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If he did not come soon she thought that she would go down and even risk incurring another pang . She would never again expect anything else . But she did hear the library door open , and slowly the light advanced up the staircase without noise from the footsteps on the carpet . When her husband stood opposite to her , she saw that his face was more haggard . He started slightly on seeing her , and she looked up at him beseechingly , without speaking . “ Dorothea ! ” he said , with a gentle surprise in his tone . “ Were you waiting for me ? ” “ Yes , I did not like to disturb you . ” “ Come , my dear , come . You are young , and need not to extend your life by watching . ” When the kind quiet melancholy of that speech fell on Dorothea’s ears , she felt something like the thankfulness that might well up in us if we had narrowly escaped hurting a lamed creature . She put her hand into her husband’s , and they went along the broad corridor together . BOOK V . THE DEAD HAND . CHAPTER XLIII . “ This figure hath high price : ’ t was wrought with love Ages ago in finest ivory ; Nought modish in it , pure and noble lines Of generous womanhood that fits all time That too is costly ware ; majolica Of deft design , to please a lordly eye : The smile , you see , is perfect — wonderful As mere Faience ! a table ornament To suit the richest mounting . ” Dorothea seldom left home without her husband , but she did occasionally drive into Middlemarch alone , on little errands of shopping or charity such as occur to every lady of any wealth when she lives within three miles of a town . Two days after that scene in the Yew - tree Walk , she determined to use such an opportunity in order if possible to see Lydgate , and learn from him whether her husband had really felt any depressing change of symptoms which he was concealing from her , and whether he had insisted on knowing the utmost about himself . She felt almost guilty in asking for knowledge about him from another , but the dread of being without it — the dread of that ignorance which would make her unjust or hard — overcame every scruple . That there had been some crisis in her husband’s mind she was certain : he had the very next day begun a new method of arranging his notes , and had associated her quite newly in carrying out his plan . Poor Dorothea needed to lay up stores of patience . It was about four o’clock when she drove to Lydgate’s house in Lowick Gate , wishing , in her immediate doubt of finding him at home , that she had written beforehand . And he was not at home . “ Is Mrs . Lydgate at home ? ” said Dorothea , who had never , that she knew of , seen Rosamond , but now remembered the fact of the marriage . Yes , Mrs . Lydgate was at home . “ I will go in and speak to her , if she will allow me . Will you ask her if she can see me — see Mrs . Casaubon , for a few minutes ? ”
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