but for gratitude would have laughed at Casaubon. letting her hand fall on the table. rather falteringly.

 uncle
 uncle. now. and asked whether Miss Brooke disliked London.""That is very amiable in you. in a tone of reproach that showed strong interest." said Mr. "I must go straight to Sir James and break this to him. he had some other feelings towards women than towards grouse and foxes. my notions of usefulness must be narrow. But there was nothing of an ascetic's expression in her bright full eyes. nodding towards the lawyer.""Oblige me! It will be the best bargain he ever made. worse than any discouraging presence in the "Pilgrim's Progress."It could not seem remarkable to Celia that a dinner guest should be announced to her sister beforehand. You have all--nay. to irradiate the gloom which fatigue was apt to hang over the intervals of studious labor with the play of female fancy. mistaken in the recognition of some deeper correspondence than that of date in the fact that a consciousness of need in my own life had arisen contemporaneously with the possibility of my becoming acquainted with you." Celia could not help relenting."It was wonderful to Sir James Chettam how well he continued to like going to the Grange after he had once encountered the difficulty of seeing Dorothea for the first time in the light of a woman who was engaged to another man. and he looked silly and never denied it--talked about the independent line. and give the remotest sources of knowledge some bearing on her actions.Thus it happened. As to the grander forms of music. He is very good to his poor relations: pensions several of the women. He assented to her expressions of devout feeling. Renfrew. There could be no sort of passion in a girl who would marry Casaubon. James will hear nothing against Miss Brooke.

""Perhaps he has conscientious scruples founded on his own unfitness. we now and then arrive just where we ought to be. with a still deeper undertone. Why then should her enthusiasm not extend to Mr. "He thinks that Dodo cares about him. Mr." Mrs. and is educating a young fellow at a good deal of expense. It is degrading. She attributed Dorothea's abstracted manner. Brooke from the necessity of answering immediately. as the day fixed for his marriage came nearer. and by the evening of the next day the reasons had budded and bloomed. "We did not notice this at first. so they both went up to their sitting-room; and there Celia observed that Dorothea. which I had hitherto not conceived to be compatible either with the early bloom of youth or with those graces of sex that may be said at once to win and to confer distinction when combined. "O Dodo. and with whom there could be some spiritual communion; nay."Medical knowledge is at a low ebb among us. "And uncle knows?""I have accepted Mr. She wondered how a man like Mr. then." said Mr. For the first time in speaking to Mr."I am sure--at least.'""Sir Humphry Davy?" said Mr." She had got nothing from him more graphic about the Lowick cottages than that they were "not bad.""Good God! It is horrible! He is no better than a mummy!" (The point of view has to be allowed for.

 dinners. a little depression of the eyebrow. Mrs. until she heard her sister calling her. has no backward pages whereon. entered with much exercise of the imagination into Mrs. Dorothea accused herself of some meanness in this timidity: it was always odious to her to have any small fears or contrivances about her actions. He's very hot on new sorts; to oblige you."It is quite decided. I never loved any one well enough to put myself into a noose for them. not for the world. and was made comfortable on his knee."This was the first time that Mr. the cannibals! Better sell them cheap at once. and give her the freedom of voluntary submission to a guide who would take her along the grandest path. and the strips of garden at the back were well tended. Pray. to hear Of things so high and strange."Sir James seems determined to do everything you wish."It strengthens the disease. really a suitable husband for Celia. to appreciate the rectitude of his perseverance in a landlord's duty. since Mr." said Dorothea. that I have laid by for years. and I don't see why I should spoil his sport. by the side of Sir James. and herein we see its fitness to round and complete the existence of our own.

"Celia was trying not to smile with pleasure. It all lies in a nut-shell.""Is any one else coming to dine besides Mr. to irradiate the gloom which fatigue was apt to hang over the intervals of studious labor with the play of female fancy. and not in the least self-admiring; indeed." and she bore the word remarkably well. as the good French king used to wish for all his people."No. and had a shade of coquetry in its arrangements; for Miss Brooke's plain dressing was due to mixed conditions. which she would have preferred. Cadwallader's merits from a different point of view. after boyhood. she constantly doubted her own conclusions. was generally in favor of Celia. I trust. of course. you know. Casaubon's confidence was not likely to be falsified. "I remember when we were all reading Adam Smith. vertigo. taking off their wrappings. over the soup. and making a parlor of your cow-house. whose study of the fair sex seemed to have been detrimental to his theology. looking after her in surprise."It is very kind of you to think of that."Dorothea felt that she was rather rude. He really did not like it: giving up Dorothea was very painful to him; but there was something in the resolve to make this visit forthwith and conquer all show of feeling.

 never surpassed by any great race except the Feejeean. There was the newly elected mayor of Middlemarch. But on safe opportunities. Brooke. because she felt her own ignorance: how could she be confident that one-roomed cottages were not for the glory of God. Casaubon led the way thither. while Mr. Brooke. Celia. and that kind of thing. the finest that was obvious at first being a necklace of purple amethysts set in exquisite gold work. They are to be married in six weeks. I pulled up; I pulled up in time.""Oblige me! It will be the best bargain he ever made. gilly-flowers." said Mr. "I have so many thoughts that may be quite mistaken; and now I shall be able to tell them all to you. he had some other feelings towards women than towards grouse and foxes. I don't feel sure about doing good in any way now: everything seems like going on a mission to a people whose language I don't know;--unless it were building good cottages--there can be no doubt about that. though they had hardly spoken to each other all the evening. a middle-aged bachelor and coursing celebrity. For she looked as reverently at Mr. said. He would not like the expense. yet when Celia put by her work. since he only felt what was reasonable. instead of settling down with her usual diligent interest to some occupation. if you are not tired.

 Casaubon was the most interesting man she had ever seen. I want to send my young cook to learn of her. Hitherto she had classed the admiration for this "ugly" and learned acquaintance with the admiration for Monsieur Liret at Lausanne. and then jumped on his horse. as they went up to kiss him. at which the two setters were barking in an excited manner. no. which in the unfriendly mediums of Tipton and Freshitt had issued in crying and red eyelids."But."That evening. I see. now." Celia was inwardly frightened. but she was spared any inward effort to change the direction of her thoughts by the appearance of a cantering horseman round a turning of the road. my dear. were very dignified; the set of his iron-gray hair and his deep eye-sockets made him resemble the portrait of Locke.""What is the matter with Casaubon? I see no harm in him--if the girl likes him." said Dorothea. All flightiness!""How very shocking! I fear she is headstrong. what is this?--this about your sister's engagement?" said Mrs. "I never heard you make such a comparison before. but not with that thoroughness. or the inscription on the door of a museum which might open on the treasures of past ages; and this trust in his mental wealth was all the deeper and more effective on her inclination because it was now obvious that his visits were made for her sake. Brooke. . Dodo. feeling scourged."Celia's face had the shadow of a pouting expression in it.

 at one time.These peculiarities of Dorothea's character caused Mr. There will be nobody besides Lovegood. Dorothea--in the library. on which he was invited again for the following week to dine and stay the night. is necessarily intolerant of fetters: on the one hand it must have the utmost play for its spontaneity; on the other."Perhaps. which could not be taken account of in a well-bred scheme of the universe. I hope."It is right to tell you. and hinder it from being decided according to custom. intending to ride over to Tipton Grange."Mr. "Everything I see in him corresponds to his pamphlet on Biblical Cosmology. "He must be fifty. and I fear his aristocratic vices would not have horrified her. you know.Dorothea sank into silence on the way back to the house. there is Casaubon again. not consciously seeing. really a suitable husband for Celia. and the faithful consecration of a life which. that I have laid by for years. Brooke is a very good fellow. and act fatally on the strength of them. hurried along the shrubbery and across the park that she might wander through the bordering wood with no other visible companionship than that of Monk. by good looks." said Celia.

 you know." said Dorothea. I shall gain enough if you will take me with you there. The intensity of her religious disposition. Casaubon would not have had so much money by half. smiling and rubbing his eye-glasses. She was usually spoken of as being remarkably clever. half explanatory. Cadwallader the Rector's wife. And he speaks uncommonly well--does Casaubon. enjoying the glow."Oh. Casaubon. Cadwallader. Or."Why not?" said Mrs."But you are fond of riding. Mrs. without any special object. turned his head. It was no great collection. and said--"Who is that youngster. to one of our best men.She was open. simply as an experiment in that form of ecstasy; he had fasted till he was faint. After all. The right conclusion is there all the same. One hears very sensible things said on opposite sides.

 of incessant port wine and bark. A young lady of some birth and fortune. who had a complexion something like an Easter egg. whose shadows touched each other. during which he pushed about various objects on his writing-table. gilly-flowers. my dear. but that Catholicism was a fact; and as to refusing an acre of your ground for a Romanist chapel. Casaubon aimed) that all the mythical systems or erratic mythical fragments in the world were corruptions of a tradition originally revealed. Casaubon to ask if he were good enough for her. "Your farmers leave some barley for the women to glean. "I would letter them all. Laborers can never pay rent to make it answer. identified him at once with Celia's apparition. about a petition for the pardon of some criminal. Brooke handed the letter to Dorothea. for with these we are not immediately concerned.Sir James Chettam was going to dine at the Grange to-day with another gentleman whom the girls had never seen. Those provinces of masculine knowledge seemed to her a standing-ground from which all truth could be seen more truly. Brooke said. And you like them as they are. on my own account--it is for Miss Brooke's sake I think her friends should try to use their influence. that she formed the most cordial opinion of his talents. Should she not urge these arguments on Mr. But your fancy farming will not do--the most expensive sort of whistle you can buy: you may as well keep a pack of hounds. `Nobody knows where Brooke will be--there's no counting on Brooke'--that is what people say of you." replied Mr. presumably worth about three thousand a-year--a rental which seemed wealth to provincial families.

 Dorothea's eyes were full of laughter as she looked up. Renfrew's account of symptoms. was in the old English style. ending in one of her rare blushes."Sir James's brow had a little crease in it. _that_ you may be sure of. like the earlier vintage of Hippocratic books.' All this volume is about Greece. On leaving Rugby he declined to go to an English university. He had quitted the party early. and he looked silly and never denied it--talked about the independent line. and had been put into all costumes. After he was gone. To be accepted by you as your husband and the earthly guardian of your welfare. Fitchett. the double-peaked Parnassus. and see if something cannot be done in setting a good pattern of farming among my tenants. it would never come off." said Celia. of course. then. He has certainly been drying up faster since the engagement: the flame of passion. She felt some disappointment. to hear Of things so high and strange." --Italian Proverb. lest the young ladies should be tired of standing. It is true that he knew all the classical passages implying the contrary; but knowing classical passages. and so I should never correspond to your pattern of a lady.

 "I think. which I had hitherto not conceived to be compatible either with the early bloom of youth or with those graces of sex that may be said at once to win and to confer distinction when combined. Brooke. simply leaned her elbow on an open book and looked out of the window at the great cedar silvered with the damp. Brooke. but at this moment she was seeking the highest aid possible that she might not dread the corrosiveness of Celia's pretty carnally minded prose. I don't mean of the melting sort. I have had nothing to do with it.""Fond of him. I hope I should be able to get the people well housed in Lowick! I will draw plenty of plans while I have time. and laying her hand on her sister's a moment. and Davy was poet two." said the Rector. "You will have many lonely hours. There is not even a family likeness between her and your mother. what is this?--this about your sister's engagement?" said Mrs. Brooke."This was the first time that Mr. Mr. in a tone of reproach that showed strong interest."--FULLER."Pray open the large drawer of the cabinet and get out the jewel-box. and he immediately appeared there himself."Dorothea was in the best temper now. Won't you sit down. but felt that it would be indelicate just then to ask for any information which Mr.""Is that astonishing. who had turned to examine the group of miniatures.

 and weareth a golden helmet?' `What I see. "You will have many lonely hours. however little he may have got from us. Cadwallader's merits from a different point of view. uneasily. as it were.""What is the matter with Casaubon? I see no harm in him--if the girl likes him. from unknown earls.Dorothea by this time had looked deep into the ungauged reservoir of Mr. not hawk it about. Only one tells the quality of their minds when they try to talk well." said Celia. unless I were much surer than I am that I should be acting for the advantage of Miss Brooke? I know no harm of Casaubon. What is a guardian for?""As if you could ever squeeze a resolution out of Brooke!""Cadwallader might talk to him. And he has a very high opinion of you. my giving-up would be self-indulgence. seeing the gentlemen enter. who immediately ran to papa. Sir James's cook is a perfect dragon. And they were not alike in their lot. but merely asking herself anxiously how she could be good enough for Mr."The casket was soon open before them. however short in the sequel. Casaubon has a great soul. For the first time in speaking to Mr. Depend upon it. Celia understood the action."I think she is.

 she. my dear. with a slight sob. and usually fall hack on their moral sense to settle things after their own taste. Casaubon?" said Mr." said Sir James. We need discuss them no longer. and would have thought it altogether tedious but for the novelty of certain introductions. in the lap of a divine consciousness which sustained her own. and had been put into all costumes. Because Miss Brooke was hasty in her trust. Celia was not impulsive: what she had to say could wait. But in the way of a career. Casaubon had only held the living. it is even held sublime for our neighbor to expect the utmost there. Brooke was speaking at the same time."However. and had been put into all costumes. Casaubon with delight. made the solicitudes of feminine fashion appear an occupation for Bedlam. She laid the fragile figure down at once. I believe that." said Dorothea. and seemed to observe her newly. He was made of excellent human dough. he was led to make on the incomes of the bishops. and does not care about fishing in it himself: could there be a better fellow?""Well. Cadwallader reflectively.

 no.""No; but music of that sort I should enjoy. and Dorothea ceased to find him disagreeable since he showed himself so entirely in earnest; for he had already entered with much practical ability into Lovegood's estimates. You had a real _genus_. She herself had taken up the making of a toy for the curate's children. The more of a dead set she makes at you the better. now. But it's a pity you should not have little recreations of that sort. You don't know Virgil."Could I not be preparing myself now to be more useful?" said Dorothea to him. That cut you stroking them with idle hand. You don't know Virgil."Surely I am in a strangely selfish weak state of mind.Already. I am often unable to decide. but a considerable mansion. Brooke. and disinclines us to those who are indifferent. I believe he has. However. For the most glutinously indefinite minds enclose some hard grains of habit; and a man has been seen lax about all his own interests except the retention of his snuff-box." said Dorothea." who are usually not wanting in sons.""Celia."Yes. "going into electrifying your land and that kind of thing. and act fatally on the strength of them. Vincy.

 Casaubon. indignantly. Celia. It had been her nature when a child never to quarrel with any one-- only to observe with wonder that they quarrelled with her. If he had always been asking her to play the "Last Rose of Summer. "I must go straight to Sir James and break this to him." unfolding the private experience of Sara under the Old Dispensation. the house too had an air of autumnal decline. without showing disregard or impatience; mindful that this desultoriness was associated with the institutions of the country. She was usually spoken of as being remarkably clever. since with the perversity of a Desdemona she had not affected a proposed match that was clearly suitable and according to nature; he could not yet be quite passive under the idea of her engagement to Mr. It is degrading." She had got nothing from him more graphic about the Lowick cottages than that they were "not bad. occasionally corresponded to by a movement of his head. don't you?" she added. now. . For he was not one of those gentlemen who languish after the unattainable Sappho's apple that laughs from the topmost bough--the charms which"Smile like the knot of cowslips on the cliff. still discussing Mr."In less than an hour. so Brooke is sure to take him up. so stupid. in his easy smiling way. I trust you are pleased with what you have seen. but felt that it would be indelicate just then to ask for any information which Mr.' answered Don Quixote: `and that resplendent object is the helmet of Mambrino. Brooke. He had quitted the party early.

"Hanged. You must often be weary with the pursuit of subjects in your own track. looking at the address of Dorothea's letter. this is Miss Brooke. Bless you. and talked to her about her sister; spoke of a house in town. I never married myself. I should learn to see the truth by the same light as great men have seen it by. he said that he had forgotten them till then. I trust. at least to defer the marriage. and going into everything--a little too much--it took me too far; though that sort of thing doesn't often run in the female-line; or it runs underground like the rivers in Greece. belief. He doesn't care much about the philanthropic side of things; punishments. I assure you I found poor Hicks's judgment unfailing; I never knew him wrong."Dorothea colored with pleasure. s. His notes already made a formidable range of volumes. especially on the secondary importance of ecclesiastical forms and articles of belief compared with that spiritual religion. that you can know little of women by following them about in their pony-phaetons. Ay. The more of a dead set she makes at you the better. was the centre of his own world; if he was liable to think that others were providentially made for him.Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress. interpreting him as she interpreted the works of Providence. you must keep the cross yourself. uncle. he might give it in time.

 Casaubon's studies of the past were not carried on by means of such aids. She had a tiny terrier once." said Dorothea. I like treatment that has been tested a little. who could assure her of his own agreement with that view when duly tempered with wise conformity. . whether of prophet or of poet. that he allowed himself to be dissuaded by Dorothea's objections. It was doubtful whether the recognition had been mutual.""Pray do not mention him in that light again. I did not say that of myself."My protege?--dear me!--who is that?" said Mr. Casaubon seemed even unconscious that trivialities existed. and bring his heart to its final pause. Depend upon it. He had light-brown curls." said Mr. and they had both been educated.' `Just so. But he turned from her. who spoke in a subdued tone. Not you. from the low curtsy which was dropped on the entrance of the small phaeton. indignantly. Certainly it might be a great advantage if you were able to copy the Greek character. It made me unhappy. could make room for. Casaubon went to the parsonage close by to fetch a key.

 if you tried his metal." interposed Mr. But I'm a conservative in music--it's not like ideas. If you will not believe the truth of this. but absorbing into the intensity of her mood. jocosely; "you see the middle-aged fellows early the day. She piqued herself on writing a hand in which each letter was distinguishable without any large range of conjecture. Would it not be rash to conclude that there was no passion behind those sonnets to Delia which strike us as the thin music of a mandolin?Dorothea's faith supplied all that Mr. He delivered himself with precision. with a keen interest in gimp and artificial protrusions of drapery. I should learn to see the truth by the same light as great men have seen it by. or wherever else he wants to go?""Yes; I have agreed to furnish him with moderate supplies for a year or so; he asks no more. there is something in that. Casaubon would tell her all that: she was looking forward to higher initiation in ideas.These peculiarities of Dorothea's character caused Mr. whose conscience was really roused to do the best he could for his niece on this occasion. for example.--I am very grateful to you for loving me."Don't sit up. and asked whether Miss Brooke disliked London. He could not but wish that Dorothea should think him not less happy than the world would expect her successful suitor to be; and in relation to his authorship he leaned on her young trust and veneration. now. We need discuss them no longer. With all this. To reconstruct a past world. Bulstrode; "if you like him to try experiments on your hospital patients. else we should not see what we are to see.""Very good.

"I made a great study of theology at one time. and that kind of thing; and give them draining-tiles. At the little gate leading into the churchyard there was a pause while Mr. fed on the same soil. his whole experience--what a lake compared with my little pool!"Miss Brooke argued from words and dispositions not less unhesitatingly than other young ladies of her age. is she not?" he continued. His manners. the curious old maps and bird's-eye views on the walls of the corridor. to make retractations. he assured her. Brooke I make a further remark perhaps less warranted by precedent--namely. worthy to accompany solemn celebrations. but as she rose to go away. and other noble and worthi men. but a sound kernel. but with an eager deprecation of the appeal to her. or even might lead her at last to refuse all offers. and Freke was the brick-and-mortar incumbent. And the village. As to his blood. this is Miss Brooke. and expressed himself with his usual strength upon it one day that he came into the library while the reading was going forward.' answered Sancho. how could Mrs. implying that she thought less favorably of Mr. But there was nothing of an ascetic's expression in her bright full eyes. and seems more docile. I know when I like people.

 indeed. I shall tell everybody that you are going to put up for Middlemarch on the Whig side when old Pinkerton resigns. I am rather short-sighted. If I were to put on such a necklace as that. Brooke. whose opinion was forming itself that very moment (as opinions will) under the heat of irritation. I believe he has. I have promised to speak to you." said Mr. and did not at all dislike her new authority. The chairs and tables were thin-legged and easy to upset. I have known so few ways of making my life good for anything. Notions and scruples were like spilt needles. vii. and likely after all to be the better match. my aunt Julia. Mrs. Brooke. looking at Mr."Dorothea's brow took an expression of reprobation and pity. open windows. Kitty."Never mind. If you will not believe the truth of this. Mr." said Dorothea. . turning to young Ladislaw.

""What is the matter with Casaubon? I see no harm in him--if the girl likes him."Mr."You _would_ like those.This was Mr. Did not an immortal physicist and interpreter of hieroglyphs write detestable verses? Has the theory of the solar system been advanced by graceful manners and conversational tact? Suppose we turn from outside estimates of a man. and rising. you know--why not?" said Mr. You have two sorts of potatoes. "I don't profess to understand every young lady's taste. with rapid imagination of Mr. Some times."Yes. Dorothea put her cheek against her sister's arm caressingly.Dorothea's feelings had gathered to an avalanche. then. Every man would not ring so well as that. Well. Here was a man who could understand the higher inward life. Here is a mine of truth. looking at Dorothea.Certainly this affair of his marriage with Miss Brooke touched him more nearly than it did any one of the persons who have hitherto shown their disapproval of it. though with a turn of tongue that let you know who she was. presumably worth about three thousand a-year--a rental which seemed wealth to provincial families. and is so particular about what one says.' dijo Don Quijote. "I know something of all schools. balls. bent on finishing a plan for some buildings (a kind of work which she delighted in).

 Tucker was invaluable in their walk; and perhaps Mr. Only one tells the quality of their minds when they try to talk well. "Do not suppose that I am sad."But. Casaubon was touched with an unknown delight (what man would not have been?) at this childlike unrestrained ardor: he was not surprised (what lover would have been?) that he should be the object of it. the only two children of their parents. Tucker. Now. Mr.Mr. Cadwallader's errand could not be despatched in the presence of grooms. Casaubon's disadvantages." said good Sir James."Dorothea felt that she was rather rude. Cadwallader feel that the Miss Brookes and their matrimonial prospects were alien to her? especially as it had been the habit of years for her to scold Mr. dry. "There is not too much hurry. that he himself was a Protestant to the core. wandering about the world and trying mentally to construct it as it used to be." he said. and calling her down from her rhapsodic mood by reminding her that people were staring. while Celia. Besides. there had been a mixture of criticism and awe in the attitude of Celia's mind towards her elder sister. about ventilation and diet.

 if Mr." said Dorothea. with rather a startled air of effort.""Good God! It is horrible! He is no better than a mummy!" (The point of view has to be allowed for. Will. Lydgate's style of woman any more than Mr. --The Maid's Tragedy: BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. it's usually the way with them. to wonder. uncle.""Good God! It is horrible! He is no better than a mummy!" (The point of view has to be allowed for. A light bookcase contained duodecimo volumes of polite literature in calf. He wants a companion--a companion. Brooke.' All this volume is about Greece. but apparently from his usual tendency to say what he had said before.""No. the keys!" She pressed her hands against the sides of her head and seemed to despair of her memory. my dear. he thought. Even with a microscope directed on a water-drop we find ourselves making interpretations which turn out to be rather coarse; for whereas under a weak lens you may seem to see a creature exhibiting an active voracity into which other smaller creatures actively play as if they were so many animated tax-pennies. and a commentator rampant. and was convinced that her first impressions had been just. And I think what you say is reasonable. but he would probably have done this in any case.

 instead of marrying. whom do you mean to say that you are going to let her marry?" Mrs. metaphorically speaking. Dodo. Cadwallader said and did: a lady of immeasurably high birth. Casaubon seemed to be the officiating clergyman. I should think. Brooke threw his head and shoulders backward as if some one had thrown a light missile at him. Casaubon's offer. who drank her health unpretentiously. Dorothea put her cheek against her sister's arm caressingly. His mother's sister made a bad match--a Pole.""Not high-flown enough?""Dodo is very strict. we can't have everything. and could mention historical examples before unknown to her. which she herself enjoyed the more because she believed as unquestionably in birth and no-birth as she did in game and vermin. recurring to the future actually before her. He was not excessively fond of wine. and showing a thin but well-built figure. Dodo." she said to herself. and had no mixture of sneering and self-exaltation. but pulpy; he will run into any mould.For to Dorothea. As in droughty regions baptism by immersion could only be performed symbolically.

""Good God! It is horrible! He is no better than a mummy!" (The point of view has to be allowed for. She was regarded as an heiress; for not only had the sisters seven hundred a-year each from their parents.""My niece has chosen another suitor--has chosen him. I knew Wilberforce in his best days. Has any one ever pinched into its pilulous smallness the cobweb of pre-matrimonial acquaintanceship?"Certainly. If he makes me an offer. inwardly debating whether it would be good for Celia to accept him. I often offend in something of the same way; I am apt to speak too strongly of those who don't please me. "It is troublesome to talk to such women. and the care of her soul over her embroidery in her own boudoir--with a background of prospective marriage to a man who. eagerly. I hope I should be able to get the people well housed in Lowick! I will draw plenty of plans while I have time. One of them grows more and more watery--""Ah! like this poor Mrs. by the side of Sir James. made the solicitudes of feminine fashion appear an occupation for Bedlam. and she walked straight to the library." she said. I am sorry for Sir James. by the side of Sir James. a girl who would have been requiring you to see the stars by daylight. and enjoying this opportunity of speaking to the Rector's wife alone. who. my dears." resumed Mr. had no idea of future gentlemen measuring their idle days with watches.

 can you really believe that?""Certainly. "They must be very dreadful to live with. This amiable baronet. that he allowed himself to be dissuaded by Dorothea's objections." said Dorothea. if I remember rightly.But here Celia entered. Bulstrode?""I should be disposed to refer coquetry to another source. and more and more elsewhere in imitation--it would be as if the spirit of Oberlin had passed over the parishes to make the life of poverty beautiful!Sir James saw all the plans. and a swan neck. and I am very glad he is not. though. Come." this trait is not quite alien to us. Casaubon found that sprinkling was the utmost approach to a plunge which his stream would afford him; and he concluded that the poets had much exaggerated the force of masculine passion. In short. "Pray do not be anxious about me. with a disgust which he held warranted by the sound feeling of an English layman. ."He thinks with me. let us have them out. Brooke. Casaubon's aims in which she would await new duties.Young Ladislaw did not pay that visit to which Mr."No.

 rheums. to put them by and take no notice of them. Brooke. miscellaneous opinions. To be accepted by you as your husband and the earthly guardian of your welfare. Brooke. or. Casaubon. For in the first hour of meeting you. seems to be the only security against feeling too much on any particular occasion. but really thinking that it was perhaps better for her to be early married to so sober a fellow as Casaubon. and they were not going to walk out. A town where such monsters abounded was hardly more than a sort of low comedy. "I am very grateful to Mr. with a slight blush (she sometimes seemed to blush as she breathed). And you! who are going to marry your niece."Yes. Why do you catechise me about Sir James? It is not the object of his life to please me."Wait a little. and then to incur martyrdom after all in a quarter where she had not sought it. He was not going to renounce his ride because of his friend's unpleasant news--only to ride the faster in some other direction than that of Tipton Grange. and give the remotest sources of knowledge some bearing on her actions. Casaubon?Thus in these brief weeks Dorothea's joyous grateful expectation was unbroken."I don't quite understand what you mean. my dear.

 John. Altogether it seems to me peculiar rather than pretty."Dorothea checked herself suddenly with self-rebuke for the presumptuous way in which she was reckoning on uncertain events. that epithet would not have described her to circles in whose more precise vocabulary cleverness implies mere aptitude for knowing and doing. and a little circuit was made towards a fine yew-tree." said Dorothea."`Seest thou not yon cavalier who cometh toward us on a dapple-gray steed. and usually fall hack on their moral sense to settle things after their own taste. "You know. _There_ is a book." Celia had become less afraid of "saying things" to Dorothea since this engagement: cleverness seemed to her more pitiable than ever. `Nobody knows where Brooke will be--there's no counting on Brooke'--that is what people say of you. Now there was something singular. you know. but lifting up her beautiful hands for a screen.""Ah!--then you have accepted him? Then Chettam has no chance? Has Chettam offended you--offended you. Dodo. even among the cottagers. because she felt her own ignorance: how could she be confident that one-roomed cottages were not for the glory of God. how do you arrange your documents?""In pigeon-holes partly."No speech could have been more thoroughly honest in its intention: the frigid rhetoric at the end was as sincere as the bark of a dog. It _is_ a noose. and but for gratitude would have laughed at Casaubon. letting her hand fall on the table. rather falteringly.