Speaker 1: Chapter seventy nine. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
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Speaker 1: Now I saw in my dream that just as they
Speaker 1: had entered their talk, they drew nigh to a very
Speaker 1: miry slew that was in the midst of the plain,
Speaker 1: and they, being heedless, did both fall suddenly into the bog.
Speaker 1: The name of the slough was Despond Bunyan. When Rosamond
Speaker 1: was quiet and Lydgate had left her, hoping that she
Speaker 1: might soon sleep under the effect of an anodyne, he
Speaker 1: went into the drawing room to fetch a book, which
Speaker 1: he had left there meaning to spend the evening in
Speaker 1: his work room, and he saw on the table Dorothea's
Speaker 1: letter addressed to him. He had not ventured to ask
Speaker 1: Rosamond if Missus Casubon had called, but the reading of
Speaker 1: this letter assured him of the fact, for Dorothia mentioned
Speaker 1: that it was to be carried by herself. When will
Speaker 1: Ladislaw came in a little later, Lydgate met him with
Speaker 1: a surprise which made it clear that he had not
Speaker 1: been told of the earlier visit, and Will could not say,
Speaker 1: did not missus, Lydgate tell you that I came this morning?
Speaker 1: Poor Osmond is ill, Lydgate added immediately on his greeting.
Speaker 1: Not seriously, I hope, said Will. No, only a slight
Speaker 1: nervous shock, the effect of some agitation. She has been
Speaker 1: overwrought lately. The truth is, Ladislaw, that I am an
Speaker 1: unlucky devil. We have gone through several rounds of purgatory
Speaker 1: since you left. I have lately got on to a
Speaker 1: worse leisure of it than ever. I suppose you're only
Speaker 1: just come down. You look rather battered. You have not
Speaker 1: been long enough in the town to hear anything. I
Speaker 1: traveled all night and got to the White Heart at
Speaker 1: eight o'clock this morning. I have been shutting myself up
Speaker 1: then resting, said Will, feeling himself a sneak, but seeing
Speaker 1: no alternative to this evasion. And then he heard Lydgate's
Speaker 1: account of the troubles, which Rosamond had already depicted to
Speaker 1: him in her way. She had not mentioned the fact
Speaker 1: of Will's name being connected with the public story, detail
Speaker 1: not immediately affecting her, and he now heard it for
Speaker 1: the first time, I thought it better to tell you
Speaker 1: that her name is mixed up with the disclosures, said Lydgate,
Speaker 1: who could understand better than most men how Ladislaw might
Speaker 1: be stung by the revelation. You will be sure to
Speaker 1: hear it as soon as you turn out into the town.
Speaker 1: I suppose it is true that Raffles spoke to you, yes,
Speaker 1: said Will sardonically. I shall be fortunate if gossip does
Speaker 1: not make me the most disruputible person in the whole affair.
Speaker 1: I should think the latest version must be that I
Speaker 1: plotted with Raffles to murder Bulstrode and ran away from
Speaker 1: Little March for the purpose. He was thinking, here is
Speaker 1: another new ring in the sound of my name, to
Speaker 1: recommend it to her hearing. However, what does it signify now?
Speaker 1: But he said nothing of Bulstrode's offer to him. Will
Speaker 1: was very open and careless about his personal affairs. But
Speaker 1: it was among the more exquisite touches in Nature's modeling
Speaker 1: of him that he had a delicate generosity which warned
Speaker 1: him into reticence. Here he shrank from saying that he
Speaker 1: had rejected Bolstrode's money. In the moment when he was
Speaker 1: learning that it was Lydgate's misfortune to have accepted it. Lydgate,
Speaker 1: too was reticent. In the midst of his confidence. He
Speaker 1: made no allusion to Rosamond's feeling under their trouble, and
Speaker 1: of Dorothea. He only said, Missus Casaubon has been the
Speaker 1: one person to come forward and say she had no
Speaker 1: belief in any of the suspicions against me. Observing a
Speaker 1: change in Will's face, he avoided any further mention of her,
Speaker 1: feeling himself too ignorant of their relation to each other
Speaker 1: not to fear that his words might have some hidden,
Speaker 1: painful bearing on it. And it occurred to him that
Speaker 1: Dorothea was the real cause of the present visit to Middlemarch.
Speaker 1: The two men were pitying each other, but it was
Speaker 1: only Will who guessed the extent of his companion's trouble.
Speaker 1: When Lydgate spoke with desperate resignation of going to settle
Speaker 1: in London and said, with a faint smile, we shall
Speaker 1: have your gain, old fellow, Will felt inexpressibly mournful and
Speaker 1: said nothing. Rosamond had that morning entreated him to urge
Speaker 1: this step on Lydgate, and it seemed to him as
Speaker 1: if he were beholding in a magic panorama a future
Speaker 1: where he himself was sliding into that pleasureless yielding to
Speaker 1: the small solicitations of circumstance, which is a commoner history
Speaker 1: of perdition than any single momentous bargain. We are on
Speaker 1: a perilous margin when we begin to look passively at
Speaker 1: our future selves and see our own figures led with
Speaker 1: dull consent into insipid misdoing and shabby achievement. Poor Lydgate
Speaker 1: was inwardly groaning on that margin, and will was arriving
Speaker 1: at it. It seemed to him this evening as if
Speaker 1: the cruelty of his outburst to Rosamond had made an
Speaker 1: obligation for him, and he dreaded the obligation. He dreaded
Speaker 1: Lydgate's unsuspecting good will. He dreaded his own distaste for
Speaker 1: his spoiled life, which would leave him in motive little levity.
Speaker 1: End of Chapter seventy nine