth
a
load
of
coals
to
them
.
"
"
Mr.
Lydgate
,
"
said
Mrs.
Farebrother
,
who
could
not
let
this
pass
,
"
you
do
n't
know
my
son
:
he
always
undervalues
himself
.
I
tell
him
he
is
undervaluing
the
God
who
made
him
,
and
made
him
a
most
excellent
preacher
.
"
"
That
must
be
a
hint
for
me
to
take
Mr.
Lydgate
away
to
my
study
,
mother
,
"
said
the
Vicar
,
laughing
.
"
I
promised
to
show
you
my
collection
,
"
he
added
,
turning
to
Lydgate
;
"
shall
we
go
?
"
All
three
ladies
remonstrated
.
Mr.
Lydgate
ought
not
to
be
hurried
away
without
being
allowed
to
accept
another
cup
of
tea
:
Miss
Winifred
had
abundance
of
good
tea
in
the
pot
.
Why
was
Camden
in
such
haste
to
take
a
visitor
to
his
den
?
There
was
nothing
but
pickled
vermin
,
and
drawers
full
of
blue-bottles
and
moths
,
with
no
carpet
on
the
floor
.
Mr.
Lydgate
must
excuse
it
.
A
game
at
cribbage
would
be
far
better
.
In
short
,
it
was
plain
that
a
vicar
might
be
adored
by
his
womankind
as
the
king
of
men
and
preachers
,
and
yet
be
held
by
them
to
stand
in
much
need
of
their
direction
.
Lydgate
,
with
the
usual
shallowness
of
a
young
bachelor
,
wondered
that
Mr.
Farebrother
had
not
taught
them
better
.
"
My
mother
is
not
used
to
my
having
visitors
who
can
take
any
interest
in
my
hobbies
,
"
said
the
Vicar
,
as
he
opened
the
door
of
his
study
,
which
was
indeed
as
bare
of
luxuries
for
the
body
as
the
ladies
had
implied
,
unless
a
short
porcelain
pipe
and
a
tobacco-box
were
to
be
excepted
.
"
Men
of
your
profession
do
n't
generally
smoke
,
"
he
said
.
Lydgate
smiled
and
shook
his
head
.
"
Nor
of
mine
either
,
properly
,
I
suppose
.
You
will
hear
that
pipe
alleged
against
me
by
Bulstrode
and
Company
.
They
do
n't
know
how
pleased
the
devil
would
be
if
I
gave
it
up
.
"
"
I
understand
.
You
are
of
an
excitable
temper
and
want
a
sedative
.
I
am
heavier
,
and
should
get
idle
with
it
.
I
should
rush
into
idleness
,
and
stagnate
there
with
all
my
might
.
"
"
And
you
mean
to
give
it
all
to
your
work
.
I
am
some
ten
or
twelve
years
older
than
you
,
and
have
come
to
a
compromise
.
I
feed
a
weakness
or
two
lest
they
should
get
clamorous
.
See
,
"
continued
the
Vicar
,
opening
several
small
drawers
,
"
I
fancy
I
have
made
an
exhaustive
study
of
the
entomology
of
this
district
.
I
am
going
on
both
with
the
fauna
and
flora
;
but
I
have
at
least
done
my
insects
well
.
We
are
singularly
rich
in
orthoptera
:
I
do
n't
know
whether
—
Ah
!
you
have
got
hold
of
that
glass
jar
—
you
are
looking
into
that
instead
of
my
drawers
.
You
do
n't
really
care
about
these
things
?
"
"
Not
by
the
side
of
this
lovely
anencephalous
monster
.
I
have
never
had
time
to
give
myself
much
to
natural
history
.
I
was
early
bitten
with
an
interest
in
structure
,
and
it
is
what
lies
most
directly
in
my
profession
.
I
have
no
hobby
besides
.
I
have
the
sea
to
swim
in
there
.
"
"
Ah
!
you
are
a
happy
fellow
,
"
said
Mr.
Farebrother
,
turning
on
his
heel
and
beginning
to
fill
his
pipe
.
"
You
do
n't
know
what
it
is
to
want
spiritual
tobacco
—
bad
emendations
of
old
texts
,
or
small
items
about
a
variety
of
Aphis
Brassicae
,
with
the
well-known
signature
of
Philomicron
,
for
the
'
Twaddler
's
Magazine
;
'
or
a
learned
treatise
on
the
entomology
of
the
Pentateuch
,
including
all
the
insects
not
mentioned
,
but
probably
met
with
by
the
Israelites
in
their
passage
through
the
desert
;
with
a
monograph
on
the
Ant
,
as
treated
by
Solomon
,
showing
the
harmony
of
the
Book
of
Proverbs
with
the
results
of
modern
research
.
You
do
n't
mind
my
fumigating
you
?
"
Lydgate
was
more
surprised
at
the
openness
of
this
talk
than
at
its
implied
meaning
—
that
the
Vicar
felt
himself
not
altogether
in
the
right
vocation
.
The
neat
fitting-up
of
drawers
and
shelves
,
and
the
bookcase
filled
with
expensive
illustrated
books
on
Natural
History
,
made
him
think
again
of
the
winnings
at
cards
and
their
destination
.
But
he
was
beginning
to
wish
that
the
very
best
construction
of
everything
that
Mr.
Farebrother
did
should
be
the
true
one
.
The
Vicar
's
frankness
seemed
not
of
the
repulsive
sort
that
comes
from
an
uneasy
consciousness
seeking
to
forestall
the
judgment
of
others
,
but
simply
the
relief
of
a
desire
to
do
with
as
little
pretence
as
possible
.
Apparently
he
was
not
without
a
sense
that
his
freedom
of
speech
might
seem
premature
,
for
he
presently
said
—
"
I
have
not
yet
told
you
that
I
have
the
advantage
of
you
,
Mr.
Lydgate
,
and
know
you
better
than
you
know
me
.
You
remember
Trawley
who
shared
your
apartment
at
Paris
for
some
time
?
I
was
a
correspondent
of
his
,
and
he
told
me
a
good
deal
about
you
.
I
was
not
quite
sure
when
you
first
came
that
you
were
the
same
man
.
I
was
very
glad
when
I
found
that
you
were
.
Only
I
do
n't
forget
that
you
have
not
had
the
like
prologue
about
me
.
"
Lydgate
divined
some
delicacy
of
feeling
here
,
but
did
not
half
understand
it
.
"
By
the
way
,
"
he
said
,
"
what
has
become
of
Trawley
?
I
have
quite
lost
sight
of
him
.
He
was
hot
on
the
French
social
systems
,
and
talked
of
going
to
the
Backwoods
to
found
a
sort
of
Pythagorean
community
.
Is
he
gone
?
"
"
Not
at
all
.
He
is
practising
at
a
German
bath
,
and
has
married
a
rich
patient
.
"
"
Then
my
notions
wear
the
best
,
so
far
,
"
said
Lydgate
,
with
a
short
scornful
laugh
.
"
He
would
have
it
,
the
medical
profession
was
an
inevitable
system
of
humbug
.
I
said
,
the
fault
was
in
the
men
—
men
who
truckle
to
lies
and
folly
.
Instead
of
preaching
against
humbug
outside
the
walls
,
it
might
be
better
to
set
up
a
disinfecting
apparatus
within
.
In
short
—
I
am
reporting
my
own
conversation
—
you
may
be
sure
I
had
all
the
good
sense
on
my
side
.
"
"
Your
scheme
is
a
good
deal
more
difficult
to
carry
out
than
the
Pythagorean
community
,
though
.
You
have
not
only
got
the
old
Adam
in
yourself
against
you
,
but
you
have
got
all
those
descendants
of
the
original
Adam
who
form
the
society
around
you
.
You
see
,
I
have
paid
twelve
or
thirteen
years
more
than
you
for
my
knowledge
of
difficulties
.
But
"
—
Mr
.
Farebrother
broke
off
a
moment
,
and
then
added
,
"
you
are
eying
that
glass
vase
again
.
Do
you
want
to
make
an
exchange
?
You
shall
not
have
it
without
a
fair
barter
.
"
"
I
have
some
sea-mice
—
fine
specimens
—
in
spirits
.
And
I
will
throw
in
Robert
Brown
's
new
thing
—
'
Microscopic
Observations
on
the
Pollen
of
Plants
'
—
if
you
do
n't
happen
to
have
it
already
.
"
"
Why
,
seeing
how
you
long
for
the
monster
,
I
might
ask
a
higher
price
.
Suppose
I
ask
you
to
look
through
my
drawers
and
agree
with
me
about
all
my
new
species
?
"
The
Vicar
,
while
he
talked
in
this
way
,
alternately
moved
about
with
his
pipe
in
his
mouth
,
and
returned
to
hang
rather
fondly
over
his
drawers
.
"
That
would
be
good
discipline
,
you
know
,
for
a
young
doctor
who
has
to
please
his
patients
in
Middlemarch
.
You
must
learn
to
be
bored
,
remember
.
However
,
you
shall
have
the
monster
on
your
own
terms
.
"
"
Do
n't
you
think
men
overrate
the
necessity
for
humoring
everybody
's
nonsense
,
till
they
get
despised
by
the
very
fools
they
humor
?
"
said
Lydgate
,
moving
to
Mr.
Farebrother
's
side
,
and
looking
rather
absently
at
the
insects
ranged
in
fine
gradation
,
with
names
subscribed
in
exquisite
writing
.
"
The
shortest
way
is
to
make
your
value
felt
,
so
that
people
must
put
up
with
you
whether
you
flatter
them
or
not
.
"
"
With
all
my
heart
.
But
then
you
must
be
sure
of
having
the
value
,
and
you
must
keep
yourself
independent
.
Very
few
men
can
do
that
.
Either
you
slip
out
of
service
altogether
,
and
become
good
for
nothing
,
or
you
wear
the
harness
and
draw
a
good
deal
where
your
yoke-fellows
pull
you
.
But
do
look
at
these
delicate
orthoptera
!
"
Lydgate
had
after
all
to
give
some
scrutiny
to
each
drawer
,
the
Vicar
laughing
at
himself
,
and
yet
persisting
in
the
exhibition
.
"
Apropos
of
what
you
said
about
wearing
harness
,
"
Lydgate
began
,
after
they
had
sat
down
,
"
I
made
up
my
mind
some
time
ago
to
do
with
as
little
of
it
as
possible
.
That
was
why
I
determined
not
to
try
anything
in
London
,
for
a
good
many
years
at
least
.
I
did
n't
like
what
I
saw
when
I
was
studying
there
—
so
much
empty
bigwiggism
,
and
obstructive
trickery
.
In
the
country
,
people
have
less
pretension
to
knowledge
,
and
are
less
of
companions
,
but
for
that
reason
they
affect
one
's
amour-propre
less
:
one
makes
less
bad
blood
,
and
can
follow
one
's
own
course
more
quietly
.
"
"
Yes
—
well
—
you
have
got
a
good
start
;
you
are
in
the
right
profession
,
the
work
you
feel
yourself
most
fit
for
.
Some
people
miss
that
,
and
repent
too
late
.
But
you
must
not
be
too
sure
of
keeping
your
independence
.
"
"
You
mean
of
family
ties
?
"
said
Lydgate
,
conceiving
that
these
might
press
rather
tightly
on
Mr.
Farebrother
.
"
Not
altogether
.
Of
course
they
make
many
things
more
difficult
.
But
a
good
wife
—
a
good
unworldly
woman
—
may
really
help
a
man
,
and
keep
him
more
independent
.
There
's
a
parishioner
of
mine
—
a
fine
fellow
,
but
who
would
hardly
have
pulled
through
as
he
has
done
without
his
wife
.
Do
you
know
the
Garths
?
I
think
they
were
not
Peacock
's
patients
.
"
"
No
;
but
there
is
a
Miss
Garth
at
old
Featherstone
's
,
at
Lowick
.
"
"
Their
daughter
:
an
excellent
girl
.
"
"
She
is
very
quiet
—
I
have
hardly
noticed
her
.
"
"
She
has
taken
notice
of
you
,
though
,
depend
upon
it
.
"
"
I
do
n't
understand
,
"
said
Lydgate
;
he
could
hardly
say
"
Of
course
.
"
"
Oh
,
she
gauges
everybody
.
I
prepared
her
for
confirmation
—
she
is
a
favourite
of
mine
.
"
Mr.
Farebrother
puffed
a
few
moments
in
silence
,
Lydgate
not
caring
to
know
more
about
the
Garths
.
At
last
the
Vicar
laid
down
his
pipe
,
stretched
out
his
legs
,
and
turned
his
bright
eyes
with
a
smile
towards
Lydgate
,
saying
—
"
But
we
Middlemarchers
are
not
so
tame
as
you
take
us
to
be
.
We
have
our
intrigues
and
our
parties
.
I
am
a
party
man
,
for
example
,
and
Bulstrode
is
another
.
If
you
vote
for
me
you
will
offend
Bulstrode
.
"
"
What
is
there
against
Bulstrode
?
"
said
Lydgate
,
emphatically
.
"
I
did
not
say
there
was
anything
against
him
except
that
.
If
you
vote
against
him
you
will
make
him
your
enemy
.
"
"
I
do
n't
know
that
I
need
mind
about
that
,
"
said
Lydgate
,
rather
proudly
;
"
but
he
seems
to
have
good
ideas
about
hospitals
,
and
he
spends
large
sums
on
useful
public
objects
.
He
might
help
me
a
good
deal
in
carrying
out
my
ideas
.
As
to
his
religious
notions
—
why
,
as
Voltaire
said
,
incantations
will
destroy
a
flock
of
sheep
if
administered
with
a
certain
quantity
of
arsenic
.
I
look
for
the
man
who
will
bring
the
arsenic
,
and
do
n't
mind
about
his
incantations
.
"
"
Very
good
.
But
then
you
must
not
offend
your
arsenic-man
.
You
will
not
offend
me
,
you
know
,
"
said
Mr.
Farebrother
,
quite
unaffectedly
.
"
I
do
n't
translate
my
own
convenience
into
other
people
's
duties
.
I
am
opposed
to
Bulstrode
in
many
ways
.
I
do
n't
like
the
set
he
belongs
to
:
they
are
a
narrow
ignorant
set
,
and
do
more
to
make
their
neighbors
uncomfortable
than
to
make
them
better
.
Their
system
is
a
sort
of
worldly-spiritual
cliqueism
:
they
really
look
on
the
rest
of
mankind
as
a
doomed
carcass
which
is
to
nourish
them
for
heaven
.
But
,
"
he
added
,
smilingly
,
"
I
do
n't
say
that
Bulstrode
's
new
hospital
is
a
bad
thing
;
and
as
to
his
wanting
to
oust
me
from
the
old
one
—
why
,
if
he
thinks
me
a
mischievous
fellow
,
he
is
only
returning
a
compliment
.
And
I
am
not
a
model
clergyman
—
only
a
decent
makeshift
.
"
Lydgate
was
not
at
all
sure
that
the
Vicar
maligned
himself
.
A
model
clergyman
,
like
a
model
doctor
,
ought
to
think
his
own
profession
the
finest
in
the
world
,
and
take
all
knowledge
as
mere
nourishment
to
his
moral
pathology
and
therapeutics
.
He
only
said
,
"
What
reason
does
Bulstrode
give
for
superseding
you
?
"
"
That
I
do
n't
teach
his
opinions
—
which
he
calls
spiritual
religion
;
and
that
I
have
no
time
to
spare
.
Both
statements
are
true
.
But
then
I
could
make
time
,
and
I
should
be
glad
of
the
forty
pounds
.
That
is
the
plain
fact
of
the
case
.
But
let
us
dismiss
it
.
I
only
wanted
to
tell
you
that
if
you
vote
for
your
arsenic-man
,
you
are
not
to
cut
me
in
consequence
.
I
ca
n't
spare
you
.
You
are
a
sort
of
circumnavigator
come
to
settle
among
us
,
and
will
keep
up
my
belief
in
the
antipodes
.
Now
tell
me
all
about
them
in
Paris
.
"
CHAPTER
XVIII
.
"
Oh
,
sir
,
the
loftiest
hopes
on
earth
Draw
lots
with
meaner
hopes
:
heroic
breasts
,
Breathing
bad
air
,
run
risk
of
pestilence
;
Or
,
lacking
lime-juice
when
they
cross
the
Line
,
May
languish
with
the
scurvy
.
"
Some
weeks
passed
after
this
conversation
before
the
question
of
the
chaplaincy
gathered
any
practical
import
for
Lydgate
,
and
without
telling
himself
the
reason
,
he
deferred
the
predetermination
on
which
side
he
should
give
his
vote
.
It
would
really
have
been
a
matter
of
total
indifference
to
him
—
that
is
to
say
,
he
would
have
taken
the
more
convenient
side
,
and
given
his
vote
for
the
appointment
of
Tyke
without
any
hesitation
—
if
he
had
not
cared
personally
for
Mr.
Farebrother
.
But
his
liking
for
the
Vicar
of
St.
Botolph
's
grew
with
growing
acquaintanceship
.
That
,
entering
into
Lydgate
's
position
as
a
new-comer
who
had
his
own
professional
objects
to
secure
,
Mr.
Farebrother
should
have
taken
pains
rather
to
warn
off
than
to
obtain
his
interest
,
showed
an
unusual
delicacy
and
generosity
,
which
Lydgate
's
nature
was
keenly
alive
to
.
It
went
along
with
other
points
of
conduct
in
Mr.
Farebrother
which
were
exceptionally
fine
,
and
made
his
character
resemble
those
southern
landscapes
which
seem
divided
between
natural
grandeur
and
social
slovenliness
.
Very
few
men
could
have
been
as
filial
and
chivalrous
as
he
was
to
the
mother
,
aunt
,
and
sister
,
whose
dependence
on
him
had
in
many
ways
shaped
his
life
rather
uneasily
for
himself
;
few
men
who
feel
the
pressure
of
small
needs
are
so
nobly
resolute
not
to
dress
up
their
inevitably
self-interested
desires
in
a
pretext
of
better
motives
.
In
these
matters
he
was
conscious
that
his
life
would
bear
the
closest
scrutiny
;
and
perhaps
the
consciousness
encouraged
a
little
defiance
towards
the
critical
strictness
of
persons
whose
celestial
intimacies
seemed
not
to
improve
their
domestic
manners
,
and
whose
lofty
aims
were
not
needed
to
account
for
their
actions
.
Then
,
his
preaching
was
ingenious
and
pithy
,
like
the
preaching
of
the
English
Church
in
its
robust
age
,
and
his
sermons
were
delivered
without
book
.
People
outside
his
parish
went
to
hear
him
;
and
,
since
to
fill
the
church
was
always
the
most
difficult
part
of
a
clergyman
's
function
,
here
was
another
ground
for
a
careless
sense
of
superiority
.
Besides
,
he
was
a
likable
man
:
sweet-tempered
,
ready-witted
,
frank
,
without
grins
of
suppressed
bitterness
or
other
conversational
flavours
which
make
half
of
us
an
affliction
to
our
friends
.
Lydgate
liked
him
heartily
,
and
wished
for
his
friendship
.
With
this
feeling
uppermost
,
he
continued
to
waive
the
question
of
the
chaplaincy
,
and
to
persuade
himself
that
it
was
not
only
no
proper
business
of
his
,
but
likely
enough
never
to
vex
him
with
a
demand
for
his
vote
.
Lydgate
,
at
Mr.
Bulstrode
's
request
,
was
laying
down
plans
for
the
internal
arrangements
of
the
new
hospital
,
and
the
two
were
often
in
consultation
.
The
banker
was
always
presupposing
that
he
could
count
in
general
on
Lydgate
as
a
coadjutor
,
but
made
no
special
recurrence
to
the
coming
decision
between
Tyke
and
Farebrother
.
When
the
General
Board
of
the
Infirmary
had
met
,
however
,
and
Lydgate
had
notice
that
the
question
of
the
chaplaincy
was
thrown
on
a
council
of
the
directors
and
medical
men
,
to
meet
on
the
following
Friday
,
he
had
a
vexed
sense
that
he
must
make
up
his
mind
on
this
trivial
Middlemarch
business
.
He
could
not
help
hearing
within
him
the
distinct
declaration
that
Bulstrode
was
prime
minister
,
and
that
the
Tyke
affair
was
a
question
of
office
or
no
office
;
and
he
could
not
help
an
equally
pronounced
dislike
to
giving
up
the
prospect
of
office
.
For
his
observation
was
constantly
confirming
Mr.
Farebrother
's
assurance
that
the
banker
would
not
overlook
opposition
.
"
Confound
their
petty
politics
!
"
was
one
of
his
thoughts
for
three
mornings
in
the
meditative
process
of
shaving
,
when
he
had
begun
to
feel
that
he
must
really
hold
a
court
of
conscience
on
this
matter
.
Certainly
there
were
valid
things
to
be
said
against
the
election
of
Mr.
Farebrother
:
he
had
too
much
on
his
hands
already
,
especially
considering
how
much
time
he
spent
on
non-clerical
occupations
.
Then
again
it
was
a
continually
repeated
shock
,
disturbing
Lydgate
's
esteem
,
that
the
Vicar
should
obviously
play
for
the
sake
of
money
,
liking
the
play
indeed
,
but
evidently
liking
some
end
which
it
served
.
Mr.
Farebrother
contended
on
theory
for
the
desirability
of
all
games
,
and
said
that
Englishmen
's
wit
was
stagnant
for
want
of
them
;
but
Lydgate
felt
certain
that
he
would
have
played
very
much
less
but
for
the
money
.
There
was
a
billiard-room
at
the
Green
Dragon
,
which
some
anxious
mothers
and
wives
regarded
as
the
chief
temptation
in
Middlemarch
.
The
Vicar
was
a
first-rate
billiard-player
,
and
though
he
did
not
frequent
the
Green
Dragon
,
there
were
reports
that
he
had
sometimes
been
there
in
the
daytime
and
had
won
money
.
And
as
to
the
chaplaincy
,
he
did
not
pretend
that
he
cared
for
it
,
except
for
the
sake
of
the
forty
pounds
.
Lydgate
was
no
Puritan
,
but
he
did
not
care
for
play
,
and
winning
money
at
it
had
always
seemed
a
meanness
to
him
;
besides
,
he
had
an
ideal
of
life
which
made
this
subservience
of
conduct
to
the
gaining
of
small
sums
thoroughly
hateful
to
him
.
Hitherto
in
his
own
life
his
wants
had
been
supplied
without
any
trouble
to
himself
,
and
his
first
impulse
was
always
to
be
liberal
with
half-crowns
as
matters
of
no
importance
to
a
gentleman
;
it
had
never
occurred
to
him
to
devise
a
plan
for
getting
half-crowns
.
He
had
always
known
in
a
general
way
that
he
was
not
rich
,
but
he
had
never
felt
poor
,
and
he
had
no
power
of
imagining
the
part
which
the
want
of
money
plays
in
determining
the
actions
of
men
.
Money
had
never
been
a
motive
to
him
.
Hence
he
was
not
ready
to
frame
excuses
for
this
deliberate
pursuit
of
small
gains
.
It
was
altogether
repulsive
to
him
,
and
he
never
entered
into
any
calculation
of
the
ratio
between
the
Vicar
's
income
and
his
more
or
less
necessary
expenditure
.
It
was
possible
that
he
would
not
have
made
such
a
calculation
in
his
own
case
.
And
now
,
when
the
question
of
voting
had
come
,
this
repulsive
fact
told
more
strongly
against
Mr.
Farebrother
than
it
had
done
before
.
One
would
know
much
better
what
to
do
if
men
's
characters
were
more
consistent
,
and
especially
if
one
's
friends
were
invariably
fit
for
any
function
they
desired
to
undertake
!
Lydgate
was
convinced
that
if
there
had
been
no
valid
objection
to
Mr.
Farebrother
,
he
would
have
voted
for
him
,
whatever
Bulstrode
might
have
felt
on
the
subject
:
he
did
not
intend
to
be
a
vassal
of
Bulstrode
's
.
On
the
other
hand
,
there
was
Tyke
,
a
man
entirely
given
to
his
clerical
office
,
who
was
simply
curate
at
a
chapel
of
ease
in
St.
Peter
's
parish
,
and
had
time
for
extra
duty
.
Nobody
had
anything
to
say
against
Mr.
Tyke
,
except
that
they
could
not
bear
him
,
and
suspected
him
of
cant
.
Really
,
from
his
point
of
view
,
Bulstrode
was
thoroughly
justified
.
But
whichever
way
Lydgate
began
to
incline
,
there
was
something
to
make
him
wince
;
and
being
a
proud
man
,
he
was
a
little
exasperated
at
being
obliged
to
wince
.
He
did
not
like
frustrating
his
own
best
purposes
by
getting
on
bad
terms
with
Bulstrode
;
he
did
not
like
voting
against
Farebrother
,
and
helping
to
deprive
him
of
function
and
salary
;
and
the
question
occurred
whether
the
additional
forty
pounds
might
not
leave
the
Vicar
free
from
that
ignoble
care
about
winning
at
cards
.
Moreover
,
Lydgate
did
not
like
the
consciousness
that
in
voting
for
Tyke
he
should
be
voting
on
the
side
obviously
convenient
for
himself
.
But
would
the
end
really
be
his
own
convenience
?
Other
people
would
say
so
,
and
would
allege
that
he
was
currying
favour
with
Bulstrode
for
the
sake
of
making
himself
important
and
getting
on
in
the
world
.
What
then
?
He
for
his
own
part
knew
that
if
his
personal
prospects
simply
had
been
concerned
,
he
would
not
have
cared
a
rotten
nut
for
the
banker
's
friendship
or
enmity
.
What
he
really
cared
for
was
a
medium
for
his
work
,
a
vehicle
for
his
ideas
;
and
after
all
,
was
he
not
bound
to
prefer
the
object
of
getting
a
good
hospital
,
where
he
could
demonstrate
the
specific
distinctions
of
fever
and
test
therapeutic
results
,
before
anything
else
connected
with
this
chaplaincy
?
For
the
first
time
Lydgate
was
feeling
the
hampering
threadlike
pressure
of
small
social
conditions
,
and
their
frustrating
complexity
.
At
the
end
of
his
inward
debate
,
when
he
set
out
for
the
hospital
,
his
hope
was
really
in
the
chance
that
discussion
might
somehow
give
a
new
aspect
to
the
question
,
and
make
the
scale
dip
so
as
to
exclude
the
necessity
for
voting
.
I
think
he
trusted
a
little
also
to
the
energy
which
is
begotten
by
circumstances
—
some
feeling
rushing
warmly
and
making
resolve
easy
,
while
debate
in
cool
blood
had
only
made
it
more
difficult
.
However
it
was
,
he
did
not
distinctly
say
to
himself
on
which
side
he
would
vote
;
and
all
the
while
he
was
inwardly
resenting
the
subjection
which
had
been
forced
upon
him
.
It
would
have
seemed
beforehand
like
a
ridiculous
piece
of
bad
logic
that
he
,
with
his
unmixed
resolutions
of
independence
and
his
select
purposes
,
would
find
himself
at
the
very
outset
in
the
grasp
of
petty
alternatives
,
each
of
which
was
repugnant
to
him
.
In
his
student
's
chambers
,
he
had
prearranged
his
social
action
quite
differently
.
Lydgate
was
late
in
setting
out
,
but
Dr.
Sprague
,
the
two
other
surgeons
,
and
several
of
the
directors
had
arrived
early
;
Mr.
Bulstrode
,
treasurer
and
chairman
,
being
among
those
who
were
still
absent
.
The
conversation
seemed
to
imply
that
the
issue
was
problematical
,
and
that
a
majority
for
Tyke
was
not
so
certain
as
had
been
generally
supposed
.
The
two
physicians
,
for
a
wonder
,
turned
out
to
be
unanimous
,
or
rather
,
though
of
different
minds
,
they
concurred
in
action
.
Dr.
Sprague
,
the
rugged
and
weighty
,
was
,
as
every
one
had
foreseen
,
an
adherent
of
Mr.
Farebrother
.
The
Doctor
was
more
than
suspected
of
having
no
religion
,
but
somehow
Middlemarch
tolerated
this
deficiency
in
him
as
if
he
had
been
a
Lord
Chancellor
;
indeed
it
is
probable
that
his
professional
weight
was
the
more
believed
in
,
the
world-old
association
of
cleverness
with
the
evil
principle
being
still
potent
in
the
minds
even
of
lady-patients
who
had
the
strictest
ideas
of
frilling
and
sentiment
.
It
was
perhaps
this
negation
in
the
Doctor
which
made
his
neighbors
call
him
hard-headed
and
dry-witted
;
conditions
of
texture
which
were
also
held
favourable
to
the
storing
of
judgments
connected
with
drugs
.
At
all
events
,
it
is
certain
that
if
any
medical
man
had
come
to
Middlemarch
with
the
reputation
of
having
very
definite
religious
views
,
of
being
given
to
prayer
,
and
of
otherwise
showing
an
active
piety
,
there
would
have
been
a
general
presumption
against
his
medical
skill
.
On
this
ground
it
was
(
professionally
speaking
)
fortunate
for
Dr.
Minchin
that
his
religious
sympathies
were
of
a
general
kind
,
and
such
as
gave
a
distant
medical
sanction
to
all
serious
sentiment
,
whether
of
Church
or
Dissent
,
rather
than
any
adhesion
to
particular
tenets
.
If
Mr.
Bulstrode
insisted
,
as
he
was
apt
to
do
,
on
the
Lutheran
doctrine
of
justification
,
as
that
by
which
a
Church
must
stand
or
fall
,
Dr.
Minchin
in
return
was
quite
sure
that
man
was
not
a
mere
machine
or
a
fortuitous
conjunction
of
atoms
;
if
Mrs.
Wimple
insisted
on
a
particular
providence
in
relation
to
her
stomach
complaint
,
Dr.
Minchin
for
his
part
liked
to
keep
the
mental
windows
open
and
objected
to
fixed
limits
;
if
the
Unitarian
brewer
jested
about
the
Athanasian
Creed
,
Dr.
Minchin
quoted
Pope
's
"
Essay
on
Man
.
"
He
objected
to
the
rather
free
style
of
anecdote
in
which
Dr.
Sprague
indulged
,
preferring
well-sanctioned
quotations
,
and
liking
refinement
of
all
kinds
:
it
was
generally
known
that
he
had
some
kinship
to
a
bishop
,
and
sometimes
spent
his
holidays
at
"
the
palace
.
"
Dr.
Minchin
was
soft-handed
,
pale-complexioned
,
and
of
rounded
outline
,
not
to
be
distinguished
from
a
mild
clergyman
in
appearance
:
whereas
Dr.
Sprague
was
superfluously
tall
;
his
trousers
got
creased
at
the
knees
,
and
showed
an
excess
of
boot
at
a
time
when
straps
seemed
necessary
to
any
dignity
of
bearing
;
you
heard
him
go
in
and
out
,
and
up
and
down
,
as
if
he
had
come
to
see
after
the
roofing
.
In
short
,
he
had
weight
,
and
might
be
expected
to
grapple
with
a
disease
and
throw
it
;
while
Dr.
Minchin
might
be
better
able
to
detect
it
lurking
and
to
circumvent
it
.
They
enjoyed
about
equally
the
mysterious
privilege
of
medical
reputation
,
and
concealed
with
much
etiquette
their
contempt
for
each
other
's
skill
.
Regarding
themselves
as
Middlemarch
institutions
,
they
were
ready
to
combine
against
all
innovators
,
and
against
non-professionals
given
to
interference
.
On
this
ground
they
were
both
in
their
hearts
equally
averse
to
Mr.
Bulstrode
,
though
Dr.
Minchin
had
never
been
in
open
hostility
with
him
,
and
never
differed
from
him
without
elabourate
explanation
to
Mrs.
Bulstrode
,
who
had
found
that
Dr.
Minchin
alone
understood
her
constitution
.
A
layman
who
pried
into
the
professional
conduct
of
medical
men
,
and
was
always
obtruding
his
reforms
,
—
though
he
was
less
directly
embarrassing
to
the
two
physicians
than
to
the
surgeon-apothecaries
who
attended
paupers
by
contract
,
was
nevertheless
offensive
to
the
professional
nostril
as
such
;
and
Dr.
Minchin
shared
fully
in
the
new
pique
against
Bulstrode
,
excited
by
his
apparent
determination
to
patronize
Lydgate
.
The
long-established
practitioners
,
Mr.
Wrench
and
Mr.
Toller
;
were
just
now
standing
apart
and
having
a
friendly
colloquy
,
in
which
they
agreed
that
Lydgate
was
a
jackanapes
,
just
made
to
serve
Bulstrode
's
purpose
.
To
non-medical
friends
they
had
already
