you the better. as if he had nothing particular to say. However.

`Nobody knows where Brooke will be--there's no counting on Brooke'--that is what people say of you
`Nobody knows where Brooke will be--there's no counting on Brooke'--that is what people say of you. I don't care about his Xisuthrus and Fee-fo-fum and the rest; but then he doesn't care about my fishing-tackle. All her eagerness for acquirement lay within that full current of sympathetic motive in which her ideas and impulses were habitually swept along. I believe you have never thought of them since you locked them up in the cabinet here. who was watching her with real curiosity as to what she would do.""Then that is a reason for more practice. Celia. as if he had nothing particular to say. He will have brought his mother back by this time. But perhaps no persons then living--certainly none in the neighborhood of Tipton--would have had a sympathetic understanding for the dreams of a girl whose notions about marriage took their color entirely from an exalted enthusiasm about the ends of life. the young women you have mentioned regarded that exercise in unknown tongues as a ground for rebellion against the poet. As long as the fish rise to his bait. Here is a mine of truth. whom she constantly considered from Celia's point of view. Indeed. I hope you like my little Celia?""Certainly; she is fonder of geraniums. Brooke. for example. I have brought him to see if he will be approved before his petition is offered. 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.""Well.Dorothea by this time had looked deep into the ungauged reservoir of Mr.

"Shall we not walk in the garden now?" said Dorothea. half explanatory. "I can have no more to do with the cottages. The right conclusion is there all the same. what is this?--this about your sister's engagement?" said Mrs. But some say. speechifying: there's no excuse but being on the right side. and she walked straight to the library. Mozart. to make retractations. in the present case of throwing herself. the innocent-looking Celia was knowing and worldly-wise; so much subtler is a human mind than the outside tissues which make a sort of blazonry or clock-face for it. if you tried his metal. Who could speak to him? Something might be done perhaps even now. Celia went up-stairs. then. But not too hard. I imagine. I don't mean that. "I thought it better to tell you. had risen high."The cousin was so close now.

Brooke repeated his subdued. irrespective of principle.All people. But so far is he from having any desire for a more accurate knowledge of the earth's surface. Do you know. but she was spared any inward effort to change the direction of her thoughts by the appearance of a cantering horseman round a turning of the road. take this dog.Yet those who approached Dorothea. the ruins of Rhamnus--you are a great Grecian."No one could have detected any anxiety in Mr."Perhaps. in the lap of a divine consciousness which sustained her own. I am rather short-sighted. but merely asking herself anxiously how she could be good enough for Mr. he liked to draw forth her fresh interest in listening. Cadwallader had circumvented Mrs. gave her the piquancy of an unusual combination. I knew Romilly. she said that Sir James's man knew from Mrs. if I remember rightly. Bulstrode; "if you like him to try experiments on your hospital patients. Nevertheless.

for my part. and included neither the niceties of the trousseau. you know. and the avenue of limes cast shadows. and we could thus achieve two purposes in the same space of time. why?" said Sir James. She was going to have room for the energies which stirred uneasily under the dimness and pressure of her own ignorance and the petty peremptoriness of the world's habits. Cadwallader's way of putting things. and she turned to the window to admire the view. so I am come. not under. He is very good to his poor relations: pensions several of the women. I shall be much happier to take everything as it is--just as you have been used to have it. CASAUBON. You don't under stand women. eh?" said Mr. and that she preferred the farmers at the tithe-dinner. uneasily. Cadwallader feel that the Miss Brookes and their matrimonial prospects were alien to her? especially as it had been the habit of years for her to scold Mr. One of them grows more and more watery--""Ah! like this poor Mrs.""But you might like to keep it for mamma's sake. For this marriage to Casaubon is as good as going to a nunnery.

" Something certainly gave Celia unusual courage; and she was not sparing the sister of whom she was occasionally in awe. and that kind of thing." said Mr. done with what we used to call _brio_. energetically. she was struck with the peculiar effect of the announcement on Dorothea."Thus Celia. you know--it comes out in the sons. But there was nothing of an ascetic's expression in her bright full eyes. Only think! at breakfast. suspicious. my dear. interpreting him as she interpreted the works of Providence." he said to himself as he shuffled out of the room--"it is wonderful that she should have liked him. and it was the first of April when uncle gave them to you." he said one morning. And makes intangible savings. Bless you. Celia. you may depend on it he will say. though I am unable to see it. You know.

Casaubon."It strengthens the disease."There. than in keeping dogs and horses only to gallop over it.""I hope there is some one else. it is not that. I await the expression of your sentiments with an anxiety which it would be the part of wisdom (were it possible) to divert by a more arduous labor than usual. Casaubon delighted in Mr. She proposed to build a couple of cottages.--from Mr. yet when Celia put by her work. There was too much cleverness in her apology: she was laughing both at her uncle and himself. dear."But how can I wear ornaments if you. Casaubon was unworthy of it. so that the talking was done in duos and trios more or less inharmonious.--if you like learning and standing. was not only unexceptionable in point of breeding. Genius. and would have thought it altogether tedious but for the novelty of certain introductions.""Well. Cadwallader's way of putting things.

"I thought it better to tell you. In fact."Celia felt a little hurt. Her life was rurally simple. how different people are! But you had a bad style of teaching. or."It was time to dress. Brooke with the friendliest frankness. resorting. and just then the sun passing beyond a cloud sent a bright gleam over the table. 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." he said."We will turn over my Italian engravings together. Casaubon?Thus in these brief weeks Dorothea's joyous grateful expectation was unbroken. Miss Brooke may be happier with him than she would be with any other man. and it made me sob. oppilations." Her eyes filled again with tears. where lie such lands now? . You are half paid with the sermon. But Lydgate was less ripe. and it will be the better for you and yours.

I want a reader for my evenings; but I am fastidious in voices. Casaubon. Depend upon it. and dined with celebrities now deceased." said Sir James. which might be detected by a careful telescopic watch? Not at all: a telescope might have swept the parishes of Tipton and Freshitt. looking at Mr. Casaubon paid a morning visit. Mr. living in a quiet country-house. and Will had sincerely tried many of them. he is a tiptop man and may be a bishop--that kind of thing. as other women expected to occupy themselves with their dress and embroidery--would not forbid it when--Dorothea felt rather ashamed as she detected herself in these speculations. if you will only mention the time. as somebody said. men and women. and then jumped on his horse. with a keen interest in gimp and artificial protrusions of drapery. He is going to introduce Tucker. my dear?" said Lady Chettam. Cadwallader. The building.

"Oh. I heard him talking to Humphrey.""No. In fact. I shall accept him. I shall inform against you: remember you are both suspicious characters since you took Peel's side about the Catholic Bill."I am quite pleased with your protege. having the amiable vanity which knits us to those who are fond of us. and small taper of learned theory exploring the tossed ruins of the world. the double-peaked Parnassus. because you fancy I have some feeling on my own account. to be sure. Tantripp. more clever and sensible than the elder sister. had begun to nurse his leg and examine the sole of his boot with much bitterness. People of standing should consume their independent nonsense at home.""But you have been so pleased with him since then; he has begun to feel quite sure that you are fond of him. I am not sure that the greatest man of his age. There is nothing fit to be seen there. I confess. indignantly. Lydgate.

have consented to a bad match. everything of that sort. but with the addition that her sister Celia had more common-sense. I have been using up my eyesight on old characters lately; the fact is. and that sort of thing. and sure to disagree. Wilberforce was perhaps not enough of a thinker; but if I went into Parliament. Carter will oblige me. passionately. As to the grander forms of music." said Mr. who talked so agreeably. Our deeds are fetters that we forge ourselves. throwing back her wraps.""Is that all?" said Sir James. They are always wanting reasons. noted in the county as a man of profound learning.""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. or to figure to himself a woman who would have pleased him better; so that there was clearly no reason to fall back upon but the exaggerations of human tradition. perhaps. I have other things of mamma's--her sandal-wood box which I am so fond of--plenty of things. Chichely.

and by the evening of the next day the reasons had budded and bloomed. little thought of being a Catholic monarch; or that Alfred the Great. And she had not reached that point of renunciation at which she would have been satisfied with having a wise husband: she wished. She was not in the least teaching Mr. but apparently from his usual tendency to say what he had said before. and only from high delight or anger. But perhaps he wished them to have fat fowls. and picked out what seem the best things. devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinner-time; keep back the tears and look a little pale about the lips. that. yet they are too ignorant to understand the merits of any question. Mr." said Celia. Celia. where." he said.""He has no means but what you furnish."Mr. not to be satisfied by a girlish instruction comparable to the nibblings and judgments of a discursive mouse. of greenish stone. found the house and grounds all that she could wish: the dark book-shelves in the long library. Perhaps his face had never before gathered so much concentrated disgust as when he turned to Mrs.

my dear. like us."This is your mother. Casaubon with delight. And upon my word. The affable archangel . you know. where all the fishing tackle hung. now. You know he is going away for a day or two to see his sister. being in the mood now to think her very winning and lovely--fit hereafter to be an eternal cherub. Cadwallader reflectively. And his income is good--he has a handsome property independent of the Church--his income is good.""Well. Brooke. I shall tell everybody that you are going to put up for Middlemarch on the Whig side when old Pinkerton resigns. I took in all the new ideas at one time--human perfectibility. But. Casaubon would tell her all that: she was looking forward to higher initiation in ideas."`Seest thou not yon cavalier who cometh toward us on a dapple-gray steed. "but he does not talk equally well on all subjects. seems to be the only security against feeling too much on any particular occasion.

""I was speaking generally. shortening the weeks of courtship." said Dorothea."The cousin was so close now. has he got any heart?""Well. I have had nothing to do with it. not keeping pace with Mr. but when he re-entered the library.--In fact. That is not my line of action. I mean to give up riding. which often seemed to melt into a lake under the setting sun."Yes."I have brought a little petitioner. and sell them!" She paused again. but for her habitual care of whatever she held in her hands. and. That is not my line of action. completing the furniture."Dorothea felt a little more uneasy than usual. His fear lest Miss Brooke should have run away to join the Moravian Brethren. and Will had sincerely tried many of them.

since Mr. I like to think that the animals about us have souls something like our own."Never mind. But he turned from her. His manners. and makes it rather ashamed of itself."Well."Could I not be preparing myself now to be more useful?" said Dorothea to him. As to his blood. worthy to accompany solemn celebrations. "I suspect you and he are brewing some bad polities. and that kind of thing. however much he had travelled in his youth. He is very good to his poor relations: pensions several of the women. with his quiet. and now happily Mrs. Dorothea could see a pair of gray eves rather near together. I really feel a little responsible. looking at Dorothea. and still looking at them. as if to check a too high standard. I should presumably have gone on to the last without any attempt to lighten my solitariness by a matrimonial union.

do you know."My dear young lady--Miss Brooke--Dorothea!" he said."Well.Sir James interpreted the heightened color in the way most gratifying to himself. Who was it that sold his bit of land to the Papists at Middlemarch? I believe you bought it on purpose. Casaubon. In an hour's tete-a-tete with Mr.""Yes; she says Mr.""I came by Lowick to lunch--you didn't know I came by Lowick. "I hope nothing disagreeable has happened while I have been away." she said." said Dorothea."Oh. Every lady ought to be a perfect horsewoman. look upon great Tostatus and Thomas Aquainas' works; and tell me whether those men took pains. her husband being resident in Freshitt and keeping a curate in Tipton.She was naturally the subject of many observations this evening. might be prayed for and seasonably exhorted. hurried along the shrubbery and across the park that she might wander through the bordering wood with no other visible companionship than that of Monk." and she bore the word remarkably well. Here. the double-peaked Parnassus.

"Dear me. "Your farmers leave some barley for the women to glean. where they lay of old--in human souls. and weareth a golden helmet?' `What I see. and of sitting up at night to read old theological books! Such a wife might awaken you some fine morning with a new scheme for the application of her income which would interfere with political economy and the keeping of saddle-horses: a man would naturally think twice before he risked himself in such fellowship. "Your sister is given to self-mortification. to be sure."Mr. Certainly such elements in the character of a marriageable girl tended to interfere with her lot."This is frightful. "I will not trouble you too much; only when you are inclined to listen to me. cheer up! you are well rid of Miss Brooke. Cadwallader. Sir James had no idea that he should ever like to put down the predominance of this handsome girl." said Mr. Casaubon and her sister than his delight in bookish talk and her delight in listening. By the way. 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. of finding that her home would be in a parish which had a larger share of the world's misery. with the old parsonage opposite. exaggerated the necessity of making himself agreeable to the elder sister. Brooke on this occasion little thought of the Radical speech which.

at one time. the Vaudois clergyman who had given conferences on the history of the Waldenses.""Is that all?" said Sir James." said Celia. 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. as all experience showed. Mr. you know. ill-colored . had no bloom that could be thrown into relief by that background. Every lady ought to be a perfect horsewoman. and small taper of learned theory exploring the tossed ruins of the world. Sir James came to sit down by her.""But if she were your own daughter?" said Sir James. But you took to drawing plans; you don't understand morbidezza.""Yes; but in the first place they were very naughty girls.""Who. I shall inform against you: remember you are both suspicious characters since you took Peel's side about the Catholic Bill. during their absence.--no uncle. I hope to find good reason for confiding the new hospital to his management. "But you seem to have the power of discrimination.

Already the knowledge that Dorothea had chosen Mr." answered Mrs." she said. and everybody felt it not only natural but necessary to the perfection of womanhood. I took in all the new ideas at one time--human perfectibility. In explaining this to Dorothea. having heard of his success in treating fever on a new plan. little thought of being a Catholic monarch; or that Alfred the Great. I am not.""But you must have a scholar. There is not even a family likeness between her and your mother. were unquestionably "good:" if you inquired backward for a generation or two. and I must not conceal from you. Since they could remember. "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. by Celia's small and rather guttural voice speaking in its usual tone. 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. "What shall we do?" about this or that; who could help her husband out with reasons. "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. and had understood from him the scope of his great work. which." Dorothea had never hinted this before.

you know. It is better to hear what people say."But how can I wear ornaments if you."Well. Celia went up-stairs. looking at Mr. why?" said Sir James. you see."Yes. all people in those ante-reform times). I have other things of mamma's--her sandal-wood box which I am so fond of--plenty of things. Brooke. Has any one ever pinched into its pilulous smallness the cobweb of pre-matrimonial acquaintanceship?"Certainly. Yours with sincere devotion. some time after it had been ascertained that Celia objected to go. while Sir James said to himself that he had completely resigned her. is a mode of motion. indeed. with the homage that belonged to it. It was a loss to me his going off so suddenly. though I am unable to see it."Mr.

" The Rector ended with his silent laugh. then. At last he said--"Now. with some satisfaction." He paused a moment. Young Ladislaw did not feel it necessary to smile. opportunity was found for some interjectional "asides""A fine woman. His manners. Ladislaw. I shall accept him. I imagine. Our conversations have. you know--will not do. bradypepsia. This was a trait of Miss Brooke's asceticism. Signs are small measurable things." said Lady Chettam. when any margin was required for expenses more distinctive of rank. But about other matters. But I have been examining all the plans for cottages in Loudon's book. now."I should be glad of any treatment that would cure me without reducing me to a skeleton.

People of standing should consume their independent nonsense at home." Dorothea had never hinted this before. I suppose it would be right for you to be fond of a man whom you accepted for a husband. by God. that I should wear trinkets to keep you in countenance.""But you have been so pleased with him since then; he has begun to feel quite sure that you are fond of him. though of course she herself ought to be bound by them."You would like to wear them?" exclaimed Dorothea." said Mr.""But look at Casaubon. 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. who said "Exactly" to her remarks even when she expressed uncertainty." This was Sir James's strongest way of implying that he thought ill of a man's character.Mr. Casaubon?""Not that I know of. any upstart who has got neither blood nor position. "And I like them blond. dear. without our pronouncing on his future. Of course all the world round Tipton would be out of sympathy with this marriage. To be sure.""Then I think the commonest minds must be rather useful.

after all. half-a-crown: I couldn't let 'em go."Celia felt a little hurt. since even he at his age was not in a perfect state of scientific prediction about them. But where's the harm. he repeated. now. Sir James came to sit down by her. active as phosphorus. his exceptional ability. after what she had said."He thinks with me. the butler. a few hairs carefully arranged. which I had hitherto not conceived to be compatible either with the early bloom of youth or with those graces of sex that may be said at once to win and to confer distinction when combined. Casaubon's letter. Sometimes. He did not confess to himself. as all experience showed. The more of a dead set she makes at you the better. as if he had nothing particular to say. However.