Middlemarch

The Vincy Family Finances

The Vincys live in easy, profuse comfort according to family habits and traditions. Mr. Vincy spends on coursing, his cellar, and dinner-giving, while Mrs. Vincy maintains running accounts with tradespeople that give a cheerful illusion of unlimited means. The children grow up without any standard of economy, retaining infantile notions that their father could pay for anything if he chose. Fred knows that any disclosure of debt will bring domestic thunder, however transient, including his mother’s tears and his own enforced sulkiness. This makes renewing bills with friends’ signatures the obviously easier course.

Seeking a Co-Signer

When seeking a favor, Fred reviews his friends with the natural disposition to forgive their faults and believe them eager to oblige. He dismisses most of them as too disagreeable to approach, holding an implicit conviction that he, at least, should be exempt from anything unpleasant. The idea of being seen as short of funds for small debts is intolerable to him. The friend who remains, at once the poorest and the kindest, is Caleb Garth.

The Garth Family History

The Garths are very fond of Fred, and the families became acquainted through Mr. Featherstone’s double marriage—to Mr. Garth’s sister and to Mrs. Vincy. As children, Fred and Mary played together and drank tea from toy teacups; Fred at six proposed to Mary with a brass ring cut from an umbrella. Though the Vincys maintain condescending terms with the Garths, Fred has kept his affection for them through every stage of his education. Since Caleb Garth’s failure in the building business and his honorable exertions to pay twenty shillings in the pound, the Vincys have held the Garths in positive disfavor. Mrs. Vincy fears Fred might attach himself to the plain Mary Garth, whose parents “live in such a small way.”

Caleb Garth’s Trust

Fred goes to Caleb Garth’s small office and obtains his signature without much difficulty. Caleb has not been made cautious by painful experience, nor distrustful of those who have not yet proved untrustworthy. He holds the highest opinion of Fred, whom he considers an open, affectionate fellow with a good bottom to his character—someone to be trusted for anything. Caleb is one of those rare men rigid toward themselves and indulgent toward others; he would rather do other men’s work than find fault with their doing.

A Friendly Admonition

Before signing, Caleb feels the occasion calls for a friendly hint. He performs his careful ritual with spectacles, pen, and ink, then delivers a comfortable admonition about the misfortune of breaking the horse’s knees and the futility of exchanges with cunning jockeys. He assures Fred he will be wiser another time. With characteristic care, Caleb then writes his signature, contemplates the well-proportioned letters and final flourish, says good-by, and returns immediately to his absorption in a plan for Sir James Chettam’s new farm-buildings.

The Secret of the Signature

Either because his interest in his current work pushed the incident from his mind, or for reasons of which Caleb was more conscious, Mrs. Garth remains ignorant of the affair. The signature is kept secret between the two men.

Fred’s Academic Failure

A change has come over Fred’s prospects since obtaining the signature. His failure to pass his examination made his college debts unpardonable to his father, provoking an unprecedented storm at home. Mr. Vincy swore that further transgressions would see Fred turned out to make his own way, and he has not quite recovered his good humor. Fred enraged him further by declaring he did not want to be a clergyman and would rather not continue with that course. Fred’s family and Middlemarch generally view him through the lens of Mr. Featherstone’s likely inheritance, which serves in the stead of more exemplary conduct. A new borrowing episode—making his father the agent in obtaining the Bulstrode certificate—has given Fred another reason not to approach his father for money, since anger would confuse distinctions and his denial would be taken as falsehood.