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“ Step into my carriage , ” said Mr . Brooke . “ I am going round to see Mrs . Casaubon . She was to come back from Yorkshire last night . She will like to see me , you know . ” So they drove along , Mr . Brooke chatting with good - natured hope that there had not really been anything black in Lydgate’s behavior — a young fellow whom he had seen to be quite above the common mark , when he brought a letter from his uncle Sir Godwin . Mr . Farebrother said little : he was deeply mournful : with a keen perception of human weakness , he could not be confident that under the pressure of humiliating needs Lydgate had not fallen below himself . When the carriage drove up to the gate of the Manor , Dorothea was out on the gravel , and came to greet them . “ Well , my dear , ” said Mr . Brooke , “ we have just come from a meeting — a sanitary meeting , you know . ” “ Was Mr . Lydgate there ? ” said Dorothea , who looked full of health and animation , and stood with her head bare under the gleaming April lights . “ I want to see him and have a great consultation with him about the Hospital . I have engaged with Mr . Bulstrode to do so . ” “ Oh , my dear , ” said Mr . Brooke , “ we have been hearing bad news — bad news , you know . ” They walked through the garden towards the churchyard gate , Mr . Farebrother wanting to go on to the parsonage ; and Dorothea heard the whole sad story . She listened with deep interest , and begged to hear twice over the facts and impressions concerning Lydgate . After a short silence , pausing at the churchyard gate , and addressing Mr . Farebrother , she said energetically — “ You don’t believe that Mr . Lydgate is guilty of anything base ? I will not believe it . Let us find out the truth and clear him ! ” BOOK VIII . SUNSET AND SUNRISE . CHAPTER LXXII . Full souls are double mirrors , making still An endless vista of fair things before , Repeating things behind . Dorothea’s impetuous generosity , which would have leaped at once to the vindication of Lydgate from the suspicion of having accepted money as a bribe , underwent a melancholy check when she came to consider all the circumstances of the case by the light of Mr . Farebrother’s experience . “ It is a delicate matter to touch , ” he said . “ How can we begin to inquire into it ? It must be either publicly by setting the magistrate and coroner to work , or privately by questioning Lydgate . As to the first proceeding there is no solid ground to go upon , else Hawley would have adopted it ; and as to opening the subject with Lydgate , I confess I should shrink from it . He would probably take it as a deadly insult . I have more than once experienced the difficulty of speaking to him on personal matters . And — one should know the truth about his conduct beforehand , to feel very confident of a good result . ”
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