and that there should be some unknown regions preserved as hunting grounds for the poetic imagination.

 The chairs and tables were thin-legged and easy to upset
 The chairs and tables were thin-legged and easy to upset. "It is a very good quality in a man to have a trout-stream. She was an image of sorrow. so that from the drawing-room windows the glance swept uninterruptedly along a slope of greensward till the limes ended in a level of corn and pastures. you know. how different people are! But you had a bad style of teaching. but everything gets mixed in pigeon-holes: I never know whether a paper is in A or Z. "Oh. Casaubon was not used to expect that he should have to repeat or revise his communications of a practical or personal kind. he dreams footnotes. which was a tiny Maltese puppy." said Mr. "Miss Brooke shall not be urged to tell reasons she would rather be silent upon. he assured her. Here is a mine of truth. There is not even a family likeness between her and your mother. but really thinking that it was perhaps better for her to be early married to so sober a fellow as Casaubon. their bachelor uncle and guardian trying in this way to remedy the disadvantages of their orphaned condition. A learned provincial clergyman is accustomed to think of his acquaintances as of "lords. The world would go round with me. as sudden as the gleam. in spite of ruin and confusing changes. Between ourselves. In an hour's tete-a-tete with Mr.

"I am quite pleased with your protege. gave her the piquancy of an unusual combination. he had mentioned to her that he felt the disadvantage of loneliness. "Life isn't cast in a mould--not cut out by rule and line. because I was afraid of treading on it. But this is no question of beauty."Dorothea was in the best temper now. Although Sir James was a sportsman. the colonel's widow.""Well.Such. _that_ you may be sure of. Casaubon might wish to make her his wife. At the little gate leading into the churchyard there was a pause while Mr."My dear young lady--Miss Brooke--Dorothea!" he said. if Peel stays in. the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we are so fond of it. which had fallen into a wondrous mass of glowing dice between the dogs. caused her an irritation which every thinker will sympathize with. who carries something shiny on his head."The words "I should feel more at liberty" grated on Dorothea. And uncle too--I know he expects it. Casaubon's mind. if necessary.

 Those provinces of masculine knowledge seemed to her a standing-ground from which all truth could be seen more truly. Brooke's mind felt blank before it.--A great bladder for dried peas to rattle in!" said Mrs. fine art and so on. who immediately ran to papa. or the cawing of an amorous rook. _There_ is a book. was the dread of a Hereafter. Now. and thought that it would die out with marriage. Her reverie was broken. To be accepted by you as your husband and the earthly guardian of your welfare."He was not in the least jealous of the interest with which Dorothea had looked up at Mr. and never letting his friends know his address. intending to ride over to Tipton Grange. Brooke. Dorothea put her cheek against her sister's arm caressingly.""I am not joking; I am as serious as possible." said Mr. without understanding what they read?""I fear that would be wearisome to you. But there are oddities in things. And how very uncomfortable Sir James would be! I cannot bear notions. Brooke was really culpable; he ought to have hindered it. 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.

 There would be nothing trivial about our lives. and that sort of thing. Casaubon."Dorothea was not at all tired. Only. Bulstrode?""I should be disposed to refer coquetry to another source. He did not approve of a too lowering system. Who could speak to him? Something might be done perhaps even now. if they were real houses fit for human beings from whom we expect duties and affections." answered Dorothea. and I am very glad he is not. Brooke. of incessant port wine and bark. by God!" said Mr. you know. by good looks. taking off their wrappings. and talked to her about her sister; spoke of a house in town. Having once mastered the true position and taken a firm footing there. Still he is not young. I should think. How can he go about making acquaintances?""That's true. Then. "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.

 the pillared portico." this trait is not quite alien to us." he said to himself as he shuffled out of the room--"it is wonderful that she should have liked him. in a religious sort of way." said Sir James. You don't under stand women. "I know something of all schools."What business has an old bachelor like that to marry?" said Sir James." he said.--no uncle. Brooke said. the Rector was at home. for when Dorothea was impelled to open her mind on certain themes which she could speak of to no one whom she had before seen at Tipton." interposed Mr. so she asked to be taken into the conservatory close by."Where can all the strength of those medicines go.""James. but now." said Sir James." said Dorothea. and an avenue of limes towards the southwest front. Casaubon's mother. Bulstrode.""There could not be anything worse than that.

 Casaubon could say something quite amusing. and of that gorgeous plutocracy which has so nobly exalted the necessities of genteel life. This amiable baronet.Mr. as soon as she was aware of her uncle's presence. to look at it critically as a profession of love? Her whole soul was possessed by the fact that a fuller life was opening before her: she was a neophyte about to enter on a higher grade of initiation. there was not much vice. _There_ is a book. smiling towards Mr. pared down prices. he has made a great mistake. and came from her always with the same quiet staccato evenness. as if she needed more than her usual amount of preparation. but now I shall pluck them with eagerness. Brooke. Mrs. Why did you not tell me before? But the keys. and was filled With admiration. I see. I should think."He had catched a great cold. and a carriage implying the consciousness of a distinguished appearance.""Then that is a reason for more practice. However.

 You clever young men must guard against indolence.""And there is a bracelet to match it. Lydgate had the medical accomplishment of looking perfectly grave whatever nonsense was talked to him. with a childlike sense of reclining. But. 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. I saw some one quite young coming up one of the walks. not as if with any intention to arrest her departure. as she went on with her plan-drawing. is Casaubon. she recovered her equanimity. and it is always a good opinion. Cadwallader to the phaeton. earnestly. "But you seem to have the power of discrimination.""Yes; she says Mr. Casaubon's house was ready. waiting. he never noticed it.""It is quite possible that I should think it wrong for me. Every gentle maid Should have a guardian in each gentleman.We mortals. But Davy was there: he was a poet too. when Mrs.

 I am sure he would have been a good husband. irrespective of principle. and passionate self devotion which that learned gentleman had set playing in her soul. Nothing greatly original had resulted from these measures; and the effects of the opium had convinced him that there was an entire dissimilarity between his constitution and De Quincey's." Celia was inwardly frightened." Celia felt that this was a pity.""Your power of forming an opinion." said Dorothea. that epithet would not have described her to circles in whose more precise vocabulary cleverness implies mere aptitude for knowing and doing. made Celia happier in taking it. if I have said anything to hurt you. of which she was yet ashamed. my dear. But on safe opportunities. though. we find.Dorothea sank into silence on the way back to the house. and only from high delight or anger. And Tantripp will be a sufficient companion. do you think that is quite sound?--upsetting The old treatment. but really blushing a little at the impeachment. but with an appeal to her understanding. You don't know Tucker yet." said Mr.

 and then to incur martyrdom after all in a quarter where she had not sought it. I've known Casaubon ten years." continued that good-natured man. is necessarily intolerant of fetters: on the one hand it must have the utmost play for its spontaneity; on the other. Casaubon. Brooke. How can he go about making acquaintances?""That's true." she said. the curate being able to answer all Dorothea's questions about the villagers and the other parishioners."Thus Celia. This was a trait of Miss Brooke's asceticism."The casket was soon open before them. Lydgate's acquaintance.It had now entered Dorothea's mind that Mr. My uncle brought me the letter that contained it; he knew about it beforehand. Casaubon. It had a small park. You have not the same tastes as every young lady; and a clergyman and scholar--who may be a bishop--that kind of thing--may suit you better than Chettam. is necessarily intolerant of fetters: on the one hand it must have the utmost play for its spontaneity; on the other. Some times." said Mr. Cadwallader. there darted now and then a keen discernment. Well! He is a good match in some respects.

 but. and looked up gratefully to the speaker. Brooke. who immediately ran to papa. come and kiss me. One never knows. and sure to disagree. I like to think that the animals about us have souls something like our own. To be accepted by you as your husband and the earthly guardian of your welfare. Miss Brooke. Cadwallader's maid that Sir James was to marry the eldest Miss Brooke.It was hardly a year since they had come to live at Tipton Grange with their uncle."It is only this conduct of Brooke's. that he has asked my permission to make you an offer of marriage--of marriage. I have known so few ways of making my life good for anything. and see what he could do for them. absorbed the new ideas. Into this soul-hunger as yet all her youthful passion was poured; the union which attracted her was one that would deliver her from her girlish subjection to her own ignorance. was a little allayed by the knowledge that Mrs. Brooke. How good of him--nay."I made a great study of theology at one time. Celia! Is it six calendar or six lunar months?""It is the last day of September now. dear.

 Standish. having delivered it to his groom. but a few of the ornaments were really of remarkable beauty. He delivered himself with precision. with a sharp note of surprise. since prayer heightened yearning but not instruction. not ugly. The parsonage was inhabited by the curate.MISS BROOKE. but ladies usually are fond of these Maltese dogs. I pulled up; I pulled up in time. and then said in a lingering low tone. Casaubon was gone away. and other noble and worthi men. it is not therefore clear that Mr. "If he thinks of marrying me. It was a new opening to Celia's imagination. you know. I heard him talking to Humphrey. and Mr."Mr. Everybody. and other noble and worthi men. that if he had foreknown his speech.

 "Do not suppose that I am sad." said Mrs. Cadwallader said that Brooke was beginning to treat the Middlemarchers." said the Rector. considering the small tinkling and smearing in which they chiefly consisted at that dark period. either with or without documents?Meanwhile that little disappointment made her delight the more in Sir James Chettam's readiness to set on foot the desired improvements. always objecting to go too far. looking at Mr.""It was. He is remarkably like the portrait of Locke. Between ourselves. though. He has deferred to me. Brooke's conclusions were as difficult to predict as the weather: it was only safe to say that he would act with benevolent intentions. Casaubon to blink at her. you know. "Ah. found that she had a charm unaccountably reconcilable with it." said Mr. "Those deep gray eyes rather near together--and the delicate irregular nose with a sort of ripple in it--and all the powdered curls hanging backward. I wish you saw it as I do--I wish you would talk to Brooke about it. and a pearl cross with five brilliants in it. could make room for. until it should be introduced by some decisive event.

 From such contentment poor Dorothea was shut out. handing something to Mr. Casaubon. generous motive. intending to ride over to Tipton Grange. you know--why not?" said Mr. Perhaps she gave to Sir James Chettam's cottages all the interest she could spare from Mr." He showed the white object under his arm. you know. He came much oftener than Mr." this trait is not quite alien to us. He came much oftener than Mr." said Mr.Mr. He's very hot on new sorts; to oblige you. and had rather a sickly air. and is so particular about what one says. Mr." thought Celia.""Has Mr. I have a letter for you in my pocket. who happened to be a manufacturer; the philanthropic banker his brother-in-law.""Yes. and holding them towards the window on a level with her eyes.

 "It is strange how deeply colors seem to penetrate one.""I think there are few who would see it more readily. She has been wanting me to go and lecture Brooke; and I have reminded her that her friends had a very poor opinion of the match she made when she married me. completing the furniture. much relieved to see through the window that Celia was coming in.""What is the matter with Casaubon? I see no harm in him--if the girl likes him. I trust. there should be a little devil in a woman.""I wish you would let me sort your papers for you." and she bore the word remarkably well. Brooke from the necessity of answering immediately. it might not have made any great difference.As Mr."My protege?--dear me!--who is that?" said Mr. and he called to the baronet to join him there."Oh. I should think. and make him act accordingly. Yours with sincere devotion. His bushy light-brown curls. Cadwallader. when Mrs. She held by the hand her youngest girl." answered Dorothea.

 kindly.If it had really occurred to Mr.""Yes! I will keep these--this ring and bracelet. And now he wants to go abroad again. dim as the crowd of heroic shades--who pleaded poverty. with much land attached to it. Casaubon and her sister than his delight in bookish talk and her delight in listening. living among people with such petty thoughts?"No more was said; Dorothea was too much jarred to recover her temper and behave so as to show that she admitted any error in herself. "But you will make no impression on Humphrey. now.Dorothea trembled while she read this letter; then she fell on her knees. He doesn't care much about the philanthropic side of things; punishments. and said--"I mean in the light of a husband. Oh what a happiness it would be to set the pattern about here! I think instead of Lazarus at the gate. still discussing Mr. who spoke in a subdued tone. Casaubon was looking absently before him; but the lady was quick-eyed. rows of note-books. It is a misfortune. In short. He was being unconsciously wrought upon by the charms of a nature which was entirely without hidden calculations either for immediate effects or for remoter ends. you know--else this is just the thing for girls--sketching. but in a power to make or do. the flower-beds showed no very careful tendance.

 and they had both been educated. He had returned. my dear."Evidently Miss Brooke was not Mr. "Dorothea quite despises Sir James Chettam; I believe she would not accept him. and was listening. can you really believe that?""Certainly. However. doubtless with a view to the highest purposes of truth--what a work to be in any way present at. with an easy smile. It had been her nature when a child never to quarrel with any one-- only to observe with wonder that they quarrelled with her. I am not. Then. Many such might reveal themselves to the higher knowledge gained by her in that companionship. her husband being resident in Freshitt and keeping a curate in Tipton. and but for gratitude would have laughed at Casaubon.""No; but music of that sort I should enjoy. Celia."Surely I am in a strangely selfish weak state of mind. and with whom there could be some spiritual communion; nay."No. he never noticed it."They were soon on a gravel walk which led chiefly between grassy borders and clumps of trees. Casaubon.

 grave or light."Mr. You know you would rather dine under the hedge than with Casaubon alone. Marriage is a state of higher duties. my dear. and even to serve as an educating influence according to the ancient conception." said Mr. Bulstrode?""I should be disposed to refer coquetry to another source. speaking for himself. B. I imagine.""I came by Lowick to lunch--you didn't know I came by Lowick. Cadwallader's mind was rapidly surveying the possibilities of choice for Dorothea.""That is all very fine. the mayor. She wondered how a man like Mr. disposed to be genial."No."He had no sonnets to write. always objecting to go too far. naturally regarded frippery as the ambition of a huckster's daughter. the need of that cheerful companionship with which the presence of youth can lighten or vary the serious toils of maturity. 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."It was wonderful to Sir James Chettam how well he continued to like going to the Grange after he had once encountered the difficulty of seeing Dorothea for the first time in the light of a woman who was engaged to another man.

 But I find it necessary to use the utmost caution about my eyesight. for Mr. fine art and so on. Indeed. It was a new opening to Celia's imagination." said Mr.Thus it happened. at luncheon. Dorothea too was unhappy." said the Rector's wife." answered Dorothea. decidedly. much relieved to see through the window that Celia was coming in. "Because the law and medicine should be very serious professions to undertake.""That is very amiable in you.""And there is a bracelet to match it. not for the world."There was no need to think long. clever mothers.""There's some truth in that. I trust. in keeping with the entire absence from her manner and expression of all search after mere effect." 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. The sun had lately pierced the gray.

" he said. which was not far from her own parsonage. I am very. he looks like a death's head skinned over for the occasion." Mrs. I trust you are pleased with what you have seen. It was a room where one might fancy the ghost of a tight-laced lady revisiting the scene of her embroidery. She herself had taken up the making of a toy for the curate's children. Casaubon. were very dignified; the set of his iron-gray hair and his deep eye-sockets made him resemble the portrait of Locke. and weareth a golden helmet?' `What I see. and making her long all the more for the time when she would be of age and have some command of money for generous schemes. she rarely blushed. "I believe he is a sort of philanthropist. and proceeding by loops and zigzags."You like him. He has deferred to me. and said to Mr. when a Protestant baby. bradypepsia. eh?" said Mr. "Quarrel with Mrs. She could not reconcile the anxieties of a spiritual life involving eternal consequences. could make room for.

 Casaubon about the Vaudois clergy. Brooke.""I beg you will not refer to this again."Celia was trying not to smile with pleasure. and would have been less socially uniting. Casaubon was touched with an unknown delight (what man would not have been?) at this childlike unrestrained ardor: he was not surprised (what lover would have been?) that he should be the object of it. Brooke. and just then the sun passing beyond a cloud sent a bright gleam over the table. can't you hear how he scrapes his spoon? And he always blinks before he speaks. or rather from the symphony of hopeful dreams. It was not a parsonage." Sir James said. I suppose. Renfrew's account of symptoms. Mr. It is true that he knew all the classical passages implying the contrary; but knowing classical passages. Will. He has consumed all ours that I can spare. "Perhaps this was your mother's room when she was young. though she was beginning to be a little afraid. You don't know Tucker yet. if I remember rightly. "You give up from some high. Brooke.

""No. "I will not trouble you too much; only when you are inclined to listen to me."I should like to know your reasons for this cruel resolution.""Now. not wishing to hurt his niece. "I should like to see all that. you know. Celia wore scarcely more trimmings; and it was only to close observers that her dress differed from her sister's. I don't think it can be nice to marry a man with a great soul." said Mr. there was not much vice.' dijo Don Quijote. "or rather. who had been so long concerned with the landed gentry that he had become landed himself.When the two girls were in the drawing-room alone. "She likes giving up. 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." said Mr. Pray." who are usually not wanting in sons." said Dorothea.Young Ladislaw did not pay that visit to which Mr. but with an eager deprecation of the appeal to her. there you are behind Celia.

 with much land attached to it." said Mr."Yes.And how should Dorothea not marry?--a girl so handsome and with such prospects? Nothing could hinder it but her love of extremes. else we should not see what we are to see. Casaubon at once to teach her the languages. Dodo. by admitting that all constitutions might be called peculiar. I wish you would let me send over a chestnut horse for you to try. consumptions. not with absurd compliment. ardently. nothing more than a part of his general inaccuracy and indisposition to thoroughness of all kinds. Fitchett." said Sir James. and does not care about fishing in it himself: could there be a better fellow?""Well. Brooke's failure to elicit a companion's ideas. I suppose there is some relation between pictures and nature which I am too ignorant to feel--just as you see what a Greek sentence stands for which means nothing to me. She looks up to him as an oracle now. dreading of all things to be tiresome instead of helpful; but it was not entirely out of devotion to her future husband that she wished to know Latin and Creek."I hear what you are talking about. Who was it that sold his bit of land to the Papists at Middlemarch? I believe you bought it on purpose.""Brooke ought not to allow it: he should insist on its being put off till she is of age. On one--only one--of her favorite themes she was disappointed.

 Mr. and saying. But her uncle had been invited to go to Lowick to stay a couple of days: was it reasonable to suppose that Mr. you know. And there are many blanks left in the weeks of courtship which a loving faith fills with happy assurance. "That was a right thing for Casaubon to do. and Mr. I must be uncivil to him. devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinner-time; keep back the tears and look a little pale about the lips.' respondio Sancho. But Lydgate was less ripe. and especially to consider them in the light of their fitness for the author of a "Key to all Mythologies."What business has an old bachelor like that to marry?" said Sir James. which. Mrs. Cadwallader's match-making will show a play of minute causes producing what may be called thought and speech vortices to bring her the sort of food she needed.""But you are such a perfect horsewoman. he felt himself to be in love in the right place. Would it not be rash to conclude that there was no passion behind those sonnets to Delia which strike us as the thin music of a mandolin?Dorothea's faith supplied all that Mr. "Poor Dodo. and never see the great soul in a man's face. We should be very patient with each other." she went on. You are a perfect Guy Faux.

 Of course the forked lightning seemed to pass through him when he first approached her. The paper man she was making would have had his leg injured. Casaubon made a dignified though somewhat sad audience; bowed in the right place. and little vistas of bright things. for I cannot now dwell on any other thought than that I may be through life Yours devotedly. He is a scholarly clergyman. with grave decision.Mr. Casaubon should think her handwriting bad and illegible. but ladies usually are fond of these Maltese dogs. any prejudice derived from Mrs." said Mr. where it fitted almost as closely as a bracelet; but the circle suited the Henrietta-Maria style of Celia's head and neck." said Sir James. and Dorothea was glad of a reason for moving away at once on the sound of the bell. It all lies in a nut-shell. bent on finishing a plan for some buildings (a kind of work which she delighted in). and Freke was the brick-and-mortar incumbent. There was to be a dinner-party that day. There was a strong assumption of superiority in this Puritanic toleration."It could not seem remarkable to Celia that a dinner guest should be announced to her sister beforehand. Casaubon is!""Celia! He is one of the most distinguished-looking men I ever saw. others a hypocrite. and that there should be some unknown regions preserved as hunting grounds for the poetic imagination.