Middlemarch

Scandal spreads to local prominent families

Scandal spreads to local prominent families

The chapter notes that the heads of discussion at Dollop’s have become common talk across all classes in the town. The gossip has been carried to Lowick Parsonage on one side and Tipton Grange on the other, has come fully to the ears of the Vincy family, and has been discussed with sorrowful reference to “poor Harriet” among all of Mrs. Bulstrode’s friends. All of this takes place before Lydgate understands why people are looking at him strangely, and before Bulstrode himself suspects that his secrets have been betrayed.

Growing public opposition to Bulstrode

Growing public opposition to Bulstrode

Meanwhile, on the part of the principal townsmen a strong determination is growing against Bulstrode. This resolve will find its public expression at the forthcoming town-hall meeting, where coordinated action against him is being prepared by leading citizens.

Bulstrode’s planned Cheltenham journey

Bulstrode’s planned Cheltenham journey

Unaware that his secrets have leaked, Bulstrode tells his wife they will journey to Cheltenham in a month or two, citing the great spiritual advantages to be had there along with the air and the waters, and predicting that six weeks will be “eminently refreshing” to them. He sincerely believes in these spiritual benefits and resolves that his life henceforth shall be more devoted, framing his later sins to himself as merely “hypothetic” and praying hypothetically for their pardon: “if I have herein transgressed.”

Bulstrode’s secret fear of Lydgate’s suspicion

Bulstrode’s secret fear of Lydgate’s suspicion

Regarding the Hospital, Bulstrode avoids further discussion with Lydgate, fearing that a sudden change of plan immediately upon Raffles’s death would look suspicious. Inwardly he believes Lydgate suspects the medical orders were intentionally disobeyed, and that such a suspicion must imply a motive. Yet nothing of Raffles’s history has reached Lydgate, and Bulstrode is anxious not to give emphasis to those undefined suspicions. Comforting himself with Lydgate’s own professed reluctance to speak dogmatically about treatment, Bulstrode feels himself “providentially secured.” The only incident that has truly stung him is an occasional encounter with Caleb Garth, who nevertheless raises his hat with mild gravity.

Town hall sanitary meeting convenes

Town hall sanitary meeting convenes

A sanitary meeting is to be held in the Town-Hall, prompted by a recent cholera case and the question of whether a burial-ground outside the town should be secured by assessment or by private subscription. Bulstrode, a Board member, sets out from the Bank intending to urge the plan of private subscription and to resume his old position of action and influence after a period of self-imposed retirement. Among the others arriving he sees Lydgate; they walk and talk together and enter side by side. The room is already nearly full of persons of mark: Mr. Farebrother sits opposite near Mr. Hawley, all the medical men are present, Mr. Thesiger occupies the chair, and Mr. Brooke of Tipton sits on his right. Lydgate notices a peculiar interchange of glances when he and Bulstrode take their seats together.

Hawley’s public demand for Bulstrode’s resignation

Hawley’s public demand for Bulstrode’s resignation

After the chairman Thesiger opens the business on the burial-ground question, Bulstrode rises to deliver his opinion. Before he can speak, however, Mr. Hawley stands and, with the chair’s sanction, addresses the meeting in his curt, self-possessed manner. Speaking not for himself alone but at the express request of no fewer than eight fellow-townsmen seated near him, Hawley calls upon Bulstrode to resign the public positions he holds as a gentleman among gentlemen. Crimes which the law cannot reach may yet be worse than those it punishes, he argues, and honest men must defend themselves. He demands that Bulstrode either publicly deny and confute the scandalous statements made by the now-dead Raffles—accusations of long-engaged nefarious practices and a fortune won by dishonest procedures—or else withdraw from the positions that could only have been granted him as a gentleman among gentlemen.