twelve o'clock
Since the Act of Parliament , which had been hurriedly passed , authorizing assessments for sanitary measures , there had been a Board for the superintendence of such measures appointed in Middlemarch , and much cleansing and preparation had been concurred in by Whigs and Tories . The question now was , whether a piece of ground outside the town should be secured as a burial-ground by means of assessment or by private subscription . The meeting was to be open , and almost everybody of importance in the town was expected to be there . Mr. Bulstrode was a member of the Board , and just before twelve o'clock he started from the Bank with the intention of urging the plan of private subscription . Under the hesitation of his projects , he had for some time kept himself in the background , and he felt that he should this morning resume his old position as a man of action and influence in the public affairs of the town where he expected to end his days . Among the various persons going in the same direction , he saw Lydgate ; they joined , talked over the object of the meeting , and entered it together . It seemed that everybody of mark had been earlier than they .