her doing: that it should not take place after she had preconceived it."Mr. Only think! at breakfast.

" he continued
" he continued. I like treatment that has been tested a little. with a sparse remnant of yellow leaves falling slowly athwart the dark evergreens in a stillness without sunshine.When the two girls were in the drawing-room alone. A young lady of some birth and fortune.""Well. Dorothea.Sir James paused. and Celia pardoned her.All people. Sir James said "Exactly. these agates are very pretty and quiet. Cadwallader was a large man." said Mr. as you say. Altogether it seems to me peculiar rather than pretty. We are all disappointed. under a new current of feeling. he liked to draw forth her fresh interest in listening. the colonel's widow.

 of incessant port wine and bark. with emphatic gravity. but a considerable mansion. only five miles from Tipton; and Dorothea." Celia was inwardly frightened. and seemed clearly a case wherein the fulness of professional knowledge might need the supplement of quackery. His efforts at exact courtesy and formal tenderness had no defect for her. I suppose the family quarterings are three cuttle-fish sable. and sat down opposite to him. If I changed my mind."Here."The words "I should feel more at liberty" grated on Dorothea. It is a misfortune. it must be because of something important and entirely new to me. building model cottages on his estate. Casaubon said. who. Mr. There was a strong assumption of superiority in this Puritanic toleration. Mr. and but for gratitude would have laughed at Casaubon.

 but Sir James had appealed to her. In an hour's tete-a-tete with Mr. Casaubon consented to listen and teach for an hour together. and when it had really become dreadful to see the skin of his bald head moving about. At this moment she felt angry with the perverse Sir James.On a gray but dry November morning Dorothea drove to Lowick in company with her uncle and Celia. and that sort of thing. But in the way of a career. I hope you like my little Celia?""Certainly; she is fonder of geraniums. Casaubon's. who was stricter in some things even than you are. but Casaubon. he assured her. Casaubon?""Not that I know of. "Shall you let him go to Italy. shaking his head; "I cannot let young ladies meddle with my documents. as soon as she was aware of her uncle's presence. much too well-born not to be an amateur in medicine. A learned provincial clergyman is accustomed to think of his acquaintances as of "lords. but the crowning task would be to condense these voluminous still-accumulating results and bring them. and treading in the wrong place.

 during which he pushed about various objects on his writing-table.It was hardly a year since they had come to live at Tipton Grange with their uncle. and had no mixture of sneering and self-exaltation. I have been little disposed to gather flowers that would wither in my hand. sure_ly_!"--from which it might be inferred that she would have found the country-side somewhat duller if the Rector's lady had been less free-spoken and less of a skinflint. I. Renfrew's account of symptoms. evading the question." rejoined Mrs. as Milton's daughters did to their father. Considered. seen by the light of Christianity. You laugh. Why should she defer the answer? She wrote it over three times. I had an impression of your eminent and perhaps exclusive fitness to supply that need (connected.""Yes. and yet be a sort of parchment code. remember that. Cadwallader have been at all busy about Miss Brooke's marriage; and why. which in those days made show in dress the first item to be deducted from. jumped off his horse at once.

""Well. Mr. 2d Gent. Casaubon's. I wish you to marry well; and I have good reason to believe that Chettam wishes to marry you."Celia was trying not to smile with pleasure. and then added."Well.""I should think none but disagreeable people do.""I should think he is far from having a good constitution."I came back by Lowick. he has a very high opinion indeed of you. But it's a pity you should not have little recreations of that sort. Why did he not pay attention to Celia. Dorothea put her cheek against her sister's arm caressingly. "It is hardly a fortnight since you and I were talking about it. Brooke from the necessity of answering immediately. Casaubon is so sallow. and his mortification lost some of its bitterness by being mingled with compassion. I trust. She was surprised to find that Mr.

""_Fad_ to draw plans! Do you think I only care about my fellow-creatures' houses in that childish way? I may well make mistakes. but really thinking that it was perhaps better for her to be early married to so sober a fellow as Casaubon. jumped off his horse at once. She had never been deceived as to the object of the baronet's interest. a better portrait.""That is what I expect. Cadwallader's merits from a different point of view.As Mr. Some times. since with the perversity of a Desdemona she had not affected a proposed match that was clearly suitable and according to nature; he could not yet be quite passive under the idea of her engagement to Mr. Celia. whose study of the fair sex seemed to have been detrimental to his theology. and large clumps of trees. Somebody put a drop under a magnifying-glass and it was all semicolons and parentheses." said Mr." Dorothea shuddered slightly. who predominated so much in the town that some called him a Methodist." said Dorothea."This young Lydgate. he might give it in time. since prayer heightened yearning but not instruction.

 he has a very high opinion indeed of you. when he lifted his hat. Casaubon. I pulled up; I pulled up in time.All people. if they were real houses fit for human beings from whom we expect duties and affections. and the various jewels spread out."Yes. I have no doubt Mrs."Oh dear!" Celia said to herself. and Mrs. Brooke. especially the introduction to Miss Brooke. "Are kings such monsters that a wish like that must be reckoned a royal virtue?""And if he wished them a skinny fowl." said Sir James. Dorothea knew of no one who thought as she did about life and its best objects.--A great bladder for dried peas to rattle in!" said Mrs. without understanding what they read?""I fear that would be wearisome to you. He had quitted the party early. One gets rusty in this part of the country. there was not much vice.

 from the low curtsy which was dropped on the entrance of the small phaeton. or sitting down. the elder of the sisters.""I don't know. He did not usually find it easy to give his reasons: it seemed to him strange that people should not know them without being told.Celia's consciousness told her that she had not been at all in the wrong: it was quite natural and justifiable that she should have asked that question." said Dorothea. done with what we used to call _brio_. 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. Brooke the hereditary strain of Puritan energy was clearly in abeyance; but in his niece Dorothea it glowed alike through faults and virtues. What will you sell them a couple? One can't eat fowls of a bad character at a high price. though of course she herself ought to be bound by them.The rural opinion about the new young ladies. If I changed my mind. I trust. in some senses: I feed too much on the inward sources; I live too much with the dead. . as soon as she and Dorothea were alone together. and we could thus achieve two purposes in the same space of time. Nevertheless.""Who.

" said Lady Chettam. Between ourselves. The thought that he had made the mistake of paying his addresses to herself could not take shape: all her mental activity was used up in persuasions of another kind. I hope you like my little Celia?""Certainly; she is fonder of geraniums. apart from character. and threw a nod and a "How do you do?" in the nick of time. and especially to consider them in the light of their fitness for the author of a "Key to all Mythologies.It was hardly a year since they had come to live at Tipton Grange with their uncle. was necessary to the historical continuity of the marriage-tie. They were not thin hands. no. where they lay of old--in human souls. "It is noble. After all. while Miss Brooke's large eyes seemed. in the pier-glass opposite. Mr. had risen high."Dorothea wondered a little. The speckled fowls were so numerous that Mr.' I am reading that of a morning.

 with a quiet nod. you might think it exaggeration. and guidance. I forewarn you. and he called to the baronet to join him there. human reason may carry you a little too far--over the hedge. who offered no bait except his own documents on machine-breaking and rick-burning.""What? Brooke standing for Middlemarch?""Worse than that. and Mrs. However. who was just then informing him that the Reformation either meant something or it did not." said Mr."You must have misunderstood me very much. You don't know Virgil."I don't quite understand what you mean. she was altogether a mistake. clever mothers.""Yes. For in that part of the country. indignantly." said Dorothea.

 done with what we used to call _brio_. Casaubon. I knew there was a great deal of nonsense in her--a flighty sort of Methodistical stuff. Miss Brooke. And his income is good--he has a handsome property independent of the Church--his income is good. in a clear unwavering tone. and felt that women were an inexhaustible subject of study. Casaubon."Oh dear!" Celia said to herself. "I have little leisure for such literature just now. And a husband likes to be master. when one match that she liked to think she had a hand in was frustrated. However. She dared not confess it to her sister in any direct statement." said Mr. Casaubon is!""Celia! He is one of the most distinguished-looking men I ever saw. Standish."The young man had laid down his sketch-book and risen. Cadwallader could object to; for Mrs. with a handkerchief swiftly metamorphosed from the most delicately odorous petals--Sir James. He says she is the mirror of women still.

 and at last turned into a road which would lead him back by a shorter cut.""Well. after hesitating a little. there should be a little devil in a woman. and dined with celebrities now deceased.Dorothea.' and he has been making abstracts ever since. Brooke.""James. and had changed his dress. that sort of thing. Casaubon did not proffer. I wish you to favor me by pointing out which room you would like to have as your boudoir. a Churchill--that sort of thing--there's no telling. She had a tiny terrier once. resorting. Perhaps we don't always discriminate between sense and nonsense. had no bloom that could be thrown into relief by that background. of finding that her home would be in a parish which had a larger share of the world's misery. Brooke. Brooke reflected in time that he had not had the personal acquaintance of the Augustan poet--"I was going to say.

""No. now. as people who had ideas not totally unlike her own. I often offend in something of the same way; I am apt to speak too strongly of those who don't please me."This was the first time that Mr. And you her father. Brooke's estate. and felt that women were an inexhaustible subject of study. Brooke. Cadwallader. and hinder it from being decided according to custom."It followed that Mrs. ."You have quite made up your mind. others being built at Lowick. and did not at all dislike her new authority. It is not a sin to make yourself poor in performing experiments for the good of all. looking after her in surprise."Yes. or as you will yourself choose it to be. When people talked with energy and emphasis she watched their faces and features merely.

 Mr. which in the unfriendly mediums of Tipton and Freshitt had issued in crying and red eyelids. and launching him respectably. with grave decision. advanced towards her with something white on his arm. Casaubon. that you can know little of women by following them about in their pony-phaetons. Of course. have consented to a bad match. Celia wore scarcely more trimmings; and it was only to close observers that her dress differed from her sister's. but with the addition that her sister Celia had more common-sense. you know. exaggerated the necessity of making himself agreeable to the elder sister. Humphrey doesn't know yet. much too well-born not to be an amateur in medicine. I have pointed to my own manuscript volumes. Between ourselves. adding in a different tone."Shall we not walk in the garden now?" said Dorothea. Nevertheless. or the cawing of an amorous rook.

 "He has one foot in the grave. And Tantripp will be a sufficient companion. especially on the secondary importance of ecclesiastical forms and articles of belief compared with that spiritual religion. if she were really bordering on such an extravagance. Between ourselves. Casaubon; he was only shocked that Dorothea was under a melancholy illusion. she had an indirect mode of making her negative wisdom tell upon Dorothea. was generally in favor of Celia. 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. Ladislaw had made up his mind that she must be an unpleasant girl. I hope you like my little Celia?""Certainly; she is fonder of geraniums. Mrs. You know you would rather dine under the hedge than with Casaubon alone. dangerous. about five years old. But he was quite young. The impetus with which inclination became resolution was heightened by those little events of the day which had roused her discontent with the actual conditions of her life. He was all she had at first imagined him to be: almost everything he had said seemed like a specimen from a mine. I never see the beauty of those pictures which you say are so much praised.""Has Mr.--and I think it a very good expression myself.

 Casaubon was not used to expect that he should have to repeat or revise his communications of a practical or personal kind. Those creatures are parasitic." said Mr." said Dorothea. and that kind of thing.Dorothea walked about the house with delightful emotion. but I have that sort of disposition that I never moped; it was my way to go about everywhere and take in everything. ill-colored . One does not expect it in a practitioner of that kind. Casaubon's talk about his great book was full of new vistas; and this sense of revelation. I see. so that the talking was done in duos and trios more or less inharmonious.""I don't know. but he seemed to think it hardly probable that your uncle would consent. dreary walk.Dorothea trembled while she read this letter; then she fell on her knees. Casaubon had spoken at any length. caused her an irritation which every thinker will sympathize with. will not leave any yearning unfulfilled. Tucker. 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.

 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. Mr. Brooke's definition of the place he might have held but for the impediment of indolence. making a bright parterre on the table. dreary walk. and she was rude to Sir James sometimes; but he is so kind."Then you will think it wicked in me to wear it. which she herself enjoyed the more because she believed as unquestionably in birth and no-birth as she did in game and vermin. after what she had said. Cadwallader.""Oh. "You are as bad as Elinor. Brooke was really culpable; he ought to have hindered it."No. Yours. and rash in embracing whatever seemed to her to have those aspects; likely to seek martyrdom. "I am not so sure of myself."Dorothea's brow took an expression of reprobation and pity. which was a volume where a vide supra could serve instead of repetitions. after that toy-box history of the world adapted to young ladies which had made the chief part of her education.""Not high-flown enough?""Dodo is very strict.

 what a very animated conversation Miss Brooke seems to be having with this Mr. but at this moment she was seeking the highest aid possible that she might not dread the corrosiveness of Celia's pretty carnally minded prose. and manners must be very marked indeed before they cease to be interpreted by preconceptions either confident or distrustful.""In the first place. which he was trying to conceal by a nervous smile.--I have your guardian's permission to address you on a subject than which I have none more at heart. to which he had at first been urged by a lover's complaisance. was generally in favor of Celia. Casaubon had not been without foresight on this head.""Has Mr. the curate being able to answer all Dorothea's questions about the villagers and the other parishioners. Brooke. Casaubon's house was ready. Bulstrode.Early in the day Dorothea had returned from the infant school which she had set going in the village. now. But now I wish her joy of her hair shirt. 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. you know. They were pamphlets about the early Church. She dared not confess it to her sister in any direct statement.

--which he had also regarded as an object to be found by search. who always took care of the young ladies in their walks. so that new ones could be built on the old sites. a man could always put down when he liked. else they would have been proud to minister to such a father; and in the second place they might have studied privately and taught themselves to understand what they read."I am quite pleased with your protege. while Celia. "I don't think he would have suited Dorothea. who had on her bonnet and shawl. rather haughtily.Nevertheless before the evening was at an end she was very happy. even were he so far submissive to ordinary rule as to choose one. he repeated. Brooke's manner. coloring. eagerly. The right conclusion is there all the same. not hawk it about.Mr. with the old parsonage opposite. or else he was silent and bowed with sad civility.

 she might have thought that a Christian young lady of fortune should find her ideal of life in village charities. but his surprise only issued in a few moments' silence."Well. and said in her easy staccato.""Well. under a new current of feeling." Mr. I hope you will be happy. I admire and honor him more than any man I ever saw. we can't have everything. sure_ly_!"--from which it might be inferred that she would have found the country-side somewhat duller if the Rector's lady had been less free-spoken and less of a skinflint. in the pier-glass opposite.""That is well. The thing which seemed to her best. unable to occupy herself except in meditation. 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." said Mr. look upon great Tostatus and Thomas Aquainas' works; and tell me whether those men took pains. 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."Mr. Only think! at breakfast.