Page:Eliot - Middlemarch, vol. IV, 1872.djvu/13



" you seen much of your scientific phœnix, Lydgate, lately?" said Mr Toller at one of his Christmas dinner-parties, speaking to Mr Farebrother on his right hand.

"Not much, I am sorry to say," answered the Vicar, accustomed to parry Mr Toller's banter about his belief in the new medical light. "I am out of the way and he is too busy."

"Is he? I am glad to hear it," said Dr. Minchin, with mingled suavity and surprise.

"He gives a great deal of time to the New Hospital," said Mr Farebrother, who had his reasons for continuing the subject: "I hear of that from