 came to
you with a heavy heart.«
    »Thank you for coming,« said Lydgate, cordially. »I can enjoy the kindness
all the more because I am happier. I have certainly been a good deal crushed.
I'm afraid I shall find the bruises still painful by-and-by,« he added, smiling
rather sadly; »but just now I can only feel that the torture-screw is off.«
    Mr. Farebrother was silent for a moment, and then said earnestly, »My dear
fellow, let me ask you one question. Forgive me if I take a liberty.«
    »I don't believe you will ask anything that ought to offend me.«
    »Then - this is necessary to set my heart quite at rest - you have not -
have you? - in order to pay your debts, incurred another debt which may harass
you worse hereafter?«
    »No,« said Lydgate, colouring slightly. »There is no reason why I should not
tell you - since the fact is so - that the person to whom I am indebted is
Bulstrode. He has made me a very handsome advance - a thousand pounds - and he
can afford to wait for repayment.«
    »Well, that is generous,« said Mr. Farebrother, compelling himself to
approve of the man whom he disliked. His delicate feeling shrank from dwelling
even in his thought on the fact that he had always urged Lydgate to avoid any
personal entanglement with Bulstrode. He added immediately, »And Bulstrode must
naturally feel an interest in your welfare, after you have worked with him in a
way which has probably reduced your income instead of adding to it. I am glad to
think that he has acted accordingly.«
    Lydgate felt uncomfortable under these kindly suppositions. They made more
distinct within him the uneasy consciousness which had shown its first dim
stirrings only a few hours before, that Bulstrode's motives for his sudden
beneficence following close upon the chillest indifference might be merely
selfish. He let the kindly suppositions pass. He could not tell the history of
the loan, but it was more vividly present with him than ever, as well as the
fact which the Vicar delicately ignored - that this relation of personal
indebtedness to Bulstrode was what he had once been most resolved to avoid.
    He began, instead of answering, to speak of his projected economies, and of
his having come to look at his life from a different point of view.
    »I shall set up a surgery,« he said. »I really think I made a mistaken
effort
