22 Middlemarch - Read By Stephanie Poppins

Middlemarch by George Eliot explores the lives of its inhabitants as they navigate societal expectations, personal aspirations, and the changing world around them.

In this episode, Bulstrode and Vincy have it out!

Check out The Female Stoic Podcast, where we discuss this book and other literary works.

Transcript

Welcome to sleep stories with Steph Your go-to podcast That offers you a calm and relaxing transition Into a great night's sleep It is time to relax and fully let go There is nothing you need to be doing now and nowhere you need to go Close your eyes And feel yourself sink into the support beneath you And let all the worries of the day Drift away This is your time and your space Take a deep breath in through your nose And let it out with a long sigh There is nothing you need to be doing now and nowhere you need to go Happy listening Book two old and young Chapter eight In consequence of what he had heard from fred Mr.

Vinci determined to speak with mr.

Bolstrode in his private room at the bank at half past one When he was usually free from other callers But a visitor had come into one o'clock and mr Bolstrode had so very much to say to him.

There was little chance of the interview being over in half an hour The banker's speech was fluent,

But it was also copious And he used up an appreciable amount of time in brief meditative pauses Do not imagine his sickly aspect to have been of the yellow black haired sort He had a pale blonde skin Thin gray bit sprinkled brown hair light gray eyes and a large forehead Loud men called his subdued tone an undertone And sometimes implied it was inconsistent with openness Although there seems to be no reason why a loud man should not be given to concealment of anything except his own voice Unless it can be shown That holy writ has placed the seat of candor in the lungs Mr.

Bolstrode had also a deferential bending attitude in listening And an apparently fixed attentiveness in his eyes Which made those persons who thought themselves worth hearing Infer he was seeking the utmost improvement from their discourse Others who expected to make no great figure disliked this kind of moral lantern turned on them If you are not proud of your cellar,

There is no thrill of satisfaction in seeing your guest Hold up his wine glass to the light and look judicial Such joy is a reserve for conscious merit Hence,

Mr.

Bolstrode's close attention was not agreeable to the publicans and sinners in middlemarch It was attributed by some to his being a pharisee and others to his being evangelical Less superficial reasoners among them were wished to know who his father and grandfather were Observing that five and twenty years ago.

Nobody had ever heard of a bolstrode in middlemarch To his present visitor Lydgate the scrutinizing look was a matter of indifference He simply formed an unfavorable opinion of the banker's constitution And concluded he had an eager inward life with little enjoyment of tangible things I shall be exceedingly obliged if you will look into me here occasionally,

Mr.

Lydgate the banker observed after a brief pause If as I dare to hope I have the privilege of finding you a valuable Coadjutor in the interesting matter of hospital management There will be many questions which we shall need to discuss in private As to the new hospital,

Which is nearly finished I shall consider what you've said about the advantages of the special destination for fevers.

The decision will rest with me Although lord medley coat has given the land and timber for the building.

He is not disposed to give his personal attention to the object There are a few things better worth the pains in a provisional town like this Said Lydgate a fine fever hospital in addition to the old infirmary might be the nucleus of a medical school here Where once we get our medical reforms?

And what would do more for medical education than the spread of such schools over the country?

A born provincial man Who has a grain of public spirit as well as a few ideas Should do what he can to resist the rush of everything That is a little better than common towards london Any valid professional aims may often find a freer if not a richer field in the provinces One of Lydgate's gifts was a voice habitually deep and sonorous Yet capable of becoming very low and gentle at the right moment About his ordinary bearing there was a certain fling a fearless expectation of success a confidence in his own powers and integrity much fortified By contempt for petty obstacles or seductions Of which he had no experience But this proud openness was made lovable by an expression of unaffected goodwill Mr.

Bolstrode perhaps liked him the better for the difference between them in pitch and manners He certainly liked him the better as rosman did for being a stranger in middlemarch One can begin so many things with a new person Even begin to be a better man I shall rejoice to furnish your zeal with fuller opportunities Mr.

Bolstrode answered.

I mean by confiding to you the superintendents of my new hospital Should a maturer knowledge favor that issue For i'm determined So great an object shall not be shackled by our two positions Indeed,

I'm encouraged to consider your advent to this town as a gracious indication That a more manifest blessing is now to be awarded to my efforts which have hitherto been much withstood With regard to the old infirmary we've gained the initial point I mean your election And now I hope you will not shrink from incurring a certain amount of jealousy and dislike from your professional brethren By presenting yourself as a reformer I will not profess bravery said lidgate smiling But I acknowledge a good deal of pleasure in fighting and I should not care for my profession If I did not believe that better methods were to be found and enforced there as well as everywhere else The standard of that profession is low in middlemarch my dear sir said the banker I mean in knowledge and skill Not in social status for our medical men and most of them connected with respectable townspeople here So My own imperfect health has induced me to give some attention to those palliative resources Which the divine mercy has placed within our reach Now a point which I have much at heart to secure Is a new regulation as to clerical attendance at the old infirmary The building stands in mr.

Fairbrother's parish,

You know,

Mr.

Fairbrother I have seen him he gave me his vote.

I must call to thank him He seems a very bright pleasant little fellow and I understand he's a naturalist Mr.

Fairbrother,

My dear sir is a man deeply painful to contemplate I suppose there is not a clergyman in this country who has not greater talents Mr.

Bolstrode paused and looked meditative I've not yet been pained by finding any excessive talent in middlemarch said lidgate bluntly What I desire Mr.

Bolstrode continued looking still more serious Is that mr.

Fairbrother's attendance at the hospital should be superseded by the appointment of a chaplain?

And that no other spiritual aid should be called in Mr.

Tyke in fact Then at once mr.

Vinci was announced That florid sociable personage is becoming more interesting to him since he'd seen rosamond Not that like her he'd been weaving any future in which their lots were united But a man naturally remembers a charming girl with pleasure and is willing to dine where he may see her again Mr.

Bolstrode Finishing his sandwich had thrown himself back in his chair and shaded his eyes as if weary You had some particular business vinci Yes,

Yes the long and the short of it is someone has told old featherstone giving you as the authority bolstrode That fred has been borrowing or trying to borrow money on the prospect of his land Of course,

You never said any such nonsense But the old fellow will insist on it that fred should bring him a denial in your handwriting That is just a bit of a note saying you don't believe a word of it and such I suppose you can have no objection to do that Pardon me Said mr.

Bolstrode.

I have an objection I by no means sure your son in his recklessness and ignorance Has not tried to raise money by holding out his future prospects Or even that someone may not have been foolish enough to supply him on so vague a presumption But fred gives me his honor he's never borrowed money on the pretense of any understanding about his uncle's land He's not a liar.

I don't want to make him better than he is I've blown him up.

Well,

Nobody can say I wink at what he does But he's not a liar And I should have thought That there was no religion to hinder a man for believing the best of a young fellow When you don't know worse It seems to me it would be a poor sort of religion To put a spoke in his wheel by refusing to say you don't believe such harm of him as you've got no good reason to believe I'm not at all.

Sure.

I should be befriending your son By smoothing his way to the future possession of a featherstone's property said mr.

Bolstrode And he paused a little before he answered You do pain me very much by speaking in this way vinci I do not expect you to understand my grounds of action It's not an easy thing to thread a path for principles and intricacies of the world Still less to make the thread clear for the careless and the scoffing You must remember if you please I stretch my tolerance towards you as my wife's brother And that it little becomes you to complain of me as withholding material help towards the worldly possession of your family I must remind you.

It's not your own prudence or judgments that's enabled you to keep your place in the trade Very likely not said mr.

Vinci,

But you've been no loser by my trade yet And when you married Harriet,

I don't see how you could expect that our family should not hang by the same nail If you've changed your mind and want my family to come down in the world you better say so bolstrode I've never changed.

I'm a plain churchman now just as I used to be before doctrines came up I take the world as I find it in trade and everything else I'm contended to be no worse than my neighbors.

But if you want us to come down in the world say so I shall know better what to do then Mr.

Vinci began to button his greatcoat and look steadily at his brother-in-law Meaning to imply a demand for a decisive answer This was not the first time that mr.

Bolstrode had begun by admonishing.

Mr Vinci and ended up by seeing a very unsatisfactory reflection of himself in the course on flattering mirror It was not in mr.

Bolstrode's nature to comply directly in consequence of uncomfortable suggestions Before changing his course,

He always needed to shape his motives and bring them into accordance with his habitual standard So he said at last I will reflect a little Vinci.

I will mention the subject to Harriet.

I'll probably send you a letter Very well,

Said mr.

Vinci as soon as you can,

Please I hope it will all be settled Before I see you tomorrow