't hinted it, that I was
a Servile Crawler.«
    »I disclaim any personalities. I expressly said, if I may be allowed to
repeat, or even to conclude what I was about to say -«
    »Ah, here's Minchin!« said Mr. Frank Hawley; at which everybody turned away
from Mr. Hackbutt, leaving him to feel the uselessness of superior gifts in
Middlemarch. »Come, Doctor, I must have you on the right side, eh?«
    »I hope so,« said Dr. Minchin, nodding and shaking hands here and there. »At
whatever cost to my feelings.«
    »If there's any feeling here, it should be feeling for the man who is turned
out, I think,« said Mr. Frank Hawley.
    »I confess I have feelings on the other side also. I have a divided esteem,«
said Dr. Minchin, rubbing his hands. »I consider Mr. Tyke an exemplary man -
none more so - and I believe him to be proposed from unimpeachable motives. I,
for my part, wish that I could give him my vote. But I am constrained to take a
view of the case which gives the preponderance to Mr. Farebrother's claims. He
is an amiable man, an able preacher, and has been longer among us.«
    Old Mr. Powderell looked on, sad and silent. Mr. Plymdale settled his
cravat, uneasily.
    »You don't set up Farebrother as a pattern of what a clergyman ought to be,
I hope,« said Mr. Larcher, the eminent carrier, who had just come in. »I have no
ill-will towards him, but I think we owe something to the public, not to speak
of anything higher, in these appointments. In my opinion Farebrother is too lax
for a clergyman. I don't wish to bring up particulars against him; but he will
make a little attendance here go as far as he can.«
    »And a devilish deal better than too much,« said Mr. Hawley, whose bad
language was notorious in that part of the county. »Sick people can't bear so
much praying and preaching. And that methodistical sort of religion is bad for
the spirits - bad for the inside, eh?« he added, turning quickly round to the
four medical men who were assembled.
    But any answer was dispensed with by the entrance of three gentlemen, with
whom there were greetings more or less cordial. These were the Reverend Edward
Thesiger, Rector