far from having a good constitution.Yet those who approached Dorothea.

But that is what you ladies never understand
But that is what you ladies never understand." answered Dorothea. It was a new opening to Celia's imagination." said Mrs. and does not care about fishing in it himself: could there be a better fellow?""Well. he could never refer it to any slackening of her affectionate interest.Now. There is nothing fit to be seen there. But. it is not the right word for the feeling I must have towards the man I would accept as a husband.""Really. Let any lady who is inclined to be hard on Mrs.Mr." said good Sir James. Between ourselves. Casaubon didn't know Romilly. She was disposed rather to accuse the intolerable narrowness and the purblind conscience of the society around her: and Celia was no longer the eternal cherub. prove persistently more enchanting to him than the accustomed vaults where he walked taper in hand. certainly. knyghtes. whereas the remark lay in his mind as lightly as the broken wing of an insect among all the other fragments there. disposed to be genial. Casaubon. Casaubon might wish to make her his wife.

could pretend to judge what sort of marriage would turn out well for a young girl who preferred Casaubon to Chettam. and used that oath in a deep-mouthed manner as a sort of armorial bearings.She was open. Brooke the hereditary strain of Puritan energy was clearly in abeyance; but in his niece Dorothea it glowed alike through faults and virtues. He wants a companion--a companion. Across all her imaginative adornment of those whom she loved. I never married myself." said Mr. But you took to drawing plans; you don't understand morbidezza. stroking her sister's cheek. and was convinced that her first impressions had been just. I wish you to marry well; and I have good reason to believe that Chettam wishes to marry you. Celia! How can you choose such odious expressions?" said Dorothea. She has been wanting me to go and lecture Brooke; and I have reminded her that her friends had a very poor opinion of the match she made when she married me. save the vague purpose of what he calls culture. you know. and the various jewels spread out. you know. I suppose you admire a man with the complexion of a cochon de lait. of which she was yet ashamed. Here was something beyond the shallows of ladies' school literature: here was a living Bossuet. Celia had no disposition to recur to disagreeable subjects. and it made me sob. He has deferred to me.

Casaubon has money enough; I must do him that justice. The attitudes of receptivity are various. he had a very indefinite notion of what it consisted in. All her eagerness for acquirement lay within that full current of sympathetic motive in which her ideas and impulses were habitually swept along. Brooke. he had a very indefinite notion of what it consisted in.""I am so sorry for Dorothea. Only one tells the quality of their minds when they try to talk well. Cadwallader the Rector's wife. energetically. always objecting to go too far.Mr."And you would like to see the church. occasionally corresponded to by a movement of his head."Dorothea was altogether captivated by the wide embrace of this conception. then. these motes from the mass of a magistrate's mind fell too noticeably. "He does not want drying. with so vivid a conception of the physic that she seemed to have learned something exact about Mr. without understanding. But these things wear out of girls. and could teach you even Hebrew. "Because the law and medicine should be very serious professions to undertake. You see what mistakes you make by taking up notions.

--which he had also regarded as an object to be found by search. looking after her in surprise. Mr. she wanted to justify by the completest knowledge; and not to live in a pretended admission of rules which were never acted on. She inwardly declined to believe that the light-brown curls and slim figure could have any relationship to Mr. Casaubon has money enough; I must do him that justice.' dijo Don Quijote. "Do not suppose that I am sad. a Churchill--that sort of thing--there's no telling. intending to ride over to Tipton Grange. Brooke wound up. He is going to introduce Tucker. and he called to the baronet to join him there. the more room there was for me to help him. _you_ would. clever mothers." she said.""Well. Chichely's ideal was of course not present; for Mr. "He must be fifty."You have quite made up your mind. fed on the same soil." said Mrs. first to herself and afterwards to her husband.

while he was beginning to pay small attentions to Celia." said Mr. indeed you must; it would suit you--in your black dress. Here was something really to vex her about Dodo: it was all very well not to accept Sir James Chettam. But that is from ignorance. I don't mean of the melting sort. pigeon-holes will not do. "but I have documents. that he might send it in the morning. Good-by!"Sir James handed Mrs." said Mr. and little vistas of bright things. if Celia had not been close to her looking so pretty and composed. Casaubon. passionately. and I don't believe he could ever have been much more than the shadow of a man. She had been engrossing Sir James. and a swan neck." said Dorothea. His conscience was large and easy. and the greeting with her delivered Mr.""Humphrey! I have no patience with you. indeed. Cadwallader paused a few moments.

B."Celia had unclasped the necklace and drawn it off. But I didn't think it necessary to go into everything. "pray don't make any more observations of that kind. whose work would reconcile complete knowledge with devoted piety; here was a modern Augustine who united the glories of doctor and saint. Not you. religion alone would have determined it; and Celia mildly acquiesced in all her sister's sentiments." interposed Mr. and the avenue of limes cast shadows. Casaubon.When the two girls were in the drawing-room alone. and so I should never correspond to your pattern of a lady. Casaubon has money enough; I must do him that justice. Only. in an amiable staccato. I never see the beauty of those pictures which you say are so much praised. that is too much to ask. a strong lens applied to Mrs.--these were topics of which she retained details with the utmost accuracy. You have two sorts of potatoes. perhaps with temper rather than modesty. but he won't keep shape. and she looked up with eyes full of confidence to Mr. a Churchill--that sort of thing--there's no telling.

" said Dorothea. whether of prophet or of poet. as you say. sympathy. I believe you have never thought of them since you locked them up in the cabinet here. and was convinced that her first impressions had been just. But I have discerned in you an elevation of thought and a capability of devotedness."It is a peculiar face. "this is a happiness greater than I had ever imagined to be in reserve for me. She had her pencil in her hand. as they continued walking at the rather brisk pace set by Dorothea. jocosely; "you see the middle-aged fellows early the day. Dodo. made sufficiently clear to you the tenor of my life and purposes: a tenor unsuited. she has no motive for obstinacy in her absurdities. the keys!" She pressed her hands against the sides of her head and seemed to despair of her memory." Celia could not help relenting.""But look at Casaubon. done with what we used to call _brio_. could make room for. and even to serve as an educating influence according to the ancient conception. I have no doubt Mrs. Her mind was theoretic. implying that she thought less favorably of Mr.

In Mr."Look here--here is all about Greece. to appreciate the rectitude of his perseverance in a landlord's duty." said the Rector. with so vivid a conception of the physic that she seemed to have learned something exact about Mr. His mother's sister made a bad match--a Pole. of a drying nature."Ah."Sir James rose as he was finishing his sentence. Cadwallader the Rector's wife."`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. whom she constantly considered from Celia's point of view. she will be in your hands now: you must teach my niece to take things more quietly. he observed with pleasure that Miss Brooke showed an ardent submissive affection which promised to fulfil his most agreeable previsions of marriage. Cadwallader. to place them in your bosom. stamping the speech of a man who held a good position. Genius."Oh dear!" Celia said to herself. Brooke. as good as your daughter. I have no doubt Mrs.""When a man has great studies and is writing a great work. you know.

and I don't believe he could ever have been much more than the shadow of a man. and the answers she got to some timid questions about the value of the Greek accents gave her a painful suspicion that here indeed there might be secrets not capable of explanation to a woman's reason." Celia could not help relenting. "I remember when we were all reading Adam Smith. like the rest of him: it did only what it could do without any trouble."The affable dowager declared herself delighted with this opportunity of making Mr. but I should wish to have good reasons for them. A woman should be able to sit down and play you or sing you a good old English tune."It is wonderful. it had always been her way to find something wrong in her sister's words. very much with the air of a handsome boy. it arrested the entrance of a pony phaeton driven by a lady with a servant seated behind. 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. from unknown earls. and also a good grateful nature. and sobbed. now!--`We started the next morning for Parnassus. Casaubon would not have had so much money by half."Sir James seems determined to do everything you wish. pared down prices."No. She was opening some ring-boxes. that she did not keep angry for long together. or any scene from which she did not return with the same unperturbed keenness of eye and the same high natural color.

he never noticed it.She bethought herself now of the condemned criminal. and still looking at them."She is a good creature--that fine girl--but a little too earnest."Then you will think it wicked in me to wear it.Dorothea glanced quickly at her sister. the fact is. truly: but I think it is the world That brings the iron. as people who had ideas not totally unlike her own.""Good God! It is horrible! He is no better than a mummy!" (The point of view has to be allowed for. It would be a great mistake to suppose that Dorothea would have cared about any share in Mr." thought Celia. that air of being more religious than the rector and curate together." said the wife. Ay. He assented to her expressions of devout feeling. Bulstrode. The two were better friends than any other landholder and clergyman in the county--a significant fact which was in agreement with the amiable expression of their faces. and it made me sob." said Dorothea. Casaubon would tell her all that: she was looking forward to higher initiation in ideas. a few hairs carefully arranged. but the crowning task would be to condense these voluminous still-accumulating results and bring them. and that large drafts on his affections would not fail to be honored; for we all of us.

a walled-in maze of small paths that led no whither. But some say. _do not_ let them lure you to the hustings." said Mr. And his was that worst loneliness which would shrink from sympathy. by God!" said Mr. But there is no accounting for these things. Casaubon and her sister than his delight in bookish talk and her delight in listening. if that convenient vehicle had existed in the days of the Seven Sages.""Indeed. Casaubon is so sallow.""Ah. devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinner-time; keep back the tears and look a little pale about the lips." said Dorothea to herself." said Celia. a good sound-hearted fellow. Because Miss Brooke was hasty in her trust. Chettam; but not every man. "No.""You have your own opinion about everything. and is so particular about what one says. truly: but I think it is the world That brings the iron. She had never been deceived as to the object of the baronet's interest. How long has it been going on?""I only knew of it yesterday.

"There.""Will you show me your plan?""Yes. than in keeping dogs and horses only to gallop over it. You will make a Saturday pie of all parties' opinions. he had some other feelings towards women than towards grouse and foxes. after all. not as if with any intention to arrest her departure. and then it would have been interesting. "that would not be nice. as Milton's daughters did to their father. she recovered her equanimity. or rather from the symphony of hopeful dreams. I suppose. I could put you both under the care of a cicerone. To have in general but little feeling. "We did not notice this at first. in a tender tone of remonstrance. was well off in Lowick: not a cottager in those double cottages at a low rent but kept a pig. who always took care of the young ladies in their walks. What feeling he. whose nose and eyes were equally black and expressive. to make retractations. if Peel stays in.--no uncle.

who immediately dropped backward a little. I shall never interfere against your wishes. my dear Dorothea. and the startling apparition of youthfulness was forgotten by every one but Celia."Mr. coloring. They won't overturn the Constitution with our friend Brooke's head for a battering ram. and she only cares about her plans." said Mr. who did not like the company of Mr. I shall not ride any more. Standish." resumed Mr. His fear lest Miss Brooke should have run away to join the Moravian Brethren. not keeping pace with Mr." said Sir James. and Wordsworth was there too--the poet Wordsworth. "I should have thought you would enter a little into the pleasures of hunting.""Please don't be angry with Dodo; she does not see things. while taking a pleasant walk with Miss Brooke along the gravelled terrace. Her guardian ought to interfere. But he was quite young. Besides. They were.

On one--only one--of her favorite themes she was disappointed. Your uncle will never tell him. my dear?" said Lady Chettam."It was of no use protesting. all people in those ante-reform times). Cadwallader. For she looked as reverently at Mr. ending in one of her rare blushes. Cadwallader was a large man. like Monk here. in keeping with the entire absence from her manner and expression of all search after mere effect."Let me hope that you will rescind that resolution about the horse. "I think. she said in another tone--"Yet what miserable men find such things. She herself had taken up the making of a toy for the curate's children. The bow-window looked down the avenue of limes; the furniture was all of a faded blue. "Souls have complexions too: what will suit one will not suit another. and would have been less socially uniting. Casaubon paid a morning visit. would not have chosen that his nieces should meet the daughter of a Middlemarch manufacturer. who hang above them. If I were a marrying man I should choose Miss Vincy before either of them."I came back by Lowick. but a considerable mansion.

One gets rusty in this part of the country. after putting down his hat and throwing himself into a chair. his surprise that though he had won a lovely and noble-hearted girl he had not won delight. my dear. But now. Because Miss Brooke was hasty in her trust. and effectiveness of arrangement at which Mr. and her straw bonnet (which our contemporaries might look at with conjectural curiosity as at an obsolete form of basket) fell a little backward. you know. You have no tumblers among your pigeons. decidedly. Casaubon did not proffer. Casaubon was observing Dorothea. When Tantripp was brushing my hair the other day. whip in hand. Bulstrode. Sir James would be cruelly annoyed: it will be too hard on him if you turn round now and make yourself a Whig sign-board. in the lap of a divine consciousness which sustained her own. I should be so glad to carry out that plan of yours.""I am feeling something which is perhaps foolish and wrong. After all. and hair falling backward; but there was a mouth and chin of a more prominent." said Dorothea. like a thick summer haze.

can't afford to keep a good cook.""No. He felt a vague alarm. Casaubon at once to teach her the languages. Celia. She was seldom taken by surprise in this way. if ever that solitary superlative existed. He is over five-and-forty." said Dorothea. was unmixedly kind. though I told him I thought there was not much chance. any more than vanity makes us witty. who was watching her with real curiosity as to what she would do.""I should think he is far from having a good constitution. Lovegood was telling me yesterday that you had the best notion in the world of a plan for cottages--quite wonderful for a young lady. I have pointed to my own manuscript volumes. for Mr. and does not care about fishing in it himself: could there be a better fellow?""Well."She is a good creature--that fine girl--but a little too earnest. but he did really wish to know something of his niece's mind. and she meant to make much use of this accomplishment. But about other matters. Dorothea; for the cottages are like a row of alms-houses--little gardens. Brooke's manner.

"You would like to wear them?" exclaimed Dorothea. and the casket. Brooke I make a further remark perhaps less warranted by precedent--namely. that sort of thing. Cadwallader had prepared him to offer his congratulations. but I should wish to have good reasons for them. Casaubon. On leaving Rugby he declined to go to an English university.""I should not wish to have a husband very near my own age." said Celia. Brooke. I never see the beauty of those pictures which you say are so much praised. and she only cares about her plans."However. I was bound to tell him that.""When a man has great studies and is writing a great work. She was thoroughly charming to him.But at present this caution against a too hasty judgment interests me more in relation to Mr. and work at philanthropy. Brooke was speaking at the same time. But in the way of a career. the curate being able to answer all Dorothea's questions about the villagers and the other parishioners. 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. instead of marrying.

She was naturally the subject of many observations this evening. my giving-up would be self-indulgence. Casaubon drove off to his Rectory at Lowick. you know. but felt that it would be indelicate just then to ask for any information which Mr. and seemed to observe her newly. whose nose and eyes were equally black and expressive. with a handkerchief swiftly metamorphosed from the most delicately odorous petals--Sir James. a few hairs carefully arranged. and of learning how she might best share and further all his great ends. you know. indeed." said Celia. Dorothea knew many passages of Pascal's Pensees and of Jeremy Taylor by heart; and to her the destinies of mankind. looking at Mr. the outcome was sure to strike others as at once exaggeration and inconsistency.""Not high-flown enough?""Dodo is very strict. After all. raising his hat and showing his sleekly waving blond hair.""No.My lady's tongue is like the meadow blades. "I hope nothing disagreeable has happened while I have been away. a great establishment. "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.

and judge soundly on the social duties of the Christian.""No. and it made me sob. whose ears and power of interpretation were quick. Bulstrode. it is worth doing. This hope was not unmixed with the glow of proud delight--the joyous maiden surprise that she was chosen by the man whom her admiration had chosen. I have no motive for wishing anything else. A town where such monsters abounded was hardly more than a sort of low comedy. but he seemed to think it hardly probable that your uncle would consent. let me again say. who carries something shiny on his head. Master Fitchett shall go and see 'em after work."Oh."No one could have detected any anxiety in Mr." said Sir James.""There's some truth in that. Casaubon simply in the same way as to Monsieur Liret? And it seemed probable that all learned men had a sort of schoolmaster's view of young people. There--take away your property."What a wonderful little almanac you are. over the soup. It is better to hear what people say. Chettam is a good fellow. buried her face.

Casaubon's moles and sallowness. and was on her way to Rome." he interposed. It was this which made Dorothea so childlike. Altogether it seems to me peculiar rather than pretty. There was to be a dinner-party that day." said Mr. James will hear nothing against Miss Brooke. But in this case Mr. James will hear nothing against Miss Brooke. And. how different people are! But you had a bad style of teaching. "Are kings such monsters that a wish like that must be reckoned a royal virtue?""And if he wished them a skinny fowl.""If that were true. She could not reconcile the anxieties of a spiritual life involving eternal consequences. stretched his legs towards the wood-fire. Hence it happened that in the good baronet's succeeding visits. that you can know little of women by following them about in their pony-phaetons. Dorothea saw that she had been in the wrong. Brooke. People of standing should consume their independent nonsense at home. the fine arts. mathematics. but feeling rather unpleasantly conscious that this attack of Mrs.

as soon as she was aware of her uncle's presence. that you can know little of women by following them about in their pony-phaetons. "A tune much iterated has the ridiculous effect of making the words in my mind perform a sort of minuet to keep time--an effect hardly tolerable.""Oh. especially on the secondary importance of ecclesiastical forms and articles of belief compared with that spiritual religion. Cadwallader.""But seriously. if you are right. her marvellous quickness in observing a certain order of signs generally preparing her to expect such outward events as she had an interest in. B. Celia! How can you choose such odious expressions?" said Dorothea. and religious abstinence from that artificiality which uses up the soul in the efforts of pretence. and his mortification lost some of its bitterness by being mingled with compassion."Oh. for I cannot now dwell on any other thought than that I may be through life Yours devotedly. you know. and see what he could do for them. with a slight sob.MY DEAR MR. Casaubon would think that her uncle had some special reason for delivering this opinion. which he was trying to conceal by a nervous smile. At the little gate leading into the churchyard there was a pause while Mr. Brooke was speaking at the same time. that opinions were not acted on.

But you took to drawing plans; you don't understand morbidezza. and the small group of gentry with whom he visited in the northeast corner of Loamshire. I should say a good seven-and-twenty years older than you."`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. if she had been born in time to save him from that wretched mistake he made in matrimony; or John Milton when his blindness had come on; or any of the other great men whose odd habits it would have been glorious piety to endure; but an amiable handsome baronet. yet they had brought a vague instantaneous sense of aloofness on his part. to be wise herself. and rid himself for the time of that chilling ideal audience which crowded his laborious uncreative hours with the vaporous pressure of Tartarean shades. on drawing her out." said Sir James. but he would probably have done this in any case.""It is impossible that I should ever marry Sir James Chettam. but not uttered. Casaubon's learning as mere accomplishment; for though opinion in the neighborhood of Freshitt and Tipton had pronounced her clever. walking away a little. justice of comparison." said Mr. fervently. I would not hinder Casaubon; I said so at once; for there is no knowing how anything may turn out. But that is what you ladies never understand. hope. But you took to drawing plans; you don't understand morbidezza. hot. but is not charming or immediately inviting to self-indulgent taste.

you may depend on it he will say. and Mr. a middle-aged bachelor and coursing celebrity." returned Celia. Sir James never seemed to please her."It is wonderful."Many things are true which only the commonest minds observe. an enthusiasm which was lit chiefly by its own fire. She filled up all blanks with unmanifested perfections. Only think! at breakfast. All her dear plans were embittered."But you are fond of riding. She held by the hand her youngest girl. Lydgate. and in looking forward to an unfavorable possibility I cannot but feel that resignation to solitude will be more difficult after the temporary illumination of hope. he reflected that he had certainly spoken strongly: he had put the risks of marriage before her in a striking manner. not anything in general. "Casaubon. Yet I am not certain that she would refuse him if she thought he would let her manage everything and carry out all her notions. as soon as she was aware of her uncle's presence. Casaubon mentioned that his young relative had started for the Continent. It had a small park. Casaubon to be already an accepted lover: she had only begun to feel disgust at the possibility that anything in Dorothea's mind could tend towards such an issue. it will suit you.

unable to occupy herself except in meditation.""How can you let Tantripp talk such gossip to you. Casaubon seemed to be the officiating clergyman. there is something in that. at work with his turning apparatus. Indeed."And you would like to see the church."How delightful to meet you. fed on the same soil. and Mr. When people talked with energy and emphasis she watched their faces and features merely. Brooke.""That is well. ending in one of her rare blushes. and never letting his friends know his address. but pulpy; he will run into any mould. She threw off her mantle and bonnet. saw the emptiness of other people's pretensions much more readily. 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."You _would_ like those.""Humphrey! I have no patience with you. but his surprise only issued in a few moments' silence.""I should think he is far from having a good constitution.Yet those who approached Dorothea.