The Dangerous Power of Gossip — Middlemarch

News moves through Middlemarch like pollen on bees: thoughtless, effective, without intent. At Lowick Parsonage the ladies discuss Tantripp's report that Casaubon named Will Ladislaw in a codicil; Fred Vincy already knew and Camden Farebrother kept counsel. Fred cares little until, calling on Rosamond, he sees Will leaving and mentions the parsonage talk in passing.

Lydgate, who has long suspected a passionate attachment between Will and Dorothea and therefore avoided gossip, tells Rosamond not to drop a hint to Will because the affair is painful. She pats her hair with placid indifference, then uses Will's next visit to play the knowing hostess.

With arch work-basket comedy she cites a confidential bird, a powerful magnet, and the romantic codicil that would strip Dorothea of her property if she married Will. Will flushes, demands facts, learns the story from the Farebrothers through Fred, calls the clause a foul insult, and cries Never to marriage.

He leaves like a somnambulist while Rosamond, bored and jealous without real passion, leans on the chiffonniere and thinks there is nothing much to care for. Gossip here is not information; it is entertainment with casualties, and Rosamond's pretty malice lands where Lydgate begged her to be silent.