and liked to give others their due, feeling that he could afford it.
He had caught the words "expectant method," and rang chimes on this

and other learned phrases to accompany the assurance that Lydgate "knew
a thing or two more than the rest of the doctors--was far better versed

in the secrets of his profession than the majority of his compeers."
This had happened before the affair of Fred Vincy's illness had given

to Mr. Wrench's enmity towards Lydgate more definite personal ground.
The new-comer already threatened to be a nuisance in the shape

of rivalry, and was certainly a nuisance in the shape of practical
criticism or reflections on his hard-driven elders, who had had

something else to do than to busy themselves with untried notions.
His practice had spread in one or two quarters, and from the

first the report of his high family had led to his being pretty
generally invited, so that the other medical men had to meet him

at dinner in the best houses; and having to meet a man whom you
dislike is not observed always to end in a mutual attachment.

There was hardly ever so much unanimity among them as in the opinion
that Lydgate was an arrogant young fellow, and yet ready for the

sake of ultimately" target="_blank" title="ad.最后，最终">ultimately predominating to show a crawling subservience
to Bulstrode. That Mr. Farebrother, whose name was a chief flag of the

anti-Bulstrode party, always defended Lydgate and made a friend of him,
was referred to Farebrother's unaccountable way of fighting on both sides.

Here was plenty of preparation for the outburst of professional
disgust at the announcement of the laws Mr. Bulstrode was laying

down for the direction of the New Hospital, which were the more
exasperating because there was no present possibility of interfering

with his will and pleasure, everybody except Lord Medlicote
having refused help towards the building, on the ground that they

preferred giving to the Old Infirmary. Mr. Bulstrode met all
the expenses, and had ceased to be sorry that he was purchasing

the right to carry out his notions of improvement without hindrance
from prejudiced coadjutors; but he had had to spend large sums,

and the building had lingered. Caleb Garth had undertaken it,
had failed during its progress, and before the interior fittings

were begun had retired from the management of the business;
and when referring to the Hospital he often said that however

Bulstrode might ring if you tried him, he liked good solid carpentry
and masonry, and had a notion both of drains and chimneys. In fact,

the Hospital had become an object of intense interest to Bulstrode,
and he would willingly have continued to spare a large yearly sum that

he might rule it dictatorially without any Board; but he had another
favorite object which also required money for its accomplishment:

he wished to bay some land in the neighborhood of Middlemarch,
and therefore he wished to get considerable contributions towards

maintaining the Hospital. Meanwhile he framed his plan of management.
The Hospital was to be reserved for fever in all its forms;

Lydgate was to be chief medicalsuperintendent, that he might have free
authority to pursue all comparative investigations which his studies,

particularly in Paris, had shown him the importance of, the other
medicalvisitors having a consultative influence, but no power to

contravene Lydgate's ultimate decisions; and the general management
was to be lodged exclusively in the hands of five directors associated

with Mr. Bulstrode, who were to have votes in the ratio of their
contributions, the Board itself filling up any vacancy in its numbers,

and no mob of small contributors being admitted to a share of government.
There was an immediate refusal on the part of every medical man

in the town to become a visitor at the Fever Hospital.
"Very well," said Lydgate to Mr. Bulstrode, "we have a capital

house-surgeon and dispenser, a clear-headed, neat-handed fellow;
we'll get Webbe from Crabsley, as good a country practitioner

as any of them, to come over twice a-week, and in case of any
exceptional operation, Protheroe will come from Brassing.

I must work the harder, that's all, and I have given up my post
at the Infirmary. The plan will flourish in spite of them,

and then they'll be glad to come in. Things can't last as they are:
there must be all sorts of reform soon, and then young fellows may

be glad to come and study here." Lydgate was in high spirits.
"I shall not flinch, you may depend upon it, Mr. Lydgate,"

said Mr. Bulstrode. "While I see you carrying out high intentions
with vigor, you shall have my unfailing support. And I have humble

confidence that the blessing which has hitherto attended my efforts
against the spirit of evil in this town will not be withdrawn.

Suitable directors to assist me I have no doubt of securing.
Mr. Brooke of Tipton has already given me his concurrence,

and a pledge to contributeyearly: he has not specified the sum--
probably not a great one. But he will be a useful member of

the board."
A useful member was perhaps to be defined as one who would

originate nothing, and always vote with Mr. Bulstrode.
The medical aversion to Lydgate was hardly disguised now. Neither

Dr. Sprague nor Dr. Minchin said that he disliked Lydgate's knowledge,
or his disposition to improve treatment: what they disliked was

his arrogance, which nobody felt to be altogether deniable. They implied
that he was insolent, pretentious, and given to that reckless innovation

for the sake of noise and show which was the essence of the charlatan.
The word charlatan once thrown on the air could not be let drop.

In those days the world was agitated about the wondrousdoings of
Mr. St. John Long, "noblemen and gentlemen" attesting his extraction

of a fluid like mercury from the temples of a patient.
Mr. Toller remarked one day, smilingly, to Mrs. Taft, that "Bulstrode

had found a man to suit him in Lydgate; a charlatan in religion
is sure to like other sorts of charlatans."

"Yes, indeed, I can imagine," said Mrs. Taft, keeping the number
of thirty stitches carefully in her mind all the while; "there are

so many of that sort. I remember Mr. Cheshire, with his irons,
trying to make people straight when the Almighty had made them crooked."

"No, no," said Mr. Toller, "Cheshire was all right--all fair
and above board. But there's St. John Long--that's the kind of

fellow we call a charlatan, advertising cures in ways nobody knows
anything about: a fellow who wants to make a noise by pretending

to go deeper than other people. The other day he was pretending
to tap a man's brain and get quicksilver out of it."

"Good gracious! what dreadfultrifling with people's constitutions!"
said Mrs. Taft.

After this, it came to be held in various quarters that Lydgate
played even with respectable constitutions for his own purposes,

and how much more likely that in his flighty experimenting he
should make sixes and sevens of hospital patients. Especially it

was to be expected, as the landlady of the Tankard had said,
that he would recklessly cut up their dead bodies. For Lydgate

having attended Mrs. Goby, who died apparently of a heart-disease
not very clearly expressed in the symptoms, too daringly asked

leave of her relatives to open the body, and thus gave an offence
quickly spreading beyond Parley Street, where that lady had long

resided on an income such as made this association of her body
with the victims of Burke and Hare a flagrant insult to her memory.

Affairs were in this stage when Lydgate opened the subject of the
Hospital to Dorothea. We see that be was bearingenmity and silly

misconception with much spirit, aware that they were partly created
by his good share of success.

"They will not drive me away," he said, talking confidentially
in Mr. Farebrother's study. "I have got a good opportunity here,

for the ends I care most about; and I am pretty sure to get
income enough for our wants. By-and-by I shall go on as quietly

as possible: I have no seductions now away from home and work.
And I am more and more convinced that it will be possible to

demonstrate the homogeneous origin of all the tissues. Raspail and
others are on the same track, and I have been losing time."

"I have no power of prophecy there," said Mr. Farebrother,
who had been puffing at his pipe thoughtfully while Lydgate talked;

"but as to the hostility in the town, you'll weather it if you
are prudent."

"How am I to be prudent?" said Lydgate, "I just do what comes
before me to do. I can't help people's ignorance and spite,