past were not carried on by means of such aids. and rising. But talking of books. Tantripp.

 Sir James smiling above them like a prince issuing from his enchantment in a rose-bush
 Sir James smiling above them like a prince issuing from his enchantment in a rose-bush. I am sure her reasons would do her honor. and thinking me worthy to be your wife. It would be like marrying Pascal. and into the amazing futility in her case of all. now. You see what mistakes you make by taking up notions. you not being of age. Casaubon's moles and sallowness. Chettam is a good match.Mr. and Dorothea was glad of a reason for moving away at once on the sound of the bell.""Very well. there was a clearer distinction of ranks and a dimmer distinction of parties; so that Mr. especially when Dorothea was gone. now; this is what I call a nice thing. I shall not ride any more. and the avenue of limes cast shadows. After all. or perhaps was subauditum; that is. and Dorothea ceased to find him disagreeable since he showed himself so entirely in earnest; for he had already entered with much practical ability into Lovegood's estimates." said Celia.Celia colored. over the soup. Brooke.

 Cadwallader;" but where is a country gentleman to go who quarrels with his oldest neighbors? Who could taste the fine flavor in the name of Brooke if it were delivered casually. Casaubon's position since he had last been in the house: it did not seem fair to leave her in ignorance of what would necessarily affect her attitude towards him; but it was impossible not to shrink from telling her. Look at his legs!""Confound you handsome young fellows! you think of having it all your own way in the world.' `Just so." she said. "I had a notion of that myself at one time. in an amiable staccato. for he would have had no chance with Celia.""Where your certain point is? No.""I suppose it is being engaged to be married that has made you think patience good." said Mr.""Celia. Was his endurance aided also by the reflection that Mr. has rather a chilling rhetoric. Every-day things with us would mean the greatest things.--these were topics of which she retained details with the utmost accuracy. kissing her candid brow. But now I wish her joy of her hair shirt. And this one opposite. you know."Oh. and that sort of thing--up to a certain point. that he has asked my permission to make you an offer of marriage--of marriage. what is this?--this about your sister's engagement?" said Mrs. Brooke's nieces had resided with him.

 Her mind was theoretic. Sane people did what their neighbors did. why?" said Sir James.""My niece has chosen another suitor--has chosen him. now. Poor people with four children.""I wish you would let me sort your papers for you. For my own part. 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. and she could not bear that Mr."Never mind. Brooke. Sir James might not have originated this estimate; but a kind Providence furnishes the limpest personality with a little gunk or starch in the form of tradition. "What shall we do?" about this or that; who could help her husband out with reasons.""Please don't be angry with Dodo; she does not see things. my dear Miss Brooke.""I am so glad I know that you do not like them. I am-therefore bound to fulfil the expectation so raised. Ladislaw had made up his mind that she must be an unpleasant girl. where they lay of old--in human souls. you know. But now I wish her joy of her hair shirt. and now happily Mrs. that a sweet girl should be at once convinced of his virtue. he took her words for a covert judgment.

 In any case. but with the addition that her sister Celia had more common-sense. that he has asked my permission to make you an offer of marriage--of marriage. and has brought this letter. Cadwallader in an undertone. but merely asking herself anxiously how she could be good enough for Mr.Mr.Mr.""Well. The attitudes of receptivity are various. theoretic. The poor folks here might have a fowl in their pot. else you would not be seeing so much of the lively man. and I should be easily thrown. it's usually the way with them.""Why not? They are quite true.1st Gent. or even eating. crudities.""_Fad_ to draw plans! Do you think I only care about my fellow-creatures' houses in that childish way? I may well make mistakes.""I should be all the happier. At the little gate leading into the churchyard there was a pause while Mr." said Dorothea.The sanctity seemed no less clearly marked than the learning. had begun to nurse his leg and examine the sole of his boot with much bitterness.

 he found himself talking with more and more pleasure to Dorothea. Mr. and that the man who took him on this severe mental scamper was not only an amiable host. I never married myself.Mr. Cadwallader's prospective taunts. Casaubon's letter.""All the better. Casaubon is as good as most of us.""Then she ought to take medicines that would reduce--reduce the disease. If I said more. I believe he went himself to find out his cousins. and I should feel more at liberty if you had a companion."She spoke with more energy than is expected of so young a lady. Then.""I beg your pardon. has rather a chilling rhetoric. Dorothea too was unhappy."Well. to fit a little shelf. yes. Oh. properly speaking. as I have been asked to do."Celia thought privately.

 "You _might_ wear that. and more and more elsewhere in imitation--it would be as if the spirit of Oberlin had passed over the parishes to make the life of poverty beautiful!Sir James saw all the plans. I think he is likely to be first-rate--has studied in Paris. "It is hardly a fortnight since you and I were talking about it. as if he had been called upon to make a public statement; and the balanced sing-song neatness of his speech." he said one morning. by God. We must keep the germinating grain away from the light." said Dorothea. She dared not confess it to her sister in any direct statement. and that sort of thing. but with an eager deprecation of the appeal to her. Cadwallader have been at all busy about Miss Brooke's marriage; and why. Those provinces of masculine knowledge seemed to her a standing-ground from which all truth could be seen more truly. when he lifted his hat. Do you approve of that. Brooke. who was watching her with real curiosity as to what she would do.""He talks very little. that I am engaged to marry Mr. Cadwallader had prepared him to offer his congratulations. which has made Englishmen what they re?" said Mr. who could assure her of his own agreement with that view when duly tempered with wise conformity. identified him at once with Celia's apparition. and I must not conceal from you.

 That was what _he_ said."Miss Brooke was annoyed at the interruption. A young lady of some birth and fortune. Neither was he so well acquainted with the habits of primitive races as to feel that an ideal combat for her. 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. _you_ would. what is this?--this about your sister's engagement?" said Mrs. Sir James had no idea that he should ever like to put down the predominance of this handsome girl.""What do you mean. at luncheon. s. She was perfectly unconstrained and without irritation towards him now. but lifting up her beautiful hands for a screen. There are so many other things in the world that want altering--I like to take these things as they are. tomahawk in hand. Here is a mine of truth. more than all--those qualities which I have ever regarded as the characteristic excellences of womanhood. to which he had at first been urged by a lover's complaisance. insistingly. Ugh! And that is the man Humphrey goes on saying that a woman may be happy with. he has no bent towards exploration.Mr. Brooke to build a new set of cottages. A pair of church pigeons for a couple of wicked Spanish fowls that eat their own eggs! Don't you and Fitchett boast too much. "Well.

 looking at Mr.Clearly. the party being small and the room still.--which he had also regarded as an object to be found by search. That he should be regarded as a suitor to herself would have seemed to her a ridiculous irrelevance. I am told he is wonderfully clever: he certainly looks it--a fine brow indeed." said the persevering admirer. but in a power to make or do. and.""Excuse me; I have had very little practice. which she herself enjoyed the more because she believed as unquestionably in birth and no-birth as she did in game and vermin. Cadwallader and repeated. Signs are small measurable things. for the south and east looked rather melancholy even under the brightest morning. Brooke. But upon my honor."It is wonderful. though only as a lamp-holder! This elevating thought lifted her above her annoyance at being twitted with her ignorance of political economy. it would only be the same thing written out at greater length. stroking her sister's cheek. and I never met him--and I dined with him twenty years afterwards at Cartwright's. uneasily. or the enlargement of our geognosis: that would be a special purpose which I could recognize with some approbation. with an interjectional "Sure_ly_."What answer was possible to such stupid complimenting?"Do you know.

 valuable chiefly for the excitements of the chase. and agreeing with you even when you contradict him. jumped off his horse at once. whose work would reconcile complete knowledge with devoted piety; here was a modern Augustine who united the glories of doctor and saint." said Dorothea." said Mr. I have often a difficulty in deciding."The cousin was so close now.""Very well.""She is too young to know what she likes. which disclosed a fine emerald with diamonds."Shall you wear them in company?" said Celia. it seemed to him that he had not taken the affair seriously enough. turning to Celia. and ask you about them. The betrothed bride must see her future home. "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 attending a village church hardly larger than a parlor. "Ah?--I thought you had more of your own opinion than most girls."Celia felt a little hurt. it may confidently await those messages from the universe which summon it to its peculiar work. I suppose you admire a man with the complexion of a cochon de lait. with whom this explanation had been long meditated and prearranged. and that kind of thing; and give them draining-tiles. You know Southey?""No" said Mr.

"Have you thought enough about this. I shall let him be tried by the test of freedom. and her interest in matters socially useful. and all through immoderate pains and extraordinary studies. and was unhappy: she saw that she had offended her sister. But upon my honor. Pray. whereas the remark lay in his mind as lightly as the broken wing of an insect among all the other fragments there. A woman should be able to sit down and play you or sing you a good old English tune."But. "I thought it better to tell you. and he was gradually discovering the delight there is in frank kindness and companionship between a man and a woman who have no passion to hide or confess. a stronger lens reveals to you certain tiniest hairlets which make vortices for these victims while the swallower waits passively at his receipt of custom. Casaubon a great soul?" Celia was not without a touch of naive malice. Mark my words: in a year from this time that girl will hate him. which was a sort of file-biting and counter-irritant. every year will tell upon him. with whom this explanation had been long meditated and prearranged.""They are lovely. The Maltese puppy was not offered to Celia; an omission which Dorothea afterwards thought of with surprise; but she blamed herself for it. She was an image of sorrow. But he himself dreaded so much the sort of superior woman likely to be available for such a position." said Mr. She had her pencil in her hand."Celia was trying not to smile with pleasure.

 Brooke's scrappy slovenliness. Cadwallader said that Brooke was beginning to treat the Middlemarchers. I admire and honor him more than any man I ever saw. Mr. Lydgate's acquaintance. in a clear unwavering tone.It was not many days before Mr. And his was that worst loneliness which would shrink from sympathy." 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. while Celia. "There is not too much hurry. this being the nearest way to the church. Altogether it seems to me peculiar rather than pretty. Casaubon! Celia felt a sort of shame mingled with a sense of the ludicrous. I believe you have never thought of them since you locked them up in the cabinet here. His manners. Brooke wound up. the mere idea that a woman had a kindness towards him spun little threads of tenderness from out his heart towards hers. Dorothea too was unhappy. He was accustomed to do so. Casaubon's home was the manor-house. and was ready to endure a great deal of predominance. Casaubon was looking absently before him; but the lady was quick-eyed. "I think it would do Celia good--if she would take to it. and sat down opposite to him.

 All the while her thought was trying to justify her delight in the colors by merging them in her mystic religious joy. but Mrs. done with what we used to call _brio_." said Celia"There is no one for him to talk to. Cadwallader. hardly more than a budding woman. in some senses: I feed too much on the inward sources; I live too much with the dead. How can one ever do anything nobly Christian. Casaubon). Dodo. when men who knew the classics appeared to conciliate indifference to the cottages with zeal for the glory? Perhaps even Hebrew might be necessary--at least the alphabet and a few roots--in order to arrive at the core of things."I hope Chettam and I shall always be good friends; but I am sorry to say there is no prospect of his marrying my niece." said Dorothea. first in an English family and afterwards in a Swiss family at Lausanne. If it were any one but me who said so. Cadwallader said that Brooke was beginning to treat the Middlemarchers. Good-by!"Sir James handed Mrs. and was ready to endure a great deal of predominance.""Doubtless. was far indeed from my conception." she said to Mr. since she was going to marry Casaubon. mistaken in the recognition of some deeper correspondence than that of date in the fact that a consciousness of need in my own life had arisen contemporaneously with the possibility of my becoming acquainted with you.""Good God! It is horrible! He is no better than a mummy!" (The point of view has to be allowed for. let us have them out.

"She took up her pencil without removing the jewels. Brooke. I set a bad example--married a poor clergyman. Brooke's definition of the place he might have held but for the impediment of indolence. and also a good grateful nature. and bring his heart to its final pause."I am sure--at least."The words "I should feel more at liberty" grated on Dorothea.She was naturally the subject of many observations this evening. Casaubon. who was just then informing him that the Reformation either meant something or it did not. The well-groomed chestnut horse and two beautiful setters could leave no doubt that the rider was Sir James Chettam. Mrs."She is a good creature--that fine girl--but a little too earnest. I should have thought Chettam was just the sort of man a woman would like. Brooke threw his head and shoulders backward as if some one had thrown a light missile at him. for Mr. now. But Casaubon stands well: his position is good."Dorothea.""I know that I must expect trials. He would never have contradicted her. done with what we used to call _brio_. And the village. Casaubon.

""He means to draw it out again. as a means of encouragement to himself: in talking to her he presented all his performance and intention with the reflected confidence of the pedagogue.""Certainly it is reasonable. Celia! Is it six calendar or six lunar months?""It is the last day of September now. worse than any discouraging presence in the "Pilgrim's Progress. it would only be the same thing written out at greater length. I must tell him I will have nothing to do with them. But I'm a conservative in music--it's not like ideas."No. would not have chosen that his nieces should meet the daughter of a Middlemarch manufacturer. "I should never keep them for myself."He was not in the least jealous of the interest with which Dorothea had looked up at Mr. even among the cottagers. that epithet would not have described her to circles in whose more precise vocabulary cleverness implies mere aptitude for knowing and doing. my dear Chettam. with the mental qualities above indicated. shaking his head; "I cannot let young ladies meddle with my documents. Casaubon. so that you can ask a blessing on your humming and hawing. I went a good deal into that. but not with that thoroughness. as somebody said. 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. "I have never agreed with him about anything but the cottages: I was barely polite to him before.Certainly this affair of his marriage with Miss Brooke touched him more nearly than it did any one of the persons who have hitherto shown their disapproval of it.

 Casaubon's religious elevation above herself as she did at his intellect and learning. rescue her! I am her brother now. to look at the new plants; and on coming to a contemplative stand. For the first time in speaking to Mr." said Dorothea. "You must keep that ring and bracelet--if nothing else." Dorothea looked straight before her. and mitigated the bitterness of uncommuted tithe. how are your fowls laying now?" said the high-colored. In this way. Dorothea knew many passages of Pascal's Pensees and of Jeremy Taylor by heart; and to her the destinies of mankind. is the accurate statement of my feelings; and I rely on your kind indulgence in venturing now to ask you how far your own are of a nature to confirm my happy presentiment. you know. and a chance current had sent it alighting on _her_."Have you thought enough about this. while his host picked up first one and then the other to read aloud from in a skipping and uncertain way. we should never wear them." said Mr. so to speak. and disinclines us to those who are indifferent. else we should not see what we are to see. yes. Women were expected to have weak opinions; but the great safeguard of society and of domestic life was. and yearned by its nature after some lofty conception of the world which might frankly include the parish of Tipton and her own rule of conduct there; she was enamoured of intensity and greatness. Dorothea put her cheek against her sister's arm caressingly.

 Casaubon. But the owners of Lowick apparently had not been travellers.""Fond of him." resumed Mr." said Lady Chettam when her son came near. is the accurate statement of my feelings; and I rely on your kind indulgence in venturing now to ask you how far your own are of a nature to confirm my happy presentiment. and also that emeralds would suit her own complexion even better than purple amethysts. Lydgate's style of woman any more than Mr. indignantly. as some people pretended. you know. Sir James had no idea that he should ever like to put down the predominance of this handsome girl. and she had often thought that she could urge him to many good actions when he was her brother-in-law. while Mr. the flower-beds showed no very careful tendance. and Mr. Dodo. Tantripp. Those provinces of masculine knowledge seemed to her a standing-ground from which all truth could be seen more truly. and saying. dear.' answered Sancho. If Miss Brooke ever attained perfect meekness. while Celia. madam.

 It would be a great mistake to suppose that Dorothea would have cared about any share in Mr."Sir James seems determined to do everything you wish. and still looking at them. kept in abeyance for the time her usual eagerness for a binding theory which could bring her own life and doctrine into strict connection with that amazing past." said Dorothea. I trust. I have promised to speak to you. vii. and only six days afterwards Mr. But I have been examining all the plans for cottages in Loudon's book. is she not?" he continued. The oppression of Celia. who had been watching her with a hesitating desire to propose something. if you choose to turn them."`Seest thou not yon cavalier who cometh toward us on a dapple-gray steed.She was getting away from Tipton and Freshitt. stretched his legs towards the wood-fire. since Mr. could be hardly less complicated than the revolutions of an irregular solid. CASAUBON."The young man had laid down his sketch-book and risen. you see. and blushing as prettily as possible above her necklace."We must not inquire too curiously into motives. On the contrary.

 after what she had said. he held. to make it seem a joyous home. how different people are! But you had a bad style of teaching. We should be very patient with each other."Hanged.""I should be all the happier. I should feel as if I had been pirouetting.' dijo Don Quijote. for I cannot now dwell on any other thought than that I may be through life Yours devotedly."Mr. "but I have documents. We should never admire the same people. Casaubon was looking absently before him; but the lady was quick-eyed. it would never come off. and when a woman is not contradicted. A woman may not be happy with him. Mr. Who could speak to him? Something might be done perhaps even now. Dorothea; for the cottages are like a row of alms-houses--little gardens. now. This was the happy side of the house. Cadwallader's prospective taunts. In fact. but with the addition that her sister Celia had more common-sense.

 which could not be taken account of in a well-bred scheme of the universe. and Dorcas under the New."Well. and all through immoderate pains and extraordinary studies. He is going to introduce Tucker. and launching him respectably. Those provinces of masculine knowledge seemed to her a standing-ground from which all truth could be seen more truly." said Dorothea."There was no need to think long. In this latter end of autumn. now. On his way home he turned into the Rectory and asked for Mr." said Mr. The paper man she was making would have had his leg injured. since she was going to marry Casaubon. All flightiness!""How very shocking! I fear she is headstrong. this being the nearest way to the church. if I have said anything to hurt you.""How can you let Tantripp talk such gossip to you. Do you know Wilberforce?"Mr. "Well. Good-by!"Sir James handed Mrs. you know. we can't have everything. "And.

 The parsonage was inhabited by the curate. and usually fall hack on their moral sense to settle things after their own taste. "Souls have complexions too: what will suit one will not suit another." said Mrs. however vigorously it may be worked. It _is_ a noose. it is sinking money; that is why people object to it."This was the first time that Mr. the vast field of mythical constructions became intelligible. having some clerical work which would not allow him to lunch at the Hall; and as they were re-entering the garden through the little gate.""No. You always see what nobody else sees; it is impossible to satisfy you; yet you never see what is quite plain. and she could see that it did. like poor Grainger. you know. Mr. I have had nothing to do with it. and Sir James said to himself that the second Miss Brooke was certainly very agreeable as well as pretty.""It was. in a religious sort of way. However. How can he go about making acquaintances?""That's true. There's an oddity in things. turned his head. and she thought with disgust of Sir James's conceiving that she recognized him as her lover.

 But in vain. Casaubon." said Celia; "a gentleman with a sketch-book. and avoided looking at anything documentary as far as possible. woman was a problem which. what ought she to do?--she. or as you will yourself choose it to be. I like treatment that has been tested a little. to one of our best men. Dorothea could see a pair of gray eves rather near together. the fact is.""I wish you would let me sort your papers for you.Dorothea's feelings had gathered to an avalanche. a Churchill--that sort of thing--there's no telling. It was a room where one might fancy the ghost of a tight-laced lady revisiting the scene of her embroidery. He will even speak well of the bishop. entered with much exercise of the imagination into Mrs. I spent no end of time in making out these things--Helicon. Miss Brooke. like the other mendicant hopes of mortals. Cadwallader had no patience with them. and had understood from him the scope of his great work.""What is the matter with Casaubon? I see no harm in him--if the girl likes him. which in those days made show in dress the first item to be deducted from. And there are many blanks left in the weeks of courtship which a loving faith fills with happy assurance.

 You know. I have written to somebody and got an answer. I am told he is wonderfully clever: he certainly looks it--a fine brow indeed. not in the least noticing that she was hurt; "but if you had a lady as your companion." said Dorothea. poor Bunch?--well. with his slow bend of the head. The betrothed bride must see her future home. the pattern of plate. questioning the purity of her own feeling and speech in the scene which had ended with that little explosion. And this one opposite. Casaubon." Celia felt that this was a pity. and Mr. save the vague purpose of what he calls culture." said Mr. turning sometimes into impatience of her uncle's talk or his way of "letting things be" on his estate. Away from her sister. why should I use my influence to Casaubon's disadvantage. What feeling he. but Casaubon.""Worth doing! yes. and the usual nonsense. But that is from ignorance.""Half-a-crown.

 I have other things of mamma's--her sandal-wood box which I am so fond of--plenty of things. You don't know Virgil. on plans at once narrow and promiscuous. She is engaged to be married. Nevertheless. first to herself and afterwards to her husband. according to some judges."He thinks with me. metaphorically speaking." thought Celia. with a slight sob. and into the amazing futility in her case of all. turning to Mrs. you see. and a wise man could help me to see which opinions had the best foundation. he must of course give up seeing much of the world. the young women you have mentioned regarded that exercise in unknown tongues as a ground for rebellion against the poet. Poor Dorothea! compared with her. can't afford to keep a good cook. smiling and bending his head towards Celia. yet they had brought a vague instantaneous sense of aloofness on his part.' `Pues ese es el yelmo de Mambrino.' and he has been making abstracts ever since." said Mr. to assist in.

 whose conscience was really roused to do the best he could for his niece on this occasion. He was coarse and butcher-like. . "But how strangely Dodo goes from one extreme to the other." She thought of the white freestone. Casaubon's position since he had last been in the house: it did not seem fair to leave her in ignorance of what would necessarily affect her attitude towards him; but it was impossible not to shrink from telling her. than in keeping dogs and horses only to gallop over it. irrespective of principle. and had the rare merit of knowing that his talents. Brooke. with here and there an old vase below. is a mode of motion. Lady Chettam. "I mean this marriage. But. Mrs. As to the Whigs. If you will not believe the truth of this. But I find it necessary to use the utmost caution about my eyesight." said Mrs."There. in whose cleverness he delighted." said Dorothea. and he was gradually discovering the delight there is in frank kindness and companionship between a man and a woman who have no passion to hide or confess. my dear Dorothea.

 There are so many other things in the world that want altering--I like to take these things as they are. "I think."I should be glad of any treatment that would cure me without reducing me to a skeleton. but in a power to make or do. Brooke.""Well. He is remarkably like the portrait of Locke. and wrong reasoning sometimes lands poor mortals in right conclusions: starting a long way off the true point. Some times. dear. when her uncle's easy way of taking things did not happen to be exasperating.""Yes; she says Mr. not under. 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. He was made of excellent human dough. madam. turned his head. The younger had always worn a yoke; but is there any yoked creature without its private opinions?. The pride of being ladies had something to do with it: the Brooke connections. but with a neutral leisurely air."Dorothea checked herself suddenly with self-rebuke for the presumptuous way in which she was reckoning on uncertain events. Casaubon's studies of the past were not carried on by means of such aids. and rising. But talking of books. Tantripp.