, so Brooke is sure to take him up.«
    »James,« said Lady Chettam when her son came near, »bring Mr. Lydgate and
introduce him to me. I want to test him.«
    The affable dowager declared herself delighted with this opportunity of
making Mr. Lydgate's acquaintance, having heard of his success in treating fever
on a new plan.
    Mr. Lydgate had the medical accomplishment of looking perfectly grave
whatever nonsense was talked to him, and his dark steady eyes gave him
impressiveness as a listener. He was as little as possible like the lamented
Hicks, especially in a certain careless refinement about his toilette and
utterance. Yet Lady Chettam gathered much confidence in him. He confirmed her
view of her own constitution as being peculiar, by admitting that all
constitutions might be called peculiar, and he did not deny that hers might be
more peculiar than others. He did not approve of a too lowering system,
including reckless cupping, nor, on the other hand, of incessant port-wine and
bark. He said »I think so« with an air of so much deference accompanying the
insight of agreement, that she formed the most cordial opinion of his talents.
    »I am quite pleased with your protégé,« she said to Mr. Brooke before going
away.
    »My protégé? - dear me! - who is that?« said Mr. Brooke.
    »This young Lydgate, the new doctor. He seems to me to understand his
profession admirably.«
    »Oh, Lydgate! he is not my protégé, you know; only I knew an uncle of his
who sent me a letter about him. However, I think he is likely to be first-rate -
has studied in Paris, knew Broussais; has ideas, you know - wants to raise the
profession.«
    »Lydgate has lots of ideas, quite new, about ventilation and diet, that sort
of thing,« resumed Mr. Brooke, after he had handed out Lady Chettam, and had
returned to be civil to a group of Middlemarchers.
    »Hang it, do you think that is quite sound? - upsetting the old treatment,
which has made Englishmen what they are?« said Mr. Standish.
    »Medical knowledge is at a low ebb among us,« said Mr. Bulstrode, who spoke
in a subdued tone, and had rather a sickly air. »I, for my part, hail the advent
of Mr. Lydgate. I hope to find good reason for confiding the new hospital to his
management.«
    »That is all very fine,