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CHAPTER LXIV
1st Gent. Where lies the power, there let the blame lie too.
2d Gent. Nay, power is relative; you cannot fright
The coming pest with border fortresses,
Or catch your carp with subtle argument.
All force is twain in one: cause is not cause
Unless effect be there; and action’s self
Must needs contain a passive. So command
Exists but with obedience.’
E
ven if Lydgate had been inclined to be quite open about
his affairs, he knew that it would have hardly been in Mr.
Farebrother’s power to give him the help he immediately
wanted. With the year’s bills coming in from his tradesmen,
with Dover’s threatening hold on his furniture, and with
nothing to depend on but slow dribbling payments from
patients who must not be offended—for the handsome fees
he had had from Freshitt Hall and Lowick Manor had been
easily absorbed—nothing less than a thousand pounds
would have freed him from actual embarrassment, and left
a residue which, according to the favorite phrase of hope-
fulness in such circumstances, would have given him ‘time
to look about him.’
Naturally, the merry Christmas bringing the happy New
