CHAPTER XVI––––––––
"All that in woman is adored
In thy fair self I find—
For the whole s*x can but afford
The handsome and the kind."
—SIR CHARLES SEDLEY.
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The question whether Mr. Tyke should be appointed as salaried chaplain to the hospital was an exciting topic to the Middlemarchers; and Lydgate heard it discussed in a way that threw much light on the power exercised in the town by Mr. Bulstrode. The banker was evidently a ruler, but there was an opposition party, and even among his supporters there were some who allowed it to be seen that their support was a compromise, and who frankly stated their impression that the general scheme of things, and especially the casualties of trade, required you to hold a candle to the devil.
Mr. Bulstrode's power was not due simply to
