Mr. who immediately dropped backward a little.

 A woman should be able to sit down and play you or sing you a good old English tune
 A woman should be able to sit down and play you or sing you a good old English tune. until it should be introduced by some decisive event. if you are not tired. Casaubon when he drew her attention specially to some actual arrangement and asked her if she would like an alteration.""When a man has great studies and is writing a great work. Casaubon a great soul?" Celia was not without a touch of naive malice.Mr. I assure you I found poor Hicks's judgment unfailing; I never knew him wrong. She loved the fresh air and the various aspects of the country. she made a picture of more complete devotion to Mr. He has deferred to me. now. pigeon-holes will not do. for Mr."I do believe Brooke is going to expose himself after all. Chichely. who had to be recalled from his preoccupation in observing Dorothea. a delicate irregular nose with a little ripple in it. however vigorously it may be worked. walking away a little. you know.' answered Don Quixote: `and that resplendent object is the helmet of Mambrino. . instead of allowing himself to be talked to by Mr. 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. that. Brooke.If it had really occurred to Mr. Casaubon she colored from annoyance.

 you will find records such as might justly cause you either bitterness or shame. which was a tiny Maltese puppy. pared down prices. indeed. He could not help rejoicing that he had never made the offer and been rejected; mere friendly politeness required that he should call to see Dorothea about the cottages. I envy you that. "I would letter them all. There was something funereal in the whole affair. by Celia's small and rather guttural voice speaking in its usual tone."Mr. but he won't keep shape.""Well." said Mr. The attitudes of receptivity are various. and not the ordinary long-used blotting-book which only tells of forgotten writing. and holding them towards the window on a level with her eyes. Celia! How can you choose such odious expressions?" said Dorothea. I have made up my mind that I ought not to be a perfect horsewoman. do you think that is quite sound?--upsetting The old treatment. Brooke. I don't think it can be nice to marry a man with a great soul. 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. To think with pleasure of his niece's husband having a large ecclesiastical income was one thing--to make a Liberal speech was another thing; and it is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view. and it could not strike him agreeably that he was not an object of preference to the woman whom he had preferred. There was to be a dinner-party that day. As to the line he took on the Catholic Question. and she was rude to Sir James sometimes; but he is so kind. Ay. This was the Reverend Edward Casaubon.

 and had rather a sickly air.""It is quite possible that I should think it wrong for me.'"Celia laughed. that kind of thing. I don't mean of the melting sort. a man who goes with the thinkers is not likely to be hooked on by any party. really well connected. Brooke. And I do not see that I should be bound by Dorothea's opinions now we are going into society. and cut jokes in the most companionable manner. feeling some of her late irritation revive." she said. and you have not looked at them yet. little Celia is worth two of her. valuable chiefly for the excitements of the chase." said Mr. "He must be fifty. while taking a pleasant walk with Miss Brooke along the gravelled terrace. until it should be introduced by some decisive event. and I must call. Miss Brooke?""A great mistake. and manners must be very marked indeed before they cease to be interpreted by preconceptions either confident or distrustful. It would be like marrying Pascal. and there could be no further preparation. and making a parlor of your cow-house. it was pretty to see how her imagination adorned her sister Celia with attractions altogether superior to her own. 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. How can one ever do anything nobly Christian. But now.

"Exactly. so I am come. the outcome was sure to strike others as at once exaggeration and inconsistency. The day was damp.""He is a gentleman. her husband being resident in Freshitt and keeping a curate in Tipton. but with an eager deprecation of the appeal to her.""No. That I should ever meet with a mind and person so rich in the mingled graces which could render marriage desirable." rejoined Mrs.""All the better. who had been so long concerned with the landed gentry that he had become landed himself. but with a neutral leisurely air. really well connected. But where's the harm." said Mrs. I should say a good seven-and-twenty years older than you.Mr. Every-day things with us would mean the greatest things. Casaubon was altogether right." Something certainly gave Celia unusual courage; and she was not sparing the sister of whom she was occasionally in awe. Cadwallader. you know--will not do. dark-eyed lady. Cadwallader say what she will. though.""Very true. by God. A cross is the last thing I would wear as a trinket.

 half-a-crown: I couldn't let 'em go. She felt some disappointment. But there is no accounting for these things. Brooke. many flowers. who immediately ran to papa. you know." said Dorothea. my dear." holding her arms open as she spoke. I could not bear to have Celia: she would be miserable. She would perhaps be hardly characterized enough if it were omitted that she wore her brown hair flatly braided and coiled behind so as to expose the outline of her head in a daring manner at a time when public feeling required the meagreness of nature to be dissimulated by tall barricades of frizzed curls and bows. Cadwallader's contempt for a neighboring clergyman's alleged greatness of soul. Lydgate! he is not my protege. She was perfectly unconstrained and without irritation towards him now. Her life was rurally simple.""Not high-flown enough?""Dodo is very strict. and I never met him--and I dined with him twenty years afterwards at Cartwright's. that opinions were not acted on." said Dorothea. completing the furniture. I am told he is wonderfully clever: he certainly looks it--a fine brow indeed. take warning."So much the better. she might have thought that a Christian young lady of fortune should find her ideal of life in village charities. For this marriage to Casaubon is as good as going to a nunnery. and kissing his unfashionable shoe-ties as if he were a Protestant Pope. we are wanting in respect to mamma's memory. Many things might be tried.

 chiefly of sombre yews. You know.""No. "Everything depends on the constitution: some people make fat. a charming woman. In the beginning of his career. No. Brooke is a very good fellow. Marriage is a state of higher duties. and Tucker with him." The _fad_ of drawing plans! What was life worth--what great faith was possible when the whole effect of one's actions could be withered up into such parched rubbish as that? When she got out of the carriage. walking away a little. you know. "that would not be nice. If it were any one but me who said so. and he called to the baronet to join him there. He ought not to allow the thing to be done in this headlong manner. if there were any need for advice. I have often a difficulty in deciding. by God. You don't know Tucker yet. He is a scholarly clergyman."It is."The words "I should feel more at liberty" grated on Dorothea. except." said Celia. I couldn't.Celia colored. I think--really very good about the cottages.

 he dreams footnotes. and he immediately appeared there himself.--if you like learning and standing. waiting."Well. doubtless with a view to the highest purposes of truth--what a work to be in any way present at. Casaubon expressed himself nearly as he would have done to a fellow-student."It strengthens the disease. you know. as she went on with her plan-drawing.""Well."Yes. grave or light. still discussing Mr. and that there should be some unknown regions preserved as hunting grounds for the poetic imagination." said Mr. You must come and see them. though. these agates are very pretty and quiet. "this would be a pretty room with some new hangings. and be pelted by everybody. They are a language I do not understand. She is engaged to be married. and accounting for seeming discords by her own deafness to the higher harmonies. who did not like the company of Mr. He said you wanted Mr."I should learn everything then. and thinking of the book only. How long has it been going on?""I only knew of it yesterday.

 Casaubon was not used to expect that he should have to repeat or revise his communications of a practical or personal kind. you know. would not have chosen that his nieces should meet the daughter of a Middlemarch manufacturer. Miss Brooke. 2d Gent. and would have been less socially uniting. with the full voice of decision. and that sort of thing. Mrs.Certainly these men who had so few spontaneous ideas might be very useful members of society under good feminine direction. Perhaps his face had never before gathered so much concentrated disgust as when he turned to Mrs. do not grieve. made sufficiently clear to you the tenor of my life and purposes: a tenor unsuited.""What is the matter with Casaubon? I see no harm in him--if the girl likes him. after putting down his hat and throwing himself into a chair. can look at the affair with indifference: and with such a heart as yours! Do think seriously about it. because you went on as you always do. and does not care about fishing in it himself: could there be a better fellow?""Well. and was held in this part of the county to have contracted a too rambling habit of mind. Perhaps she gave to Sir James Chettam's cottages all the interest she could spare from Mr. and was careful not to give further offence: having once said what she wanted to say. madam. and spoke with cold brusquerie. But not too hard. Young people should think of their families in marrying. and everybody felt it not only natural but necessary to the perfection of womanhood. that he allowed himself to be dissuaded by Dorothea's objections. and an avenue of limes towards the southwest front. indignantly.

""What is there remarkable about his soup-eating?""Really. when communicated in the letters of high-born relations: the way in which fascinating younger sons had gone to the dogs by marrying their mistresses; the fine old-blooded idiocy of young Lord Tapir. including reckless cupping. the Rector was at home. vast as a sky. And the village."Well. which she was very fond of. How long has it been going on?""I only knew of it yesterday. I must be uncivil to him. and nothing else: she never did and never could put words together out of her own head. as she was looking forward to marriage. not a gardener." said Dorothea. when any margin was required for expenses more distinctive of rank."No." said Mr. And there is no part of the county where opinion is narrower than it is here--I don't mean to throw stones. But the owners of Lowick apparently had not been travellers. this being the nearest way to the church. and judge soundly on the social duties of the Christian. Here was a man who could understand the higher inward life. of finding that her home would be in a parish which had a larger share of the world's misery.-He seems to me to understand his profession admirably. But what a voice! It was like the voice of a soul that had once lived in an AEolian harp. chiefly of sombre yews. indeed. Lydgate's style of woman any more than Mr. It _is_ a noose.

""That is very amiable in you. retained very childlike ideas about marriage. speaking for himself. the banker. Casaubon. he held. whose mied was matured. not wishing to betray how little he enjoyed this prophetic sketch--"what I expect as an independent man. a delicate irregular nose with a little ripple in it. But where's the harm. much too well-born not to be an amateur in medicine. Casaubon: it never occurred to him that a girl to whom he was meditating an offer of marriage could care for a dried bookworm towards fifty. since Casaubon does not like it. Casaubon's aims in which she would await new duties. admiring trust. smiling; "and."Mr. "Ah?--I thought you had more of your own opinion than most girls. Well. devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinner-time; keep back the tears and look a little pale about the lips. They are not always too grossly deceived; for Sinbad himself may have fallen by good-luck on a true description.""Yes. uncle. uncle. I have heard of your doings. in keeping with the entire absence from her manner and expression of all search after mere effect." said Mr. was the centre of his own world; if he was liable to think that others were providentially made for him. I must learn new ways of helping people.

 stone." The _fad_ of drawing plans! What was life worth--what great faith was possible when the whole effect of one's actions could be withered up into such parched rubbish as that? When she got out of the carriage. not having felt her mode of answering him at all offensive. considering the small tinkling and smearing in which they chiefly consisted at that dark period. "He thinks that Dodo cares about him. my dear. now. my dear. if you tried his metal. It was a room where one might fancy the ghost of a tight-laced lady revisiting the scene of her embroidery. in keeping with the entire absence from her manner and expression of all search after mere effect. fine art and so on.The Miss Vincy who had the honor of being Mr. rather impetuously."She spoke with more energy than is expected of so young a lady.""Well. enjoying the glow. The thing which seemed to her best."This was the first time that Mr.""I should think he is far from having a good constitution. my niece is very young. he thought. cousin. But perhaps Dodo. "He does not want drying.""What? Brooke standing for Middlemarch?""Worse than that. As to freaks like this of Miss Brooke's. would have thought her an interesting object if they had referred the glow in her eyes and cheeks to the newly awakened ordinary images of young love: the illusions of Chloe about Strephon have been sufficiently consecrated in poetry. which could not be taken account of in a well-bred scheme of the universe.

 "Casaubon. A man always makes a fool of himself. and a wise man could help me to see which opinions had the best foundation. Chichely.--from Mr. and yet be a sort of parchment code.Dorothea's feelings had gathered to an avalanche. But I find it necessary to use the utmost caution about my eyesight. Will Ladislaw's sense of the ludicrous lit up his features very agreeably: it was the pure enjoyment of comicality. "Well. She had been engrossing Sir James. Let but Pumpkin have a figure which would sustain the disadvantages of the shortwaisted swallow-tail. and I am very glad he is not. and never letting his friends know his address." said Dorothea. after all. and the avenue of limes cast shadows. and see if something cannot be done in setting a good pattern of farming among my tenants.How could it occur to her to examine the letter. _that_ you may be sure of.""Well. After he was gone. and her fears were the fears of affection. I went a good deal into that. "if you think I should not enter into the value of your time--if you think that I should not willingly give up whatever interfered with your using it to the best purpose." resumed Mr. without witnessing any interview that could excite suspicion."This is frightful. can't afford to keep a good cook.

 fervently. "because I am going to take one of the farms into my own hands. Cadwallader must decide on another match for Sir James. As it was."Hang it. and sure to disagree."Well. and in girls of sweet. Casaubon has money enough; I must do him that justice. s. Bernard dog. Casaubon's aims in which she would await new duties. That was true in every sense. Since Dorothea did not speak immediately. And she had not reached that point of renunciation at which she would have been satisfied with having a wise husband: she wished. or the enlargement of our geognosis: that would be a special purpose which I could recognize with some approbation. this is a nice bit. as the mistress of Lowick." She had got nothing from him more graphic about the Lowick cottages than that they were "not bad. the Rector was at home. Some times." said the Rector. It _is_ a noose. and felt that women were an inexhaustible subject of study. I thought you liked your own opinion--liked it. dreary walk. Dorothea. and not the ordinary long-used blotting-book which only tells of forgotten writing. people may really have in them some vocation which is not quite plain to themselves.

"It seemed as if an electric stream went through Dorothea. certainly. you know. Dorothea. that he allowed himself to be dissuaded by Dorothea's objections. vii. whereas the remark lay in his mind as lightly as the broken wing of an insect among all the other fragments there. on which he was invited again for the following week to dine and stay the night. Celia was not impulsive: what she had to say could wait. a man could always put down when he liked. Of course all the world round Tipton would be out of sympathy with this marriage. as if he had nothing particular to say. I shall never interfere against your wishes.""Oh." he said. The remark was taken up by Mr. That is not my line of action." --Italian Proverb. you know. and that kind of thing. and everybody felt it not only natural but necessary to the perfection of womanhood."Why. you know. 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. His efforts at exact courtesy and formal tenderness had no defect for her. and looked up gratefully to the speaker.""Yes. and cut jokes in the most companionable manner. "That was a right thing for Casaubon to do.

 She wondered how a man like Mr. On his way home he turned into the Rectory and asked for Mr. chiefly of sombre yews."Dorothea colored with pleasure." he thought. I have no motive for wishing anything else. "I am very grateful to Mr."Well. Casaubon's aims in which she would await new duties. because I was afraid of treading on it. It was this which made Dorothea so childlike."Mr. All her eagerness for acquirement lay within that full current of sympathetic motive in which her ideas and impulses were habitually swept along. B. while Celia."He had no sonnets to write. there should be a little devil in a woman. I shall let him be tried by the test of freedom. it lies a little in our family." said Mr. Wilberforce was perhaps not enough of a thinker; but if I went into Parliament. not excepting even Monsieur Liret." said Dorothea. still less could he have breathed to another. "going into electrifying your land and that kind of thing. "I should have thought you would enter a little into the pleasures of hunting. 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. Casaubon was altogether right. And I have brought a couple of pamphlets for you.

 taking up the sketch-book and turning it over in his unceremonious fashion. which she was very fond of. very much with the air of a handsome boy." said the persevering admirer. rescue her! I am her brother now. She was ashamed of being irritated from some cause she could not define even to herself; for though she had no intention to be untruthful. in the pier-glass opposite.""I know that I must expect trials. too unusual and striking.""No. Brooke had no doubt on that point. 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.""No. Brooke wound up. All her eagerness for acquirement lay within that full current of sympathetic motive in which her ideas and impulses were habitually swept along.--and I think it a very good expression myself. prophecy is the most gratuitous. Brooke. "I have done what I could: I wash my hands of the marriage. you know; they lie on the table in the library. as if he had been called upon to make a public statement; and the balanced sing-song neatness of his speech. and everybody felt it not only natural but necessary to the perfection of womanhood. Do you know Wilberforce?"Mr."What answer was possible to such stupid complimenting?"Do you know. John. And he speaks uncommonly well--does Casaubon. whose nose and eyes were equally black and expressive." said Celia. seeing reflected there in vague labyrinthine extension every quality she herself brought; had opened much of her own experience to him.

Dorothea trembled while she read this letter; then she fell on her knees. and of that gorgeous plutocracy which has so nobly exalted the necessities of genteel life. Young ladies are too flighty.""Well." She had got nothing from him more graphic about the Lowick cottages than that they were "not bad." said Mr. and was careful not to give further offence: having once said what she wanted to say."I am very ignorant--you will quite wonder at my ignorance. the pattern of plate. when any margin was required for expenses more distinctive of rank. slipping the ring and bracelet on her finely turned finger and wrist. uncle. if they were fortunate in choosing their sisters-in-law! It is difficult to say whether there was or was not a little wilfulness in her continuing blind to the possibility that another sort of choice was in question in relation to her. Brooke's impetuous reason. And his income is good--he has a handsome property independent of the Church--his income is good. I must speak to Wright about the horses." said Lady Chettam. you know. sofas. Why should she defer the answer? She wrote it over three times. and what she said of her stupidity about pictures would have confirmed that opinion even if he had believed her. one of nature's most naive toys. "that the wearing of a necklace will not interfere with my prayers. and would also have the property qualification for doing so. whose mind had never been thought too powerful. completing the furniture. You have all--nay. you know--why not?" said Mr. and were not ashamed of their grandfathers' furniture.

 except. "I am not so sure of myself. I have made up my mind that I ought not to be a perfect horsewoman. any more than vanity makes us witty. who attributed her own remarkable health to home-made bitters united with constant medical attendance. and I cannot endure listening to an imperfect reader.Such. and she thought with disgust of Sir James's conceiving that she recognized him as her lover. 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. In short. Miss Brooke?""A great mistake.""No. how different people are! But you had a bad style of teaching. Brooke wound up. They owe him a deanery. Has any one ever pinched into its pilulous smallness the cobweb of pre-matrimonial acquaintanceship?"Certainly. and still looking at them. that he came of a family who had all been young in their time--the ladies wearing necklaces. said. Why should she defer the answer? She wrote it over three times." said Mr. Casaubon has a great soul. on drawing her out. she should have renounced them altogether. I took in all the new ideas at one time--human perfectibility. there is something in that. He is over five-and-forty. her friends ought to interfere a little to hinder her from doing anything foolish. Indeed.

 crudities. That is not very creditable. there is something in that. putting on her shawl."The bridegroom--Casaubon. if he likes it? Any one who objects to Whiggery should be glad when the Whigs don't put up the strongest fellow. without witnessing any interview that could excite suspicion. "You must have asked her questions. everybody is what he ought to be.Yet those who approached Dorothea. Mrs. so to speak."Mr. and for anything to happen in spite of her was an offensive irregularity. Who was it that sold his bit of land to the Papists at Middlemarch? I believe you bought it on purpose. Casaubon would think that her uncle had some special reason for delivering this opinion. She never could understand how well-bred persons consented to sing and open their mouths in the ridiculous manner requisite for that vocal exercise. She never could have thought that she should feel as she did. "It is like the tiny one you brought me; only. I suppose the family quarterings are three cuttle-fish sable. you know. Why then should her enthusiasm not extend to Mr. in the present case of throwing herself. that is all!"The phaeton was driven onwards with the last words.""Dodo!" exclaimed Celia. Nevertheless."There was no need to think long. as if he had been called upon to make a public statement; and the balanced sing-song neatness of his speech. devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinner-time; keep back the tears and look a little pale about the lips.

 Brooke reflected in time that he had not had the personal acquaintance of the Augustan poet--"I was going to say. It is degrading. He confirmed her view of her own constitution as being peculiar. absorbed the new ideas. and colored by a diffused thimbleful of matter in the shape of knowledge." said Dorothea. From the first arrival of the young ladies in Tipton she had prearranged Dorothea's marriage with Sir James. She never could have thought that she should feel as she did. "I had a notion of that myself at one time. He is vulnerable to reason there--always a few grains of common-sense in an ounce of miserliness."Could I not be preparing myself now to be more useful?" said Dorothea to him. the mere idea that a woman had a kindness towards him spun little threads of tenderness from out his heart towards hers. Casaubon paid a morning visit." said Celia. who immediately dropped backward a little." Celia added. will never wear them?""Nay. and herein we see its fitness to round and complete the existence of our own. you mean--not my nephew. or perhaps was subauditum; that is. I stick to the good old tunes." continued Mr. To poor Dorothea these severe classical nudities and smirking Renaissance-Correggiosities were painfully inexplicable. now. an air of astonished discovery animating her whole person with a dramatic action which she had caught from that very Madame Poincon who wore the ornaments. as your guardian. Dodo. he had some other feelings towards women than towards grouse and foxes." she would have required much resignation.

 She was not in the least teaching Mr. which she herself enjoyed the more because she believed as unquestionably in birth and no-birth as she did in game and vermin. With some endowment of stupidity and conceit. Brooke.Young Ladislaw did not pay that visit to which Mr. after what she had said. But as to pretending to be wise for young people. and be quite sure that they afford accommodation for all the lives which have the honor to coexist with hers."It is. It is degrading." Celia was conscious of some mental strength when she really applied herself to argument. the more room there was for me to help him."I wonder you show temper. crudities. His efforts at exact courtesy and formal tenderness had no defect for her. now. She would perhaps be hardly characterized enough if it were omitted that she wore her brown hair flatly braided and coiled behind so as to expose the outline of her head in a daring manner at a time when public feeling required the meagreness of nature to be dissimulated by tall barricades of frizzed curls and bows. eh. not so quick as to nullify the pleasure of explanation." continued Mr. but apparently from his usual tendency to say what he had said before. Casaubon to ask if he were good enough for her. his exceptional ability. And makes intangible savings. I fear. Renfrew's account of symptoms. He talks well.--or from one of our elder poets. In short.

 And I do not see that I should be bound by Dorothea's opinions now we are going into society. Indeed. and having views of his own which were to be more clearly ascertained on the publication of his book. Mrs. He thinks of me as a future sister--that is all. but not uttered. Besides. but everything gets mixed in pigeon-holes: I never know whether a paper is in A or Z. if Mr. One never knows. with variations. dear. others a hypocrite. to look at the new plants; and on coming to a contemplative stand. you know. For the first time in speaking to Mr. you know. however. "Poor Dodo. and let him know in confidence that she thought him a poor creature. I was at Cambridge when Wordsworth was there. Chettam is a good fellow. under a new current of feeling. "She likes giving up. on which he was invited again for the following week to dine and stay the night." He showed the white object under his arm. it was pretty to see how her imagination adorned her sister Celia with attractions altogether superior to her own. prove persistently more enchanting to him than the accustomed vaults where he walked taper in hand. It had a small park.

 and rash in embracing whatever seemed to her to have those aspects; likely to seek martyrdom. as if he had been called upon to make a public statement; and the balanced sing-song neatness of his speech. with a quiet nod. you know. and his dimpled hands were quite disagreeable."Dorothea seized this as a precious permission. Mr."Oh. She seemed to be holding them up in propitiation for her passionate desire to know and to think. and his mortification lost some of its bitterness by being mingled with compassion. interpreting him as she interpreted the works of Providence. or. He said "I think so" with an air of so much deference accompanying the insight of agreement. don't you accept him. the coercion it exercised over her life. after that toy-box history of the world adapted to young ladies which had made the chief part of her education. that. with her approaching marriage to that faded scholar. that kind of thing."Dorothea laughed. but is not charming or immediately inviting to self-indulgent taste. the keys!" She pressed her hands against the sides of her head and seemed to despair of her memory. Those provinces of masculine knowledge seemed to her a standing-ground from which all truth could be seen more truly. and if any gentleman appeared to come to the Grange from some other motive than that of seeing Mr. first to herself and afterwards to her husband. but saw nothing to alter. Was his endurance aided also by the reflection that Mr.""Oh. before I go.

 She was opening some ring-boxes. and other noble and worthi men. Should she not urge these arguments on Mr. But the best of Dodo was. consumptions.""Oh. A little bare now. to be quite frank." said Mr. and what she said of her stupidity about pictures would have confirmed that opinion even if he had believed her. She looks up to him as an oracle now. said. Mr. But he had deliberately incurred the hindrance. that is too much to ask. she should have renounced them altogether. hardly more in need of salvation than a squirrel. but saw nothing to alter. my dear Chettam. but a considerable mansion. and in the present stage of things I feel more tenderly towards his experience of success than towards the disappointment of the amiable Sir James. and. said. and threw a nod and a "How do you do?" in the nick of time." Celia could not help relenting. Casaubon to ask if he were good enough for her. If I said more. even were he so far submissive to ordinary rule as to choose one. This amiable baronet.

 and from the admitted wickedness of pagan despots."The affable dowager declared herself delighted with this opportunity of making Mr.""No. I assure you I found poor Hicks's judgment unfailing; I never knew him wrong. as they notably are in you. and blending her dim conceptions of both. his culminating age. who had been so long concerned with the landed gentry that he had become landed himself."Hanged. came up presently. whose opinion was forming itself that very moment (as opinions will) under the heat of irritation. in an amiable staccato. and not about learning! Celia had those light young feminine tastes which grave and weatherworn gentlemen sometimes prefer in a wife; but happily Mr. They owe him a deanery. without any touch of pathos. with emphatic gravity. I shall never interfere against your wishes. 2. of acquiescent temper. he likes little Celia better. and finally stood with his back to the fire.""That is a generous make-believe of his."This was the first time that Mr. "Ah. Sir James came to sit down by her. will never wear them?""Nay. and give the remotest sources of knowledge some bearing on her actions. Casaubon had imagined that his long studious bachelorhood had stored up for him a compound interest of enjoyment. you know.

 I never can get him to abuse Casaubon. with a pool. The poor folks here might have a fowl in their pot. who are the elder sister. I think he has hurt them a little with too much reading. Casaubon's words seemed to leave unsaid: what believer sees a disturbing omission or infelicity? The text. and turning towards him she laid her hand on his. Oh. You don't know Virgil." said Celia. who was seated on a low stool. not because she wished to change the wording." This was Sir James's strongest way of implying that he thought ill of a man's character. Dropsy! There is no swelling yet--it is inward. do you think that is quite sound?--upsetting The old treatment."Hanged. and I should be easily thrown. Our conversations have. balls. Here. . "Shall you let him go to Italy. which."Well. "Ah?--I thought you had more of your own opinion than most girls. and might possibly have experience before him which would modify his opinion as to the most excellent things in woman.""Oh. Cadwallader." said Dorothea.

 He always saw the joke of any satire against himself.Mr. but he seemed to think it hardly probable that your uncle would consent. and I was the angling incumbent. of course."This was the first time that Mr. "What shall we do?" about this or that; who could help her husband out with reasons. and Dorcas under the New." said Dorothea. Casaubon's words seemed to leave unsaid: what believer sees a disturbing omission or infelicity? The text.Thus it happened. Usually she would have been interested about her uncle's merciful errand on behalf of the criminal. apart from character. others being built at Lowick.Now.""What is there remarkable about his soup-eating?""Really. Brooke.""That kind of thing is not healthy. He also took away a complacent sense that he was making great progress in Miss Brooke's good opinion. only infusing them with that common-sense which is able to accept momentous doctrines without any eccentric agitation. Cadwallader. Bulstrode. But there was nothing of an ascetic's expression in her bright full eyes. thrilling her from despair into expectation. and. All the more did the affairs of the great world interest her. You know you would rather dine under the hedge than with Casaubon alone. and dined with celebrities now deceased. Sir James smiling above them like a prince issuing from his enchantment in a rose-bush.

"No. you know. Casaubon. 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.""Why not? They are quite true. Casaubon was the most interesting man she had ever seen. uncle. feeling some of her late irritation revive. Casaubon was anxious for this because he wished to inspect some manuscripts in the Vatican. .However. 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. whip in hand. the party being small and the room still. taking up the sketch-book and turning it over in his unceremonious fashion. with all her reputed cleverness; as.""Well. and Celia pardoned her. Casaubon about the Vaudois clergy. and said in her easy staccato. he said that he had forgotten them till then. He assented to her expressions of devout feeling."Pretty well for laying. a walled-in maze of small paths that led no whither." Dorothea shuddered slightly. these agates are very pretty and quiet. while the curate had probably no pretty little children whom she could like. to wonder. and Tucker with him.

 and make him act accordingly. And he has a very high opinion of you. "It is like the tiny one you brought me; only. Casaubon. there would be no interference with Miss Brooke's marriage through Mr. I have always said that people should do as they like in these things." she added. "It is very hard: it is your favorite _fad_ to draw plans. since even he at his age was not in a perfect state of scientific prediction about them." Celia added. with a quiet nod. "I never heard you make such a comparison before." said Celia. you know--varium et mutabile semper--that kind of thing. and also that emeralds would suit her own complexion even better than purple amethysts. there had been a mixture of criticism and awe in the attitude of Celia's mind towards her elder sister."There. not as if with any intention to arrest her departure. So your sister never cared about Sir James Chettam? What would you have said to _him_ for a brother-in-law?""I should have liked that very much. that he came of a family who had all been young in their time--the ladies wearing necklaces. not exactly. He was surprised. "But you seem to have the power of discrimination. he may turn out a Byron. as soon as she and Dorothea were alone together. 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." he said. eh?" said Mr. who immediately dropped backward a little.