But this vague conviction of indeterminable guilt, which was enoughto keep up much head-shaking and biting innuendo even amongsubstantial professional seniors, had for the general mind all the superiorpower of mystery over fact. Everybody liked better to conjecture how thething was, than simply to know it; for conjecture soon became moreconfident than knowledge, and had a more liberal allowance for theincompatible. Even the more definite scandal concerning Bulstrode'searlier life was, for some minds, melted into the mass of mystery, as somuch lively metal to be poured out in dialogue, and to take suchfantastic shapes as heaven pleased.
This was the tone of thought chiefly sanctioned by Mrs. Dollop, thespirited landlady of the Tankard in Slaughter Lane, who had often toresist the shallow pragmatism of customers disposed to think that theirreports from the outer world were of equal force with what had "comeup" in her mind. How it had been brought to her she didn't know, but itwas there before her as if it had been "scored with the chalk on thechimney-board—" as Bulstrode should say, "his inside was that black as ifthe hairs of his head knowed the thoughts of his heart, he'd tear 'em upby the roots."
"That's odd," said Mr. Limp, a meditative shoemaker, with weak eyesand a piping voice. "Why, I read in the 'Trumpet' that was what the Dukeof Wellington said when he turned his coat and went over to theRomans."
"Very like," said Mrs. Dollop. "If one raskill said it, it's more reasonwhy another should. But hypocrite as he's been, and holding things withthat high hand, as there was no parson i' the country good enough forhim, he was forced to take Old Harry into his counsel, and Old Harry'sbeen too many for him."
"Ay, ay, he's a 'complice you can't send out o' the country," said Mr.Crabbe, the glazier, who gathered much news and groped among itdimly. "But by what I can make out, there's them says Bulstrode was forrunning away, for fear o' being found out, before now."
"He'll be drove away, whether or no," said Mr. Dill, the barber, whohad just dropped in. "I shaved Fletcher, Hawley's clerk, this morning—he's got a bad finger—and he says they're all of one mind to get rid ofBulstrode. Mr. Thesiger is turned against him, and wants him out o' theparish. And there's gentlemen in this town says they'd as soon dine witha fellow from the hulks. 'And a deal sooner I would,' says Fletcher; 'forwhat's more against one's stomach than a man coming and makinghimself bad company with his religion, and giving out as the TenCommandments are not enough for him, and all the while he's worsethan half the men at the tread-mill?' Fletcher said so himself."
"It'll be a bad thing for the town though, if Bulstrode's money goesout of it," said Mr. Limp, quaveringly.
"Ah, there's better folks spend their money worse," said a firm-voiceddyer, whose crimson hands looked out of keeping with his good-naturedface.
"But he won't keep his money, by what I can make out," said theglazier. "Don't they say as there's somebody can strip it off him? By whatI can understan', they could take every penny off him, if they went tolawing."
"No such thing!" said the barber, who felt himself a little above hiscompany at Dollop's, but liked it none the worse. "Fletcher says it's nosuch thing. He says they might prove over and over again whose childthis young Ladislaw was, and they'd do no more than if they proved Icame out of the Fens—he couldn't touch a penny."
"Look you there now!" said Mrs. Dollop, indignantly. "I thank theLord he took my children to Himself, if that's all the law can do for themotherless. Then by that, it's o' no use who your father and mother is.But as to listening to what one lawyer says without asking another—Iwonder at a man o' your cleverness, Mr. Dill. It's well known there'salways two sides, if no more; else who'd go to law, I should like toknow? It's a poor tale, with all the law as there is up and down, if it's nouse proving whose child you are. Fletcher may say that if he likes, but Isay, don't Fletcher me!"
Mr. Dill affected to laugh in a complimentary way at Mrs. Dollop, asa woman who was more than a match for the lawyers; being disposed tosubmit to much twitting from a landlady who had a long score againsthim.
"If they come to lawing, and it's all true as folks say, there's more tobe looked to nor money," said the glazier. "There's this poor creetur as isdead and gone; by what I can make out, he'd seen the day when he wasa deal finer gentleman nor Bulstrode."
"Finer gentleman! I'll warrant him," said Mrs. Dollop; "and a farpersonabler man, by what I can hear. As I said when Mr. Baldwin, thetax-gatherer, comes in, a-standing where you sit, and says, 'Bulstrode gotall his money as he brought into this town by thieving and swindling,'—Isaid, 'You don't make me no wiser, Mr. Baldwin: it's set my blood a-creeping to look at him ever sin' here he came into Slaughter Lane a-wanting to buy the house over my head: folks don't look the color o' thedough-tub and stare at you as if they wanted to see into your backbonefor nothingk.' That was what I said, and Mr. Baldwin can bear mewitness."
"And in the rights of it too," said Mr. Crabbe. "For by what I canmake out, this Raffles, as they call him, was a lusty, fresh-colored manas you'd wish to see, and the best o' company—though dead he lies inLowick churchyard sure enough; and by what I can understan', there'sthem knows more than they should know about how he got there."
"I'll believe you!" said Mrs. Dallop, with a touch of scorn at Mr.Crabbe's apparent dimness. "When a man's been 'ticed to a lone house,and there's them can pay for hospitals and nurses for half the country-side choose to be sitters-up night and day, and nobody to come near buta doctor as is known to stick at nothingk, and as poor as he can hangtogether, and after that so flush o' money as he can pay off Mr. Byles thebutcher as his bill has been running on for the best o' joints since lastMichaelmas was a twelvemonth—I don't want anybody to come and tellme as there's been more going on nor the Prayer-book's got a servicefor—I don't want to stand winking and blinking and thinking."
Mrs. Dollop looked round with the air of a landlady accustomed todominate her company. There was a chorus of adhesion from the morecourageous; but Mr. Limp, after taking a draught, placed his flat handstogether and pressed them hard between his knees, looking down atthem with blear-eyed contemplation, as if the scorching power of Mrs.Dollop's speech had quite dried up and nullified his wits until they couldbe brought round again by further moisture.
"Why shouldn't they dig the man up and have the Crowner?" said thedyer. "It's been done many and many's the time. If there's been foul playthey might find it out."
"Not they, Mr. Jonas!" said Mrs Dollop, emphatically. "I know whatdoctors are. They're a deal too cunning to be found out. And this DoctorLydgate that's been for cutting up everybody before the breath was wellout o' their body—it's plain enough what use he wanted to make o'looking into respectable people's insides. He knows drugs, you may besure, as you can neither smell nor see, neither before they're swallowednor after. Why, I've seen drops myself ordered by Doctor Gambit, as isour club doctor and a good charikter, and has brought more live childreninto the world nor ever another i' Middlemarch—I say I've seen dropsmyself as made no difference whether they was in the glass or out, andyet have griped you the next day. So I'll leave your own sense to judge.Don't tell me! All I say is, it's a mercy they didn't take this DoctorLydgate on to our club. There's many a mother's child might ha' rued it."
The heads of this discussion at "Dollop's" had been the commontheme among all classes in the town, had been carried to LowickParsonage on one side and to Tipton Grange on the other, had come fullyto the ears of the Vincy family, and had been discussed with sadreference to "poor Harriet" by all Mrs. Bulstrode's friends, before Lydgateknew distinctly why people were looking strangely at him, and beforeBulstrode himself suspected the betrayal of his secrets. He had not beenaccustomed to very cordial relations with his neighbors, and hence hecould not miss the signs of cordiality; moreover, he had been takingjourneys on business of various kinds, having now made up his mindthat he need not quit Middlemarch, and feeling able consequently todetermine on matters which he had before left in suspense.
"We will make a journey to Cheltenham in the course of a month ortwo," he had said to his wife. "There are great spiritual advantages to behad in that town along with the air and the waters, and six weeks therewill be eminently refreshing to us."
He really believed in the spiritual advantages, and meant that his lifehenceforth should be the more devoted because of those later sins whichhe represented to himself as hypothetic, praying hypothetically for theirpardon:—"if I have herein transgressed."
As to the Hospital, he avoided saying anything further to Lydgate,fearing to manifest a too sudden change of plans immediately on thedeath of Raffles. In his secret soul he believed that Lydgate suspected hisorders to have been intentionally disobeyed, and suspecting this he mustalso suspect a motive. But nothing had been betrayed to him as to thehistory of Raffles, and Bulstrode was anxious not to do anything whichwould give emphasis to his undefined suspicions. As to any certaintythat a particular method of treatment would either save or kill, Lydgatehimself was constantly arguing against such dogmatism; he had no rightto speak, and he had every motive for being silent. Hence Bulstrode felthimself providentially secured. The only incident he had strongly wincedunder had been an occasional encounter with Caleb Garth, who,however, had raised his hat with mild gravity.
Meanwhile, on the part of the principal townsmen a strongdetermination was growing against him.
A meeting was to be held in the Town-Hall on a sanitary questionwhich had risen into pressing importance by the occurrence of a choleracase in the town. Since the Act of Parliament, which had been hurriedlypassed, authorizing assessments for sanitary measures, there had been aBoard for the superintendence of such measures appointed inMiddlemarch, and much cleansing and preparation had been concurredin by Whigs and Tories. The question now was, whether a piece ofground outside the town should be secured as a burial-ground by meansof assessment or by private subscription. The meeting was to be open,and almost everybody of importance in the town was expected to bethere.
Mr. Bulstrode was a member of the Board, and just before twelveo'clock he started from the Bank with the intention of urging the plan ofprivate subscription. Under the hesitation of his projects, he had forsome time kept himself in the background, and he felt that he shouldthis morning resume his old position as a man of action and influence inthe public affairs of the town where he expected to end his days. Amongthe various persons going in the same direction, he saw Lydgate; theyjoined, talked over the object of the meeting, and entered it together.
It seemed that everybody of mark had been earlier than they. Butthere were still spaces left near the head of the large central table, andthey made their way thither. Mr. Farebrother sat opposite, not far fromMr. Hawley; all the medical men were there; Mr. Thesiger was in thechair, and Mr. Brooke of Tipton was on his right hand.
Lydgate noticed a peculiar interchange of glances when he andBulstrode took their seats.
After the business had been fully opened by the chairman, whopointed out the advantages of purchasing by subscription a piece ofground large enough to be ultimately used as a general cemetery, Mr.Bulstrode, whose rather high-pitched but subdued and fluent voice thetown was used to at meetings of this sort, rose and asked leave to deliverhis opinion. Lydgate could see again the peculiar interchange of glancesbefore Mr. Hawley started up, and said in his firm resonant voice, "Mr.Chairman, I request that before any one delivers his opinion on thispoint I may be permitted to speak on a question of public feeling, whichnot only by myself, but by many gentlemen present, is regarded aspreliminary."
Mr. Hawley's mode of speech, even when public decorum repressedhis "awful language," was formidable in its curtness and self-possession.Mr. Thesiger sanctioned the request, Mr. Bulstrode sat down, and Mr.Hawley continued.
"In what I have to say, Mr. Chairman, I am not speaking simply onmy own behalf: I am speaking with the concurrence and at the expressrequest of no fewer than eight of my fellow-townsmen, who areimmediately around us. It is our united sentiment that Mr. Bulstrodeshould be called upon—and I do now call upon him—to resign publicpositions which he holds not simply as a tax-payer, but as a gentlemanamong gentlemen. There are practices and there are acts which, owing tocircumstances, the law cannot visit, though they may be worse thanmany things which are legally punishable. Honest men and gentlemen, ifthey don't want the company of people who perpetrate such acts, havegot to defend themselves as they best can, and that is what I and thefriends whom I may call my clients in this affair are determined to do. Idon't say that Mr. Bulstrode has been guilty of shameful acts, but I callupon him either publicly to deny and confute the scandalous statementsmade against him by a man now dead, and who died in his house—thestatement that he was for many years engaged in nefarious practices, andthat he won his fortune by dishonest procedures—or else to withdrawfrom positions which could only have been allowed him as a gentlemanamong gentlemen."
All eyes in the room were turned on Mr. Bulstrode, who, since thefirst mention of his name, had been going through a crisis of feelingalmost too violent for his delicate frame to support. Lydgate, whohimself was undergoing a shock as from the terrible practicalinterpretation of some faint augury, felt, nevertheless, that his ownmovement of resentful hatred was checked by that instinct of the Healerwhich thinks first of bringing rescue or relief to the sufferer, when helooked at the shrunken misery of Bulstrode's livid face.
