- Lydgate goes to Lowick Manor, at Dorothea's request, to discuss the new hospital with her.
- When he arrives, he tells her not to count on him for his continued help or advice at the hospital, because he might have to leave town.
- Dorothea immediately tells him that she has never believed the gossip about him, and asks him to tell her everything so that she can help to vindicate him.
- Lydgate feels oddly comforted. It's the first time anyone has told him that they believed in him.
- So he tells her the whole story, up to and including the fact that the housekeeper had given Raffles brandy against his orders.
- But any other doctor in town would have given brandy as well as opium, so that's not evidence against him. It's that Bulstrode gave him a lot of money right before the guy died – it just looks bad.
- She offers to give him the money to repay Bulstrode, and also to take over funding the hospital on a larger scale than Bulstrode had.
- Her offer would make it possible for him to stay in Middlemarch and to clear his good name.
- Lydgate is so encouraged by her generosity and openness that he decides to tell her about his problems with Rosamond, too.
- Rosamond, he says, is dead set against staying in Middlemarch.
- He adds that she doesn't believe in him, but says that it's his fault for not being open enough with her.
- Dorothea offers to go and see her, and reassure her that her husband still has friends and supporters in the town.