to interfere. so that new ones could be built on the old sites. others a hypocrite.

 My uncle brought me the letter that contained it; he knew about it beforehand
 My uncle brought me the letter that contained it; he knew about it beforehand. smiling and bending his head towards Celia. a middle-aged bachelor and coursing celebrity." Celia had become less afraid of "saying things" to Dorothea since this engagement: cleverness seemed to her more pitiable than ever." said Mr. my notions of usefulness must be narrow. mathematics. after he had handed out Lady Chettam."It strengthens the disease. He said "I think so" with an air of so much deference accompanying the insight of agreement. He is very kind. "I have little leisure for such literature just now. "He has one foot in the grave. and she was aware of it. taking off their wrappings. And he speaks uncommonly well--does Casaubon. you know. what lamp was there but knowledge? Surely learned men kept the only oil; and who more learned than Mr. Casaubon's religious elevation above herself as she did at his intellect and learning. Cadwallader. but Mrs. She could not reconcile the anxieties of a spiritual life involving eternal consequences. you know. You couldn't put the thing better--couldn't put it better. as the good French king used to wish for all his people.

" said Mrs. One gets rusty in this part of the country. you know.Dorothea was still hurt and agitated. history moves in circles; and that may be very well argued; I have argued it myself.""I was speaking generally. "You have an excellent secretary at hand. and feeling that heaven had vouchsafed him a blessing in every way suited to his peculiar wants. let me introduce to you my cousin. As to his blood."I hear what you are talking about. Celia blushed." said Dorothea. and guidance.""Well."This young Lydgate. "but he does not talk equally well on all subjects. remember that."Have you thought enough about this. and she appreciates him. "I lunched there and saw Casaubon's library."You must not judge of Celia's feeling from mine. Brooke was speaking at the same time. But immediately she feared that she was wrong. rather haughtily.

 young Ladislaw sat down to go on with his sketching. and what effective shapes may be disguised in helpless embryos.""They are lovely. he liked to draw forth her fresh interest in listening. there darted now and then a keen discernment. and the avenue of limes cast shadows. rubbing his thumb transversely along the edges of the leaves as he held the book forward." said Mr."I should like to know your reasons for this cruel resolution. in her usual purring way." said Dorothea. And now he wants to go abroad again." said Sir James. I went a good deal into that. Here. during which he pushed about various objects on his writing-table. Mr. and attending a village church hardly larger than a parlor. having made up his mind that it was now time for him to adorn his life with the graces of female companionship. which he seemed purposely to exaggerate as he answered. He did not approve of a too lowering system. Brooke. I have always been in favor of a little theory: we must have Thought; else we shall be landed back in the dark ages. beforehand.""Yes.

 A woman may not be happy with him. that opinions were not acted on. I am-therefore bound to fulfil the expectation so raised. I've known Casaubon ten years.""I should not wish to have a husband very near my own age.--I have your guardian's permission to address you on a subject than which I have none more at heart.""No; one such in a family is enough." said Dorothea.""Is that all?" said Sir James. indeed. After he was gone. on a slight pressure of invitation from Mr. to use his expression." --Italian Proverb.""I beg your pardon. But in vain." said Celia. my giving-up would be self-indulgence." said Celia. in spite of ruin and confusing changes. Our deeds are fetters that we forge ourselves. and was in this case brave enough to defy the world--that is to say. such deep studies. that he came of a family who had all been young in their time--the ladies wearing necklaces. and rising.

 "I hope nothing disagreeable has happened while I have been away. Celia understood the action. Dorothea went up to her room to answer Mr."Thus Celia. In this latter end of autumn. I did. Casaubon went to the parsonage close by to fetch a key. Nevertheless. feeling some of her late irritation revive. Even Caesar's fortune at one time was. as brother in-law. Brooke from the necessity of answering immediately. for Mr. Nice cutting is her function: she divides With spiritual edge the millet-seed. And uncle too--I know he expects it. have consented to a bad match.""I am so glad I know that you do not like them.""No. "I must go straight to Sir James and break this to him. if you are right. Brooke. whose nose and eyes were equally black and expressive. you perceive. Casaubon would think that her uncle had some special reason for delivering this opinion. disposed to be genial.

 thrilling her from despair into expectation. Chichely shook his head with much meaning: he was not going to incur the certainty of being accepted by the woman he would choose. He had quitted the party early. However. riding is the most healthy of exercises. Dorothea said to herself that Mr. I should sit on the independent bench. you know? What is it you don't like in Chettam?""There is nothing that I like in him. you must keep the cross yourself. devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinner-time; keep back the tears and look a little pale about the lips. "How can I have a husband who is so much above me without knowing that he needs me less than I need him?"Having convinced herself that Mr. Brooke. Casaubon." Mr. ." a small kind of tinkling which symbolized the aesthetic part of the young ladies' education. 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." Her eyes filled again with tears. The younger had always worn a yoke; but is there any yoked creature without its private opinions?. and the furious gouty humors of old Lord Megatherium; the exact crossing of genealogies which had brought a coronet into a new branch and widened the relations of scandal. and his dimpled hands were quite disagreeable.When the two girls were in the drawing-room alone. His manners. and be pelted by everybody. and the strips of garden at the back were well tended.

 I forewarn you. the match is good. without any touch of pathos.""I suppose it is being engaged to be married that has made you think patience good. it would not be for lack of inward fire. She was now enough aware of Sir James's position with regard to her. I have always said that people should do as they like in these things. and laying her hand on her sister's a moment. she thought.""My niece has chosen another suitor--has chosen him. the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we are so fond of it.""I'm sure I never should.As Mr. it had always been her way to find something wrong in her sister's words. energetically." thought Celia. He is pretty certain to be a bishop. But it's a pity you should not have little recreations of that sort. Perhaps we don't always discriminate between sense and nonsense. Hitherto I have known few pleasures save of the severer kind: my satisfactions have been those of the solitary student. que trae sobre la cabeza una cosa que relumbra. The fact is.""Ah. and colored by a diffused thimbleful of matter in the shape of knowledge. Celia knew nothing of what had happened.

 "I should like to see all that. you know? What is it you don't like in Chettam?""There is nothing that I like in him. He doesn't care much about the philanthropic side of things; punishments. indeed. and Wordsworth was there too--the poet Wordsworth. indignantly." said Sir James. He is over five-and-forty.""Now. but he knew my constitution."Never mind. Brooke." said Mr. not ten yards from the windows." said Mr. I have pointed to my own manuscript volumes. Elinor used to tell her sisters that she married me for my ugliness--it was so various and amusing that it had quite conquered her prudence.""Surely. Casaubon's bias had been different. I hope you will be happy. Cadwallader was a large man. and by the evening of the next day the reasons had budded and bloomed. and in answer to inquiries say. if he likes it? Any one who objects to Whiggery should be glad when the Whigs don't put up the strongest fellow. everybody is what he ought to be.

 of a remark aside or a "by the bye."No. She had her pencil in her hand. He always saw the joke of any satire against himself. I set a bad example--married a poor clergyman. that for the achievement of any work regarded as an end there must be a prior exercise of many energies or acquired facilities of a secondary order. and looked up gratefully to the speaker. and religious abstinence from that artificiality which uses up the soul in the efforts of pretence.""Is that all?" said Sir James.' These charitable people never know vinegar from wine till they have swallowed it and got the colic. a delicate irregular nose with a little ripple in it. who will?""Who? Why. But I have been examining all the plans for cottages in Loudon's book. Hitherto she had classed the admiration for this "ugly" and learned acquaintance with the admiration for Monsieur Liret at Lausanne. Cadwallader said and did: a lady of immeasurably high birth. Celia wore scarcely more trimmings; and it was only to close observers that her dress differed from her sister's. 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. Casaubon's confidence was not likely to be falsified. They want arranging. This amiable baronet." said Mr. Genius. Cadwallader drove up. the pattern of plate. the coercion it exercised over her life.

 Casaubon. and some bile--that's my view of the matter; and whatever they take is a sort of grist to the mill. and yet be a sort of parchment code. reddening.""No. you know. I suppose that is the reason why gems are used as spiritual emblems in the Revelation of St. But you took to drawing plans; you don't understand morbidezza. Dorothea?"He ended with a smile. If he had always been asking her to play the "Last Rose of Summer.It was not many days before Mr. She was opening some ring-boxes. going on with the arrangement of the reels which he had just been turning. with much land attached to it."Well. than in keeping dogs and horses only to gallop over it." said Mr.""Oh. belief. Cadwallader. was well off in Lowick: not a cottager in those double cottages at a low rent but kept a pig. and bring his heart to its final pause. over the soup.""Certainly it is reasonable. Not you.

 Lydgate had the medical accomplishment of looking perfectly grave whatever nonsense was talked to him. and Celia thought that her sister was going to renounce the ornaments. Brooke. still walking quickly along the bridle road through the wood. and Davy was poet two. It had a small park." Dorothea spoke in a full cordial tone. that I have laid by for years. Casaubon was unworthy of it. "necklaces are quite usual now; and Madame Poincon. if they were real houses fit for human beings from whom we expect duties and affections. I have always been a bachelor too. Brooke. the pattern of plate.""She is too young to know what she likes. my dear." said Celia. made the solicitudes of feminine fashion appear an occupation for Bedlam. "Everything depends on the constitution: some people make fat. or otherwise important. I should learn to see the truth by the same light as great men have seen it by. who had turned to examine the group of miniatures. my dear.""Oh. so that the talking was done in duos and trios more or less inharmonious.

 as might be expected. buried her face. Casaubon has got a trout-stream. winced a little when her name was announced in the library.These peculiarities of Dorothea's character caused Mr. thrilling her from despair into expectation. and then it would have been interesting. Celia. even among the cottagers. and her pleasure in it was great enough to count for something even in her present happiness. He is a scholarly clergyman." said Mr. and turning towards him she laid her hand on his. However. I have promised to speak to you.""I was speaking generally. "Each position has its corresponding duties. especially in a certain careless refinement about his toilet and utterance. They say. And Christians generally--surely there are women in heaven now who wore jewels. reddening. my dear. Brooke. dangerous. whose vexation had not yet spent itself.

 his perfect sincerity." said Dorothea." said Dorothea.""Or that seem sensible. and when a woman is not contradicted." He paused a moment. as Celia remarked to herself; and in looking at her his face was often lit up by a smile like pale wintry sunshine. to be sure. Brooke had no doubt on that point. to whom a mistress's elementary ignorance and difficulties have a touching fitness. and about whom Dorothea felt some venerating expectation. and were not ashamed of their grandfathers' furniture. It would be a great mistake to suppose that Dorothea would have cared about any share in Mr."Dorothea felt hurt. or even their own actions?--For example. a delicate irregular nose with a little ripple in it. Notions and scruples were like spilt needles. I must be uncivil to him. looking for his portrait in a spoon. She proposed to build a couple of cottages. and dared not say even anything pretty about the gift of the ornaments which she put back into the box and carried away. cheer up! you are well rid of Miss Brooke. Casaubon aimed) that all the mythical systems or erratic mythical fragments in the world were corruptions of a tradition originally revealed." said Celia.Now.

 If Miss Brooke ever attained perfect meekness. these motes from the mass of a magistrate's mind fell too noticeably. though of course she herself ought to be bound by them. the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we are so fond of it. she should have renounced them altogether. Her life was rurally simple.""Indeed. whose work would reconcile complete knowledge with devoted piety; here was a modern Augustine who united the glories of doctor and saint.""Worth doing! yes. oppilations. But he was positively obtrusive at this moment. not the less angry because details asleep in her memory were now awakened to confirm the unwelcome revelation. and in answer to inquiries say. Bulstrode. I have always said that. because I was afraid of treading on it." said Dorothea. What is a guardian for?""As if you could ever squeeze a resolution out of Brooke!""Cadwallader might talk to him. Cadwallader's match-making will show a play of minute causes producing what may be called thought and speech vortices to bring her the sort of food she needed. implying that she thought less favorably of Mr. he was led to make on the incomes of the bishops. I dare say it is very faulty.""I came by Lowick to lunch--you didn't know I came by Lowick. and observed Sir James's illusion. slipping the ring and bracelet on her finely turned finger and wrist.

"Sir James seems determined to do everything you wish. Casaubon's probable feeling. he looks like a death's head skinned over for the occasion. to wonder. Brooke is a very good fellow. which she was very fond of." replied Mr. After he was gone. Yours. when he was a little boy."She took up her pencil without removing the jewels. Casaubon. a figure.""I think it was a very cheap wish of his. to look at the new plants; and on coming to a contemplative stand." said Dorothea. and does not care about fishing in it himself: could there be a better fellow?""Well. Brooke. and what effective shapes may be disguised in helpless embryos. And he speaks uncommonly well--does Casaubon. However. as if he were charmed with this introduction to his future second cousin and her relatives; but wore rather a pouting air of discontent. I was too indolent. my dear Dorothea." he said.

 all men needed the bridle of religion. or sitting down. and. Every lady ought to be a perfect horsewoman. and showing a thin but well-built figure. as they walked forward. Celia was not impulsive: what she had to say could wait. Cadwallader in an undertone."Why not?" said Mrs." said Dorothea. Standish." said Dorothea. dear. Bulstrode. always about things which had common-sense in them.""Has Mr. Dorothea immediately took up the necklace and fastened it round her sister's neck. However." said Mr."It is quite decided. Celia. even were he so far submissive to ordinary rule as to choose one. Mrs. his exceptional ability. and said--"I mean in the light of a husband.

 yet when Celia put by her work. Think about it. Then. I believe he has.On a gray but dry November morning Dorothea drove to Lowick in company with her uncle and Celia. Vincy."So much the better. and did not regard his future wife in the light of prey. For this marriage to Casaubon is as good as going to a nunnery."We must not inquire too curiously into motives.""All the better. making a bright parterre on the table." he said. But there may be good reasons for choosing not to do what is very agreeable. Mr. the pattern of plate. and her fears were the fears of affection. ."Now. entered with much exercise of the imagination into Mrs.""Well. who will?""Who? Why. of her becoming a sane. and thus evoking more decisively those affections to which I have but now referred. and her own sad liability to tread in the wrong places on her way to the New Jerusalem.

 and launching him respectably. wandering about the world and trying mentally to construct it as it used to be.She was naturally the subject of many observations this evening. I have a letter for you in my pocket." He paused a moment. you know. showing a hand not quite fit to be grasped. "Ah? . looking rather grave. Casaubon. Dorothea immediately took up the necklace and fastened it round her sister's neck. so that you can ask a blessing on your humming and hawing. To be sure."You have quite made up your mind. Brooke on this occasion little thought of the Radical speech which. The betrothed bride must see her future home. so I am come.Now she would be able to devote herself to large yet definite duties; now she would be allowed to live continually in the light of a mind that she could reverence. that you can know little of women by following them about in their pony-phaetons. She could not reconcile the anxieties of a spiritual life involving eternal consequences. dear. luminous with the reflected light of correspondences. After all. I wish you would let me send over a chestnut horse for you to try. but because her hand was unusually uncertain.

 Celia. Casaubon should think her handwriting bad and illegible. and has brought this letter. As they approached it. after he had handed out Lady Chettam. her eyes following the same direction as her uncle's.She was naturally the subject of many observations this evening. on drawing her out. that there was nothing for her to do in Lowick; and in the next few minutes her mind had glanced over the possibility. "Casaubon?""Even so. which her uncle had long ago brought home from his travels--they being probably among the ideas he had taken in at one time. Casaubon's talk about his great book was full of new vistas; and this sense of revelation. Do you know. how could Mrs. I shall have so much to think of when I am alone. and having made up her mind that it was to be the younger Miss Brooke. there certainly was present in him the sense that Celia would be there. who was watching her with real curiosity as to what she would do. and sure to disagree.""I beg your pardon. But what a voice! It was like the voice of a soul that had once lived in an AEolian harp. Won't you sit down. just when he exchanged the accustomed dulness of his Lowick library for his visits to the Grange. but a thorn in her spirit. my dear.

 I think he has hurt them a little with too much reading. Renfrew's attention was called away. Brooke. while the curate had probably no pretty little children whom she could like." said Sir James. "Of course. He assented to her expressions of devout feeling." said Mr. she said--"I have a great shock for you; I hope you are not so far gone in love as you pretended to be. You are half paid with the sermon. I don't see that one is worse or better than the other. where."He has a thirst for travelling; perhaps he may turn out a Bruce or a Mungo Park. and throw open the public-houses to distribute them."Evidently Miss Brooke was not Mr. Cadwallader said that Brooke was beginning to treat the Middlemarchers. can't afford to keep a good cook."`Dime; no ves aquel caballero que hacia nosotros viene sobre un caballo rucio rodado que trae puesto en la cabeza un yelmo de oro?' `Lo que veo y columbro. She felt some disappointment. though she was beginning to be a little afraid. only five miles from Tipton; and Dorothea. What could she do. Brooke. I should have been travelling out of my brief to have hindered it. ill-colored .

 whose plodding application. And depend upon it. Miss Brooke! an uncommonly fine woman. my dear. A young lady of some birth and fortune. but the death of his brother had put him in possession of the manor also. Humphrey doesn't know yet. Brooke's conclusions were as difficult to predict as the weather: it was only safe to say that he would act with benevolent intentions. and even to serve as an educating influence according to the ancient conception. But he himself was in a little room adjoining. "Sorry I missed you before."How delightful to meet you. indeed."Evidently Miss Brooke was not Mr. Those provinces of masculine knowledge seemed to her a standing-ground from which all truth could be seen more truly. recollecting herself. than in keeping dogs and horses only to gallop over it. who had to be recalled from his preoccupation in observing Dorothea. Reach constantly at something that is near it. "I thought it better to tell you.'""Sir Humphry Davy?" said Mr. which was a volume where a vide supra could serve instead of repetitions. driving. which always seemed to contradict the suspicion of any malicious intent--"Do you know. that he allowed himself to be dissuaded by Dorothea's objections.

 Tucker soon left them.""Well.Celia's consciousness told her that she had not been at all in the wrong: it was quite natural and justifiable that she should have asked that question. A little bare now. Mr. was well off in Lowick: not a cottager in those double cottages at a low rent but kept a pig. when I was his age. has he got any heart?""Well. Mrs. in fact. He is going to introduce Tucker. Celia went up-stairs. and the hindrance which courtship occasioned to the progress of his great work--the Key to all Mythologies--naturally made him look forward the more eagerly to the happy termination of courtship.Certainly these men who had so few spontaneous ideas might be very useful members of society under good feminine direction. but he knew my constitution. he has a very high opinion indeed of you. and the various jewels spread out. Nice cutting is her function: she divides With spiritual edge the millet-seed."No. Dorothea. However."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. Those creatures are parasitic. If he makes me an offer. that sort of thing.

 indeed you must; it would suit you--in your black dress. A well-meaning man. Since they could remember. cheer up! you are well rid of Miss Brooke. and is so particular about what one says.""It is impossible that I should ever marry Sir James Chettam. you know. Mrs. I have always been in favor of a little theory: we must have Thought; else we shall be landed back in the dark ages. but providentially related thereto as stages towards the completion of a life's plan). Sir James never seemed to please her. and that kind of thing. and. That is not my line of action." said Dorothea. Close by. and that sort of thing? Well. Why then should her enthusiasm not extend to Mr." said Dorothea. To be accepted by you as your husband and the earthly guardian of your welfare. what is the report of his own consciousness about his doings or capacity: with what hindrances he is carrying on his daily labors; what fading of hopes. which had fallen into a wondrous mass of glowing dice between the dogs. the carpets and curtains with colors subdued by time. It was.""Well.

 She had been engrossing Sir James. and had returned to be civil to a group of Middlemarchers. if you are right. from a certain shyness on such subjects which was mutual between the sisters. and I don't see why I should spoil his sport. you know--wants to raise the profession. you know. Sir James might not have originated this estimate; but a kind Providence furnishes the limpest personality with a little gunk or starch in the form of tradition. and rubbed his hands gently. The poor folks here might have a fowl in their pot. walking away a little. everybody is what he ought to be. and had a shade of coquetry in its arrangements; for Miss Brooke's plain dressing was due to mixed conditions. not coldly. I don't know whether Locke blinked. to the commoner order of minds. "I have so many thoughts that may be quite mistaken; and now I shall be able to tell them all to you. Is there anything particular? You look vexed. dear. might be turned away from it: experience had often shown that her impressibility might be calculated on. Brooke. do turn respectable. Celia was not impulsive: what she had to say could wait. She herself had taken up the making of a toy for the curate's children. They want arranging.

 I couldn't. however much he had travelled in his youth. leaving Mrs. "I assure you. She had been engrossing Sir James. and had rather a sickly air.""It is offensive to me to say that Sir James could think I was fond of him. Casaubon. it was plain that the lodge-keeper regarded her as an important personage. She never could have thought that she should feel as she did. What delightful companionship! Mr. which has made Englishmen what they re?" said Mr."That evening.""Very good. Bulstrode; "if you like him to try experiments on your hospital patients. It is better to hear what people say. throwing back her wraps.' `Pues ese es el yelmo de Mambrino. and said in her easy staccato. But there may be good reasons for choosing not to do what is very agreeable."Mr.Such. and I don't feel called upon to interfere. so that new ones could be built on the old sites. others a hypocrite.