Page:Eliot - Middlemarch, vol. I, 1871.djvu/346

332 "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