 you
if you will tell me how I can help to make things a little better. Everything of
that sort has slipped away from me since I have been married. I mean,« she said,
after a moment's hesitation, »that the people in our village are tolerably
comfortable, and my mind has been too much taken up for me to inquire further.
But here - in such a place as Middlemarch - there must be a great deal to be
done.«
    »There is everything to be done,« said Lydgate, with abrupt energy. »And
this Hospital is a capital piece of work, due entirely to Mr. Bulstrode's
exertions, and in a great degree to his money. But one man can't do everything
in a scheme of this sort. Of course he looked forward to help. And now there's a
mean, petty feud set up against the thing in the town, by certain persons who
want to make it a failure.«
    »What can be their reasons?« said Dorothea, with naïve surprise.
    »Chiefly Mr. Bulstrode's unpopularity, to begin with. Half the town would
almost take trouble for the sake of thwarting him. In this stupid world most
people never consider that a thing is good to be done unless it is done by their
own set. I had no connection with Bulstrode before I came here. I look at him
quite impartially, and I see that he has some notions - that he has set things
on foot - which I can turn to good public purpose. If a fair number of the
better educated men went to work with the belief that their observations might
contribute to the reform of medical doctrine and practice, we should soon see a
change for the better. That's my point of view. I hold that by refusing to work
with Mr. Bulstrode I should be turning my back on an opportunity of making my
profession more generally serviceable.«
    »I quite agree with you,« said Dorothea, at once fascinated by the situation
sketched in Lydgate's words. »But what is there against Mr. Bulstrode? I know
that my uncle is friendly with him.«
    »People don't like his religious tone,« said Lydgate, breaking off there.
    »That is all the stronger reason for despising such an opposition,« said
Dorothea, looking at the affairs of Middlemarch by the light of the great
persecutions.
    »To put the matter quite fairly, they have other objections to him: - he is
masterful and rather unsociable, and he is
