Page 842 - middlemarch

Having no money, and having privately sought advice
as to what security could possibly be given by a man in his
position, Lydgate had offered the one good security in his
power to the less peremptory creditor, who was a silver-
smith and jeweller, and who consented to take on himself
the upholsterer’s credit also, accepting interest for a given
term. The security necessary was a bill of sale on the fur-
niture of his house, which might make a creditor easy for
a reasonable time about a debt amounting to less than four
hundred pounds; and the silversmith, Mr. Dover, was will-
ing to reduce it by taking back a portion of the plate and any
other article which was as good as new. ‘Any other article’
was a phrase delicately implying jewellery, and more partic-
ularly some purple amethysts costing thirty pounds, which
Lydgate had bought as a bridal present.
Opinions may be divided as to his wisdom in making
this present: some may think that it was a graceful atten-
tion to be expected from a man like Lydgate, and that the
fault of any troublesome consequences lay in the pinched
narrowness of provincial life at that time, which offered no
conveniences for professional people whose fortune was not
proportioned to their tastes; also, in Lydgate’s ridiculous
fastidiousness about asking his friends for money.
However, it had seemed a question of no moment to him
on that fine morning when he went to give a final order for
plate: in the presence of other jewels enormously expen-
sive, and as an addition to orders of which the amount had
not been exactly calculated, thirty pounds for ornaments
so exquisitely suited to Rosamond’s neck and arms could

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