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Lydgate too was reticent in the midst of his confidence . He made no allusion to Rosamond’s feeling under their trouble , and of Dorothea he only said , “ Mrs . Casaubon has been the one person to come forward and say that she had no belief in any of the suspicions against me . ” Observing a change in Will’s face , he avoided any further mention of her , feeling himself too ignorant of their relation to each other not to fear that his words might have some hidden painful bearing on it . And it occurred to him that Dorothea was the real cause of the present visit to Middlemarch . The two men were pitying each other , but it was only Will who guessed the extent of his companion’s trouble . When Lydgate spoke with desperate resignation of going to settle in London , and said with a faint smile , “ We shall have you again , old fellow , ” Will felt inexpressibly mournful , and said nothing . Rosamond had that morning entreated him to urge this step on Lydgate ; and it seemed to him as if he were beholding in a magic panorama a future where he himself was sliding into that pleasureless yielding to the small solicitations of circumstance , which is a commoner history of perdition than any single momentous bargain . We are on a perilous margin when we begin to look passively at our future selves , and see our own figures led with dull consent into insipid misdoing and shabby achievement . Poor Lydgate was inwardly groaning on that margin , and Will was arriving at it . It seemed to him this evening as if the cruelty of his outburst to Rosamond had made an obligation for him , and he dreaded the obligation : he dreaded Lydgate’s unsuspecting good - will : he dreaded his own distaste for his spoiled life , which would leave him in motiveless levity . CHAPTER LXXX . Stern lawgiver ! yet thou dost wear The Godhead’s most benignant grace ; Nor know we anything so fair As is the smile upon thy face ; Flowers laugh before thee on their beds , And fragrance in thy footing treads ; Thou dost preserve the Stars from wrong ; And the most ancient Heavens , through thee , are fresh and strong . — WORDSWORTH : Ode to Duty . When Dorothea had seen Mr . Farebrother in the morning , she had promised to go and dine at the parsonage on her return from Freshitt . There was a frequent interchange of visits between her and the Farebrother family , which enabled her to say that she was not at all lonely at the Manor , and to resist for the present the severe prescription of a lady companion . When she reached home and remembered her engagement , she was glad of it ; and finding that she had still an hour before she could dress for dinner , she walked straight to the schoolhouse and entered into a conversation with the master and mistress about the new bell , giving eager attention to their small details and repetitions , and getting up a dramatic sense that her life was very busy .
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