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CHAPTER XVI.
" All that in woman is adored
In thy fair self I find—
For the whole sex can but afford
The handsome and the kind.
The question whether Mr Tyke should be appointed as salaried chaplain to the hospital was an exciting topic to the Middlemarchers; and Lydgate heard it discussed in a way that threw much light on the power exercised in the town by Mr Bulstrode. The banker was evidently a ruler, but there was an opposition party, and even among his supporters there were some who allowed it to be seen that their support was a compromise, and who frankly stated their impression that the general scheme of things, and especially the casualties of trade, required you to hold a candle to the devil.
Mr Bulstrode's power was not due simply to his being a country banker, who knew the financial
