 medical reform and another who would
oppose it, should you inquire which had the better motives or even the better
brains?«
    »Oh, of course,« said Lydgate, seeing himself checkmated by a move which he
had often used himself, »if one did not work with such men as are at hand,
things must come to a dead-lock. Suppose the worst opinion in the town about
Bulstrode were a true one, that would not make it less true that he has the
sense and the resolution to do what I think ought to be done in the matters I
know and care most about; but that is the only ground on which I go with him,«
Lydgate added rather proudly, bearing in mind Mr. Farebrother's remarks. »He is
nothing to me otherwise; I would not cry him up on any personal ground - I would
keep clear of that.«
    »Do you mean that I cry up Brooke on any personal ground?« said Will
Ladislaw, nettled, and turning sharp round. For the first time he felt offended
with Lydgate; not the less so, perhaps, because he would have declined any close
inquiry into the growth of his relation to Mr. Brooke.
    »Not at all,« said Lydgate, »I was simply explaining my own action. I meant
that a man may work for a special end with others whose motives and general
course are equivocal, if he is quite sure of his personal independence, and that
he is not working for his private interest - either place or money.«
    »Then, why don't you extend your liberality to others?« said Will, still
nettled. »My personal independence is as important to me as yours is to you. You
have no more reason to imagine that I have personal expectations from Brooke,
than I have to imagine that you have personal expectations from Bulstrode.
Motives are points of honour, I suppose - nobody can prove them. But as to money
and place in the world,« Will ended, tossing back his head, »I think it is
pretty clear that I am not determined by considerations of that sort.«
    »You quite mistake me, Ladislaw,« said Lydgate, surprised. He had been
preoccupied with his own vindication, and had been blind to what Ladislaw might
infer on his own account. »I beg your pardon for unintentionally annoying you.
In fact, I should rather attribute to you a romantic disregard of your own
worldly interests. On the political question, I referred simply to intellectual
bias.«
    »How very unpleasant
