; and
they had a strong suspicion that since Mr. Bulstrode could not enjoy life in
their fashion, eating and drinking so little as he did, and worreting himself
about everything, he must have a sort of vampire's feast in the sense of
mastery.
    The subject of the chaplaincy came up at Mr. Vincy's table when Lydgate was
dining there, and the family connection with Mr. Bulstrode did not, he observed,
prevent some freedom of remark even on the part of the host himself, though his
reasons against the proposed arrangement turned entirely on his objection to Mr.
Tyke's sermons, which were all doctrine, and his preference for Mr. Farebrother,
whose sermons were free from that taint. Mr. Vincy liked well enough the notion
of the chaplain's having a salary, supposing it were given to Farebrother, who
was as good a little fellow as ever breathed, and the best preacher anywhere,
and companionable too.
    »What line shall you take, then?« said Mr. Chichely, the coroner, a great
coursing comrade of Mr. Vincy's.
    »Oh, I'm precious glad I'm not one of the Directors now. I shall vote for
referring the matter to the Directors and the Medical Board together. I shall
roll some of my responsibility on your shoulders, Doctor,« said Mr. Vincy,
glancing first at Dr. Sprague, the senior physician of the town, and then at
Lydgate who sat opposite. »You medical gentlemen must consult which sort of
black draught you will prescribe, eh, Mr. Lydgate?«
    »I know little of either,« said Lydgate; »but in general, appointments are
apt to be made too much a question of personal liking. The fittest man for a
particular post is not always the best fellow or the most agreeable. Sometimes,
if you wanted to get a reform, your only way would be to pension off the good
fellows whom everybody is fond of, and put them out of the question.«
    Dr. Sprague, who was considered the physician of most »weight,« though Dr.
Minchin was usually said to have more »penetration,« divested his large heavy
face of all expression, and looked at his wineglass while Lydgate was speaking.
Whatever was not problematical and suspected about this young man - for example,
a certain showiness as to foreign ideas, and a disposition to unsettle what had
been settled and forgotten by his elders - was positively unwelcome to a
physician whose standing had been fixed thirty years before by a treatise on
Meningitis,
