Middlemarch

Bulstrode's letter arrives the next morning, equivocal in its phrasing but sufficient for Fred's purpose. He rides to Stone Court and finds Featherstone propped up in bed. The old man reads the letter aloud with theatrical contempt — commenting on Bulstrode's fine legal language, his use of "accrue" and "demise" — and then hands it back. He makes Fred wait while he produces his tin box, and slowly counts out five twenty-pound notes. Fred tries to look indifferent. When Featherstone tells him to count them, Fred discovers they add up to only a hundred pounds — far less than his hopefulness had decided they must be. "The collapse for Fred was severe." He thanks his uncle with the most visible constraint, burns Bulstrode's letter in the fireplace, and escapes downstairs. Mary Garth is at her usual place by the fire, red-eyed from the morning's bullying. Fred is affectionately indignant on her behalf. They talk — about Mary's opinion of his idleness, about whether women love men for their goodness, about the literary heroines who have or have not fallen in love with men they have always known. Fred has grown in love with Mary since childhood, in spite of "that share in the higher education of this country which had exalted his views of rank and income." He pushes the point at last: "I never shall be good for anything, Mary, if you will not say that you love me—if you will not promise to marry me." Mary answers: "If I did love you, I would not marry you: I would certainly not promise ever to marry you." Her father's opinion is unambiguous — an idle man ought not to exist, much less be married. She tells Fred to pass his examination; the degree is disgracefully easy. Fred is stung, releases her hand, and takes his hat. At the door, she turns back: "Fred, you have always been so good, so generous to me. I am not ungrateful. But never speak to me in that way again." He rides home and gives four of the five twenties to his mother to keep safe from his own fingers — he means them for a debt. The debt is a hundred and sixty pounds, and the bill securing it was signed by Mary's father, Caleb Garth.