. »Mr. Brooke has been fully
informed of Mr. Farebrother's character and position.«
    »By his enemies,« flashed out Mr. Hawley.
    »I trust there is no personal hostility concerned here,« said Mr. Thesiger.
    »I'll swear there is, though,« retorted Mr. Hawley.
    »Gentlemen,« said Mr. Bulstrode, in a subdued tone, »the merits of the
question may be very briefly stated, and if any one present doubts that every
gentleman who is about to give his vote has not been fully informed, I can now
recapitulate the considerations that should weigh on either side.«
    »I don't see the good of that,« said Mr. Hawley. »I suppose we all know whom
we mean to vote for. Any man who wants to do justice does not wait till the last
minute to hear both sides of the question. I have no time to lose, and I propose
that the matter be put to the vote at once.«
    A brief but still hot discussion followed before each person wrote »Tyke« or
»Farebrother« on a piece of paper and slipped it into a glass tumbler; and in
the mean time Mr. Bulstrode saw Lydgate enter. »I perceive that the votes are
equally divided at present,« said Mr. Bulstrode, in a clear biting voice. Then,
looking up at Lydgate -
    »There is a casting-vote still to be given. It is yours, Mr. Lydgate: will
you be good enough to write?«
    »The thing is settled now,« said Mr. Wrench, rising. »We all know how Mr.
Lydgate will vote.«
    »You seem to speak with some peculiar meaning, sir,« said Lydgate, rather
defiantly, and keeping his pencil suspended.
    »I merely mean that you are expected to vote with Mr. Bulstrode. Do you
regard that meaning as offensive?«
    »It may be offensive to others. But I shall not desist from voting with him
on that account.«
    Lydgate immediately wrote down »Tyke.«
    
    So the Rev. Walter Tyke became chaplain to the Infirmary, and Lydgate
continued to work with Mr. Bulstrode. He was really uncertain whether Tyke were
not the more suitable candidate, and yet his consciousness told him that if he
had been quite free from indirect bias he should have voted for Mr. Farebrother.
The affair of the chaplaincy remained a sore point in his memory as a case in
which this petty medium of Middlemarch had been too strong for him. How