It's literally the middle of March (see what I did there?), and it's a Saturday. You know that that means! Book time! I'm all caught up and ready to talk about chapters 15 and 16.

Summary

Chapter 15

"Black eyes you have left, yous

Blue eyes fail to draw you;

Yet you seem more rapt to-day,

Than of old we say you.

Oh I track the fairest fair

Through new haunts of pleasure;

Footprints her and echoes there

Guide me to my treasure:

Lo! she turns– immortal youth

Wrought to mortal stature,

Fresh as starlight's aged truth–

Many-named Nature!"

Dr Tertius Lydgate is aged 27 and popular with lady patients because of his skill. He was orphaned before he started med school. As a child he read any and all books– even the dictionary. He read a passage about the heart and its valves from a “cyclopedia” and was hooked on anatomy. Medicine was his calling from them on.

He was unimpressed by quacks and pill-pushers. Lydgate wished to make great discoveries like Edward Jenner and vaccinations. A new law said doctors can't charge for prescriptions. He might be smart in medical matters, but not so when it came to matters of love. It was implied by his thoughts and actions that he was better than everyone else.

When he was in Paris, he took a break from studying galvanism to see a play. Lydgate became besotted with the actress Madame Laure. She stabbed her real husband for real on stage. She said her foot slipped, and was found innocent. Lydgate tracked her down in Avignon where she performed and professed his love for her. She confessed that she had meant to kill her husband and wouldn't marry again. Fortunately, no one in Middlemarch knew of his past and were fine with how he presently appeared.

Chapter 16

“All that in women is adored

In the fair self I find–

For the whole sex can but afford

The handsome and the kind.”

– Sir Charles Sedley

Banker Mr Bulstrode runs the town and has his hands in many people's affairs. Mr Tyke is nominated to be hospital chaplain. At a dinner party, Mr Vincy says he prefers Mr Farebrother over Tyke. It will be up to the doctors to decide.

The doctors argue over what a coroner's purpose should be. Lydgate notices Rosamond Vincy, the daughter of the hosts. She was to sing that night and took over playing piano from Fred. She can play and sing passably. Mr Farebrother comes in and plays whist.

Lydgate admires Rosamond, but it's not an infatuation. She is an ideal kind of woman for him to marry, but not yet. At home, he read higher things like a book on typhoid fever by former colleague Pierre Charles Louis. He is proud of himself that he picked such a pleasant profession.

Rosamond assumes Lydgate is in love with her as most men of his kind would be. His prospects are good, and she could live the posh lifestyle she so envies in the Brookes. She continues her refined hobbies. Her aunt Bulstrode hopes she marries well.

The schedule.

Ta-ta until next week when u/mustardgoeswithitall takes over for Chapters 17 and 18.