Page:Eliot - Middlemarch, vol. I, 1871.djvu/349

Rh, in short, my friends have convinced me that a chaplain with a salary—a salary, you know-is a very good thing, and I am happy to be able to come here and vote for the appointment of Mr Tyke, who, I understand, is an unexceptionable man, apostolic and eloquent and everything of that kind-and I am the last man to withhold my vote—under the circumstances, you know."

"It seems to me that you have been crammed with one side of the question, Mr Brooke," said Mr Frank Hawley, who was afraid of nobody, and was a Tory suspicious of electioneering intentions. "You don't seem to know that one of the worthiest men we have has been doing duty as chaplain here for years without pay, and that Mr Tyke is proposed to supersede him."

"Excuse me, Mr Hawley," said Mr Bulstrode. "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