Since Lydgate is in debt he needs to find a way out of debt without selling anything that he gave to Rosamond. Finally Lydgate thinks he has the perfect idea. Lydgate is going to sell his house with all the furniture and he and Rosamond can live in a smaller house that may not be as nice, but still comfortable. Lydgate refuses to ask for help, because he does not want to be a beggar or have a bad reputation. Lydgate also believes that Rosamond loves him so much they will be fine as long as they are together and she will not mind a smaller house. What Lydgate did not expect was Rosamond’s vanity to try and derail all of Lydgate’s plans.

Rosamond did not want to live in a smaller or sell her beautiful home. So she decides to take matters into her small little delicate hands. The first thing she does is she goes straight to her papa and asks for money. Lydgate specifically told her, “do not ask for money from your father”. Rosamond thinking she is her parents’ favorite child and asks. Mr. Vincy for money. Mr. Vincy tells her to leave and seems to find it funny that the man he did not want Rosamond to marry is in debt and has to find a way out of it, since Rosamond wanted to marry Lydgate thinking she would be set for life. Rosamond also tries to tell Lydgate to ask for a salary for his work at the hospital from Bulstrode. Lydgate’s work at the hospital was meant to be volunteer work. Rosamond also says that Lydgate could dismiss the servants, but makes it sound like she would never want to live in a house where they don’t have servants.

Since that plan failed she goes to Mr. Trumball whom Lydgate had gone to earlier that same day to tell him that their house is not for sale which is a contradiction to what Lydgate had said earlier that day. She also tells Mr. Trumball not to tell Mr. Lydgate of the plan. In Rosamond’s mind she gets to keep her house and Lydgate could find some other way to make some money. She just wants to keep her beautiful house and her furniture. However this causes problems since the debt collectors come to the Lydgate’s house and start seeing what they could make money with. The debt is also no small debt. The Lydgates are 1,000 pounds in debt.

Lydgate becomes so desperate to keep his problems as secret as possible that he goes to the Green Dragon. The Green Dragon is the only club in Middlemarch. It has billiards and you can gamble at billiards and that is exactly what Lydgate does to try and earn some money to pay off his debt. Lydgate is unable to make the amount of money he needed and sees Fred and feels a bit embarrassed.

Fred still does not want to go into the church and is actually enjoying his work with Mr. Garth as a land agent. Mrs. Vincy is actually okay with seeing Mary as a daughter in- law when she sees how well Mary interacts with children at the Vincy Christmas party. There is just one problem. The vicar Mr. Farebrother is also in love with Mary. I don’t think that is really going to go anywhere though. The reason being Mary won’t marry Fred if he goes into the church so why would she marry a vicar.

Julia Rogan