with the drama of Laure—­in spite too of medicine and biology; for the inspection of macerated muscle or of eyes presented in a dish (like Santa Lucia’s), and other incidents of scientific inquiry, are observed to be less incompatible with poetic love than a native dulness or a lively addiction to the lowest prose.  As for Rosamond, she was in the water-lily’s expanding wonderment at its own fuller life, and she too was spinning industriously at the mutual web.  All this went on in the corner of the drawing-room where the piano stood, and subtle as it was, the light made it a sort of rainbow visible to many observers besides Mr. Farebrother.  The certainty that Miss Vincy and Mr. Lydgate were engaged became general in Middlemarch without the aid of formal announcement.

Aunt Bulstrode was again stirred to anxiety; but this time she addressed herself to her brother, going to the warehouse expressly to avoid Mrs. Vincy’s volatility.  His replies were not satisfactory.

“Walter, you never mean to tell me that you have allowed all this to go on without inquiry into Mr. Lydgate’s prospects?” said Mrs. Bulstrode, opening her eyes with wider gravity at her brother, who was in his peevish warehouse humor.  “Think of this girl brought up in luxury—­in too worldly a way, I am sorry to say—­ what will she do on a small income?”

“Oh, confound it, Harriet!  What can I do when men come into the town without any asking of mine?  Did you shut your house up against Lydgate?  Bulstrode has pushed him forward more than anybody.  I never made any fuss about the young fellow.  You should go and talk to your husband about it, not me.”

“Well, really, Walter, how can Mr. Bulstrode be to blame?  I am sure he did not wish for the engagement.”

“Oh, if Bulstrode had not taken him by the hand, I should never have invited him.”

“But you called him in to attend on Fred, and I am sure that was a mercy,” said Mrs. Bulstrode, losing her clew in the intricacies of the subject.

“I don’t know about mercy,” said Mr. Vincy, testily.  “I know I am worried more than I like with my family.  I was a good brother to you, Harriet, before you married Bulstrode, and I must say he doesn’t always show that friendly spirit towards your family that might have been expected of him.”  Mr. Vincy was very little like a Jesuit, but no accomplished Jesuit could have turned a question more adroitly.  Harriet had to defend her husband instead of blaming her brother, and the conversation ended at a point as far from the beginning as some recent sparring between the brothers-in-law at a vestry meeting.

Mrs. Bulstrode did not repeat her brother’s complaints to her husband, but in the evening she spoke to him of Lydgate and Rosamond.  He did not share her warm interest, however; and only spoke with resignation of the risks attendant on the beginning of medical practice and the desirability of prudence.