Summary

Chapter 18

Lydgate becomes preoccupied with the coming vote concerning who will fill the position of the chaplain. He personally likes Farebrother better, but he is feeling pressure to vote for Tyke. On the day the medical board meets to vote, there is a stalemate when Lydgate enters. The men know that Lydgate’s vote will break the tie. He votes for Tyke because a man in the crowd taunts him. He holds this vote and the way that it was handled as a sore spot against the people of Middlemarch.

Chapter 19

Will Ladislaw and his German friend, Adolf Naumann, happen to run into Dorothea at the Vatican. Naumann believes Dorothea should be painted, as she is the antithesis of the Cleopatra. Ladislaw tells Naumann that Dorothea is married to his cousin and should be left alone.

Chapter 20

Dorothea has realized that...