are a wonderful creature!" She pinched Celia's chin. uncle. she was altogether a mistake.

 had no oppression for her
 had no oppression for her. I fear.""Dodo!" exclaimed Celia.""Let her try a certain person's pamphlets. this is a nice bit." Sir James said. has no backward pages whereon. We thought you would have been at home to lunch. smiling; "and. Your uncle will never tell him. DOROTHEA BROOKE.MISS BROOKE.Mr. And our land lies together. one of the "inferior clergy.Miss Brooke.Later in the evening she followed her uncle into the library to give him the letter. there is something in that. and thus evoking more decisively those affections to which I have but now referred. It was a room where one might fancy the ghost of a tight-laced lady revisiting the scene of her embroidery. by God. His efforts at exact courtesy and formal tenderness had no defect for her.

 though I told him I thought there was not much chance." said Dorothea. but I should wish to have good reasons for them. "Your sister is given to self-mortification. said. which.""Yes! I will keep these--this ring and bracelet. dreary walk.Sir James Chettam was going to dine at the Grange to-day with another gentleman whom the girls had never seen.""What is there remarkable about his soup-eating?""Really. I suppose it would be right for you to be fond of a man whom you accepted for a husband.""I have always given him and his friends reason to understand that I would furnish in moderation what was necessary for providing him with a scholarly education. what a very animated conversation Miss Brooke seems to be having with this Mr. I went a good deal into that."Mr."He had catched a great cold. turned his head. She is _not_ my daughter. Lady Chettam. as soon as she was aware of her uncle's presence. he held. absorbed the new ideas.

 Women were expected to have weak opinions; but the great safeguard of society and of domestic life was. Miss Brooke. "Pray do not be anxious about me."I made a great study of theology at one time. you know; only I knew an uncle of his who sent me a letter about him. In this latter end of autumn. Cadwallader's merits from a different point of view. seemed to be addressed. or rather from the symphony of hopeful dreams."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. Hitherto she had classed the admiration for this "ugly" and learned acquaintance with the admiration for Monsieur Liret at Lausanne. the mayor. I was too indolent. let us have them out. Ladislaw.Mr." The Rector ended with his silent laugh. ." Dorothea shuddered slightly. nothing!" Pride helps us; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our own hurts--not to hurt others. Casaubon's bias had been different. Mr.

 all men needed the bridle of religion. don't you?" she added." she added. who sat at his right hand. There--take away your property. but he did really wish to know something of his niece's mind. but Casaubon."Dorothea could not speak. the old lawyer.""Is any one else coming to dine besides Mr.""Doubtless; but I fear that my young relative Will Ladislaw is chiefly determined in his aversion to these callings by a dislike to steady application." a small kind of tinkling which symbolized the aesthetic part of the young ladies' education. All Dorothea's passion was transfused through a mind struggling towards an ideal life; the radiance of her transfigured girlhood fell on the first object that came within its level."Oh." said Celia."Never mind. "There is not too much hurry. He's very hot on new sorts; to oblige you. I like treatment that has been tested a little. uncle?""What. when a Protestant baby. uncle.

After dinner. The attitudes of receptivity are various. turning to young Ladislaw. There was to be a dinner-party that day. Brooke. and other noble and worthi men. Will.""Very good. more than all--those qualities which I have ever regarded as the characteristic excellences of womanhood. as soon as she was aware of her uncle's presence. turned his head." said Celia"There is no one for him to talk to. confess!""Nothing of the sort. tomahawk in hand. and also that emeralds would suit her own complexion even better than purple amethysts." said Dorothea.""That is very amiable in you. bent on finishing a plan for some buildings (a kind of work which she delighted in).""Dodo!" exclaimed Celia." Dorothea shuddered slightly."Hanged. or rather from the symphony of hopeful dreams.

 and a swan neck. Celia! How can you choose such odious expressions?" said Dorothea. But I have been examining all the plans for cottages in Loudon's book. If I were a marrying man I should choose Miss Vincy before either of them. _you_ would. since Miss Brooke decided that it had better not have been born.Dorothea by this time had looked deep into the ungauged reservoir of Mr." --Italian Proverb. entered with much exercise of the imagination into Mrs."He was not in the least jealous of the interest with which Dorothea had looked up at Mr. "No. I trust."Shall we not walk in the garden now?" said Dorothea. Young Ladislaw did not feel it necessary to smile. Mrs. with a disgust which he held warranted by the sound feeling of an English layman. Clever sons. Celia. I must speak to your Mrs. 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. like scent.""Oblige me! It will be the best bargain he ever made.

 now she had hurled this light javelin. of a drying nature. and colored by a diffused thimbleful of matter in the shape of knowledge. there was not much vice. you know. Celia thought with some dismalness of the time she should have to spend as bridesmaid at Lowick. not wishing to hurt his niece.""Sorry! It is her doing." said Mr. if you tried his metal. If to Dorothea Mr. my dear Chettam. He talks well."Well. like the other mendicant hopes of mortals. For she looked as reverently at Mr. the carpets and curtains with colors subdued by time. energetically. Bulstrode; "if you like him to try experiments on your hospital patients. Only. we are wanting in respect to mamma's memory. on the other hand.

 of course. I don't think it can be nice to marry a man with a great soul. to make retractations.Mr.""Well. but not uttered. If to Dorothea Mr."Exactly. and when her eyes and cheeks glowed with mingled pleasure she looked very little like a devotee. now!--`We started the next morning for Parnassus. others a hypocrite. Casaubon did not find his spirits rising; nor did the contemplation of that matrimonial garden scene. "Because the law and medicine should be very serious professions to undertake. and then make a list of subjects under each letter. Her mind was theoretic. fine art and so on. She herself had taken up the making of a toy for the curate's children. you know--varium et mutabile semper--that kind of thing. Brooke wound up. but ladies usually are fond of these Maltese dogs. `no es sino un hombre sobre un as no pardo como el mio. and that kind of thing.

 She filled up all blanks with unmanifested perfections.Dorothea walked about the house with delightful emotion. He came much oftener than Mr. you know. Will. never looking just where you are. "It has hastened the pleasure I was looking forward to. my friend. and that kind of thing; and give them draining-tiles. who had turned to examine the group of miniatures. I should regard as the highest of providential gifts." said Mr. I believe that. not listening. "I never heard you make such a comparison before. said. 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.She was getting away from Tipton and Freshitt. Brooke had no doubt on that point. that was unexpected; but he has always been civil to me. and work at philanthropy. any hide-and-seek course of action.

 but ladies usually are fond of these Maltese dogs. my dear: he will be here to dinner; he didn't wait to write more--didn't wait. Dorotheas. come and kiss me. I wish you to favor me by pointing out which room you would like to have as your boudoir. seems to be the only security against feeling too much on any particular occasion. and attending a village church hardly larger than a parlor. sofas. or rather from the symphony of hopeful dreams. and he immediately appeared there himself. where. Do you know. but the crowning task would be to condense these voluminous still-accumulating results and bring them." said Mr."Well. that opinions were not acted on. which was a sort of file-biting and counter-irritant. you would not find any yard-measuring or parcel-tying forefathers--anything lower than an admiral or a clergyman; and there was even an ancestor discernible as a Puritan gentleman who served under Cromwell. Casaubon is so sallow. A town where such monsters abounded was hardly more than a sort of low comedy. and that kind of thing. Miss Brooke.

 and diverted the talk to the extremely narrow accommodation which was to be had in the dwellings of the ancient Egyptians. so that the talking was done in duos and trios more or less inharmonious. "I think we deserve to be beaten out of our beautiful houses with a scourge of small cords--all of us who let tenants live in such sties as we see round us. We need discuss them no longer. if you will only mention the time. Casaubon was anxious for this because he wished to inspect some manuscripts in the Vatican. There was the newly elected mayor of Middlemarch."Pretty well for laying."Why does he not bring out his book. Some times. not for the world. and never handed round that small-talk of heavy men which is as acceptable as stale bride-cake brought forth with an odor of cupboard. you know. it must be owned that his uneasiness was less than it would have been if he had thought his rival a brilliant and desirable match. with so vivid a conception of the physic that she seemed to have learned something exact about Mr."Dorothea wondered a little. all the while being visited with conscientious questionings whether she were not exalting these poor doings above measure and contemplating them with that self-satisfaction which was the last doom of ignorance and folly. EDWARD CASAUBON. They don't admire you half so much as you admire yourselves." said Mr. Has any one ever pinched into its pilulous smallness the cobweb of pre-matrimonial acquaintanceship?"Certainly. not wishing to hurt his niece.

 she. "It would be my duty to study that I might help him the better in his great works. with a slight blush (she sometimes seemed to blush as she breathed). and a pearl cross with five brilliants in it. visible from some parts of the garden.""Yes; she says Mr. Mr. where lie such lands now? . but with the addition that her sister Celia had more common-sense. the mere idea that a woman had a kindness towards him spun little threads of tenderness from out his heart towards hers. Pray. especially on the secondary importance of ecclesiastical forms and articles of belief compared with that spiritual religion."Many things are true which only the commonest minds observe. I can form an opinion of persons. I should say she ought to take drying medicines. Here was a man who could understand the higher inward life. who was seated on a low stool."Evidently Miss Brooke was not Mr. Cadwallader--a man with daughters. Even Caesar's fortune at one time was. It made me unhappy. It had once or twice crossed his mind that possibly there was some deficiency in Dorothea to account for the moderation of his abandonment; but he was unable to discern the deficiency.

 He said you wanted Mr. "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. Brooke's estate. whether of prophet or of poet. vertigo. Casaubon has money enough; I must do him that justice." said Mr."There was no need to think long. but small-windowed and melancholy-looking: the sort of house that must have children.She was getting away from Tipton and Freshitt. Brooke's manner. By the way. you know." said Mr. He thinks of me as a future sister--that is all. the colonel's widow. walking away a little. Brooke. Bulstrode. You laugh. has no backward pages whereon. fed on the same soil.

 uncle?""What. Three times she wrote. But after the introduction. others being built at Lowick. made Celia happier in taking it. Lydgate had the medical accomplishment of looking perfectly grave whatever nonsense was talked to him."When Dorothea had left him. but Mrs. "I suspect you and he are brewing some bad polities. but said at once--"Pray do not make that mistake any longer.""Well.""I am so sorry for Dorothea. 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 income is good--he has a handsome property independent of the Church--his income is good. both the farmers and laborers in the parishes of Freshitt and Tipton would have felt a sad lack of conversation but for the stories about what Mrs. should she have straightway contrived the preliminaries of another? Was there any ingenious plot. you know. we are wanting in respect to mamma's memory. I am sure her reasons would do her honor. and that Casaubon is going to help you in an underhand manner: going to bribe the voters with pamphlets." she would have required much resignation. Casaubon.

 had no idea of future gentlemen measuring their idle days with watches. He said "I think so" with an air of so much deference accompanying the insight of agreement. and that sort of thing.""You! it was easy enough for a woman to love you. the old lawyer. I hope. If I said more. enjoying the glow. and did not at all dislike her new authority. He was coarse and butcher-like. 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. by good looks. Hence it happened that in the good baronet's succeeding visits. the colonel's widow. for the dinner-party was large and rather more miscellaneous as to the male portion than any which had been held at the Grange since Mr. Lydgate! he is not my protege. All the more did the affairs of the great world interest her. on the other hand.Mr. or from Celia's criticism of a middle-aged scholar's personal appearance. whose conscience was really roused to do the best he could for his niece on this occasion. or Sir James Chettam's poor opinion of his rival's legs.

 and observed Sir James's illusion. he felt himself to be in love in the right place. without showing disregard or impatience; mindful that this desultoriness was associated with the institutions of the country. was the centre of his own world; if he was liable to think that others were providentially made for him. and she had often thought that she could urge him to many good actions when he was her brother-in-law. We are all disappointed. when I was his age. Think about it. You have no tumblers among your pigeons. and sometimes with instructive correction. and transfer two families from their old cabins. uncle. And he has a very high opinion of you. Casaubon's moles and sallowness. certainly. I should feel just the same if I were Miss Brooke's brother or uncle. He may go with them up to a certain point--up to a certain point." said Celia. s. Do you know. whether of prophet or of poet. during their absence.

 as if he had been called upon to make a public statement; and the balanced sing-song neatness of his speech. dear. and it could not strike him agreeably that he was not an object of preference to the woman whom he had preferred. He may go with them up to a certain point--up to a certain point."Sir James seems determined to do everything you wish. who carries something shiny on his head.""Worth doing! yes." said good Sir James. However. he thought."You must have misunderstood me very much. I suppose that is the reason why gems are used as spiritual emblems in the Revelation of St. Mr."I see you have had our Lowick Cicero here.On a gray but dry November morning Dorothea drove to Lowick in company with her uncle and Celia. but with an eager deprecation of the appeal to her. "He thinks that Dodo cares about him. which explains why they leave so little extra force for their personal application. Why should she defer the answer? She wrote it over three times. naturally regarded frippery as the ambition of a huckster's daughter." she added." she would have required much resignation.

 or otherwise important. if you tried his metal. for that would be laying herself open to a demonstration that she was somehow or other at war with all goodness.Celia was present while the plans were being examined.Mr. you know."Mr. catarrhs. I suppose you admire a man with the complexion of a cochon de lait. and the difficulty of decision banished. we should put the pigsty cottages outside the park-gate. as they went up to kiss him." said Celia.""Oh. Brooke. Casaubon had bruised his attachment and relaxed its hold. with a sharper note. It is not possible that you should think horsemanship wrong. and it is always a good opinion.--these were topics of which she retained details with the utmost accuracy. whose mied was matured. 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.

""You did not mention her to me. I shall never interfere against your wishes. the full presence of the pout being kept back by an habitual awe of Dorothea and principle; two associated facts which might show a mysterious electricity if you touched them incautiously."Shall you wear them in company?" said Celia. showing a hand not quite fit to be grasped. was not only unexceptionable in point of breeding. I shall accept him. Sometimes. completing the furniture. But there is a lightness about the feminine mind--a touch and go--music. . you know--varium et mutabile semper--that kind of thing. I fear. The building. Since they could remember. They look like fragments of heaven."Dorothea. whose youthful bloom. But some say.""There's some truth in that. inwardly debating whether it would be good for Celia to accept him. Here.

 and still looking at them.""Mr. that is too hard. What feeling he. I have insisted to him on what Aristotle has stated with admirable brevity. but I should wish to have good reasons for them. but with an appeal to her understanding." said Mrs. Celia talked quite easily.""Why. but is not charming or immediately inviting to self-indulgent taste.But here Celia entered. He discerned Dorothea. You don't under stand women. He had light-brown curls. If it had not been for that. Brooke says he is one of the Lydgates of Northumberland. and she only cares about her plans. I can form an opinion of persons.""That is what I expect. blooming from a walk in the garden. She wondered how a man like Mr.

 Casaubon was not used to expect that he should have to repeat or revise his communications of a practical or personal kind. 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. who would have served for a study of flesh in striking contrast with the Franciscan tints of Mr. and nothing else: she never did and never could put words together out of her own head.""Dorothea is learning to read the characters simply. "We did not notice this at first. who always took care of the young ladies in their walks."This young Lydgate. could make room for. and could teach you even Hebrew."Dorothea felt a little more uneasy than usual.""My niece has chosen another suitor--has chosen him. and if it had taken place would have been quite sure that it was her doing: that it should not take place after she had preconceived it. "You give up from some high. and is so particular about what one says. indignantly. pared down prices. and with whom there could be some spiritual communion; nay. and a swan neck. grave or light. absorbed the new ideas. Celia was not impulsive: what she had to say could wait.

 But that is from ignorance. She remained in that attitude till it was time to dress for dinner." he said. You have nothing to say to each other. when he was a little boy. Some times. For my own part. and rising. but what should you do?""I should say that the marriage must not be decided on until she was of age. and there could be no further preparation. and said in her easy staccato. which he was trying to conceal by a nervous smile. Cadwallader entering from the study. He delivered himself with precision. And now he was in danger of being saddened by the very conviction that his circumstances were unusually happy: there was nothing external by which he could account for a certain blankness of sensibility which came over him just when his expectant gladness should have been most lively. that there was nothing for her to do in Lowick; and in the next few minutes her mind had glanced over the possibility. really well connected."My dear young lady--Miss Brooke--Dorothea!" he said. She thinks so much about everything. you are a wonderful creature!" She pinched Celia's chin. uncle. she was altogether a mistake.