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MIDDLEMARCH-Part87_GEORGE ELIOT(1819-1880)_English Literature(文学)-第2页

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well"--here an unpleasant egg broke on Mr. Brooke's shoulder,

as the echo said, "All that is very well;" then came a hail of eggs,



chiefly aimed at the image, but occasionally hitting the original,

as if by chance. There was a stream of new men pushing among



the crowd; whistles, yells, bellowings, and fifes made all the greater

hubbub because there was shouting and struggling to put them down.



No voice would have had wing enough to rise above the uproar,

and Mr. Brooke, disagreeably anointed, stood his ground no longer.



The frustration would have been less exasperating if it had been

less gamesome and boyish: a serious assault of which the newspaper



reporter "can aver that it endangered the learned gentleman's ribs,"

or can respectfully bear witness to "the soles of that gentleman's boots



having been visible above the railing," has perhaps more consolations

attached to it.



Mr. Brooke re-entered the committee-room, saying, as carelessly

as he could, "This is a little too bad, you know. I should have got



the ear of the people by-and-by--but they didn't give me time.

I should have gone into the Bill by-and-by, you know," he added,



glancing at Ladislaw. "However, things will come all right at

the nomination."



But it was not resolvedunanimously that things would come right;

on the contrary, the committee looked rather grim, and the political



personage from Brassing was writingbusily, as if he were brewing

new devices.



"It was Bowyer who did it," said Mr. Standish, evasively. "I know

it as well as if he had been advertised. He's uncommonly good



at ventriloquism, and he did it uncommonly well, by God! Hawley has

been having him to dinner lately: there's a fund of talent in Bowyer."



"Well, you know, you never mentioned him to me, Standish, else I

would have invited him to dine," said poor Mr. Brooke, who had gone



through a great deal of inviting for the good of his country.

"There's not a more paltry fellow in Middlemarch than Bowyer,"



said Ladislaw, indignantly, "but it seems as if the paltry fellows

were always to turn the scale."



Will was thoroughly out of temper with himself as well as with his

"principal," and he went to shut himself in his rooms with a half-formed



resolve to throw up the "Pioneer" and Mr. Brooke together.

Why should he stay? If the impassable gulf between himself and



Dorothea were ever to be filled up, it must rather be by his going

away and getting into a thoroughly different position than by staying



here and slipping into deserved contempt as an understrapper of

Brooke's. Then came the young dream of wonders that he might do--



in five years, for example: political writing, political speaking,

would get a higher value now public life was going to be wider and



more national, and they might give him such distinction that he would

not seem to be asking Dorothea to step down to him. Five years:--



if he could only be sure that she cared for him more than for others;

if he could only make her aware that he stood aloof until he could



tell his love without lowering himself--then he could go away easily,

and begin a career which at five-and-twenty seemed probable enough



in the inward order of things, where talent brings fame, and fame

everything else which is delightful. He could speak and he could write;



he could master any subject if he chose, and he meant always to take

the side of reason and justice, on which he would carry all his ardor.



Why should he not one day be lifted above the shoulders of the crowd,

and feel that he had won that eminence well? Without doubt he would



leave Middlemarch, go to town, and make himself fit for celebrity

by "eating his dinners."



But not immediately: not until some kind of sign had passed between

him and Dorothea. He could not be satisfied until she knew why,



even if he were the man she would choose to marry, he would not

marry her. Hence he must keep his post and bear with Mr. Brooke



a little longer.

But he soon had reason to suspect that Mr. Brooke had



anticipated him in the wish to break up their connection.

Deputations without and voices within had concurred in inducing



that philanthropist to take a stronger measure than usual for the

good of mankind; namely, to withdraw in favor of another candidate,



to whom he left the advantages of his canvassing machinery.

He himself called this a strong measure, but observed that






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