, and he felt that he should this morning resume his
old position as a man of action and influence in the public affairs of the town
where he expected to end his days. Among the various persons going in the same
direction, he saw Lydgate; they joined, talked over the object of the meeting,
and entered it together.
    It seemed that everybody of mark had been earlier than they. But there were
still spaces left near the head of the large central table, and they made their
way thither. Mr. Farebrother sate opposite, not far from Mr. Hawley; all the
medical men were there; Mr. Thesiger was in the chair, and Mr. Brooke of Tipton
was on his right hand.
    Lydgate noticed a peculiar interchange of glances when he and Bulstrode took
their seats.
    After the business had been fully opened by the chairman, who pointed out
the advantages of purchasing by subscription a piece of ground large enough to
be ultimately used as a general cemetery, Mr. Bulstrode, whose rather
high-pitched but subdued and fluent voice the town was used to at meetings of
this sort, rose and asked leave to deliver his opinion. Lydgate could see again
the peculiar interchange of glances before Mr. Hawley started up, and said in
his firm resonant voice, »Mr. Chairman, I request that before any one delivers
his opinion on this point I may be permitted to speak on a question of public
feeling, which not only by myself, but by many gentlemen present, is regarded as
preliminary.«
    Mr. Hawley's mode of speech, even when public decorum repressed his »awful
language,« was formidable in its curtness and self-possession. Mr. Thesiger
sanctioned the request, Mr. Bulstrode sat down, and Mr. Hawley continued.
    »In what I have to say, Mr. Chairman, I am not speaking simply on my own
behalf: I am speaking with the concurrence and at the express request of no
fewer than eight of my fellow-townsmen, who are immediately around us. It is our
united sentiment that Mr. Bulstrode should be called upon - and I do now call
upon him - to resign public positions which he holds not simply as a tax-payer,
but as a gentleman among gentlemen. There are practices and there are acts
which, owing to circumstances, the law cannot visit, though they may be worse
than many things which are legally punishable. Honest men and gentlemen, if they
don't want the company of people who perpetrate such acts, have got to defend
themselves as they best can, and