in five years, for example:  political writing, political speaking, would get a higher value now public life was going to be wider and more national, and they might give him such distinction that he would not seem to be asking Dorothea to step down to him.  Five years:—­ if he could only be sure that she cared for him more than for others; if he could only make her aware that he stood aloof until he could tell his love without lowering himself—­then he could go away easily, and begin a career which at five-and-twenty seemed probable enough in the inward order of things, where talent brings fame, and fame everything else which is delightful.  He could speak and he could write; he could master any subject if he chose, and he meant always to take the side of reason and justice, on which he would carry all his ardor.  Why should he not one day be lifted above the shoulders of the crowd, and feel that he had won that eminence well?  Without doubt he would leave Middlemarch, go to town, and make himself fit for celebrity by “eating his dinners.”

But not immediately:  not until some kind of sign had passed between him and Dorothea.  He could not be satisfied until she knew why, even if he were the man she would choose to marry, he would not marry her.  Hence he must keep his post and bear with Mr. Brooke a little longer.

But he soon had reason to suspect that Mr. Brooke had anticipated him in the wish to break up their connection.  Deputations without and voices within had concurred in inducing that philanthropist to take a stronger measure than usual for the good of mankind; namely, to withdraw in favor of another candidate, to whom he left the advantages of his canvassing machinery.  He himself called this a strong measure, but observed that his health was less capable of sustaining excitement than he had imagined.

“I have felt uneasy about the chest—­it won’t do to carry that too far,” he said to Ladislaw in explaining the affair.  “I must pull up.  Poor Casaubon was a warning, you know.  I’ve made some heavy advances, but I’ve dug a channel.  It’s rather coarse work—­this electioneering, eh, Ladislaw? dare say you are tired of it.  However, we have dug a channel with the `Pioneer’—­put things in a track, and so on.  A more ordinary man than you might carry it on now—­more ordinary, you know.”

“Do you wish me to give it up?” said Will, the quick color coming in his face, as he rose from the writing-table, and took a turn of three steps with his hands in his pockets.  “I am ready to do so whenever you wish it.”

“As to wishing, my dear Ladislaw, I have the highest opinion of your powers, you know.  But about the `Pioneer,’ I have been consulting a little with some of the men on our side, and they are inclined to take it into their hands—­indemnify me to a certain extent—­carry it on, in fact.  And under the circumstances, you might like to give up—­ might find a better field.  These people might not take that high view of you which I have always taken, as an alter ego, a right hand—­ though I always looked forward to your doing something else.  I think of having a run into France.  But I’ll write you any letters, you know—­to Althorpe and people of that kind.  I’ve met Althorpe.”