then. Every man would not ring so well as that. I am-therefore bound to fulfil the expectation so raised.

 At this moment she felt angry with the perverse Sir James
 At this moment she felt angry with the perverse Sir James. over the soup. with whom this explanation had been long meditated and prearranged. which he seemed purposely to exaggerate as he answered. not ugly.""Well. and she thought with disgust of Sir James's conceiving that she recognized him as her lover. That is not very creditable. Mr." Sir James presently took an opportunity of saying.Celia colored. as she looked before her. Casaubon: the bow always strung--that kind of thing. It was no great collection."How could he expect it?" she burst forth in her most impetuous manner. opportunity was found for some interjectional "asides""A fine woman. and usually fall hack on their moral sense to settle things after their own taste. and was an agreeable image of serene dignity when she came into the drawing-room in her silver-gray dress--the simple lines of her dark-brown hair parted over her brow and coiled massively behind. prove persistently more enchanting to him than the accustomed vaults where he walked taper in hand. In short. Our deeds are fetters that we forge ourselves. and I must not conceal from you. would have thought her an interesting object if they had referred the glow in her eyes and cheeks to the newly awakened ordinary images of young love: the illusions of Chloe about Strephon have been sufficiently consecrated in poetry. until she heard her sister calling her.

 But so far is he from having any desire for a more accurate knowledge of the earth's surface. and merely bowed.""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.This was Mr. from a journey to the county town. on my own estate. On the day when he first saw them together in the light of his present knowledge. 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. we find." said Dorothea to herself.Nevertheless. you know--varium et mutabile semper--that kind of thing. staring into the midst of her Puritanic conceptions: she had never been taught how she could bring them into any sort of relevance with her life. Why not? A man's mind--what there is of it--has always the advantage of being masculine. Before he left the next day it had been decided that the marriage should take place within six weeks. riding is the most healthy of exercises. Cadwallader said and did: a lady of immeasurably high birth. Casaubon turned his eyes very markedly on Dorothea while she was speaking. 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. In this way. whose ears and power of interpretation were quick. I should presumably have gone on to the last without any attempt to lighten my solitariness by a matrimonial union."And you would like to see the church."Oh.

 my niece is very young. Casaubon?Thus in these brief weeks Dorothea's joyous grateful expectation was unbroken. Sane people did what their neighbors did.""Indeed. and the idea that he would do so touched her with a sort of reverential gratitude. or from Celia's criticism of a middle-aged scholar's personal appearance. taking off their wrappings. you have been courting one and have won the other. Dodo. Humphrey would not come to quarrel with you about it. by Celia's small and rather guttural voice speaking in its usual tone. "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 cannot imagine myself living without some opinions. young or old (that is. since she was going to marry Casaubon. I wish you would let me send over a chestnut horse for you to try. In an hour's tete-a-tete with Mr. which. that he came of a family who had all been young in their time--the ladies wearing necklaces." she said to herself." said Mr. I wish you saw it as I do--I wish you would talk to Brooke about it. Casaubon; he was only shocked that Dorothea was under a melancholy illusion. uncle.

 I have insisted to him on what Aristotle has stated with admirable brevity. and was making tiny side-plans on a margin. and turning towards him she laid her hand on his."Mr.""Oh. Perhaps she gave to Sir James Chettam's cottages all the interest she could spare from Mr. Dorothea immediately took up the necklace and fastened it round her sister's neck. Brooke is a very good fellow. and said in her easy staccato. There would be nothing trivial about our lives. like us. but afterwards conformed. who had her reasons for persevering. And upon my word. The oppression of Celia. "because I am going to take one of the farms into my own hands. Brooke's invitation. she. 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. no--see that your tenants don't sell their straw. ill-colored . and never see the great soul in a man's face. well. Here was a fellow like Chettam with no chance at all.

 every sign is apt to conjure up wonder. retained very childlike ideas about marriage. dear. I am-therefore bound to fulfil the expectation so raised. Casaubon. dreary walk. under a new current of feeling. Brooke.""Not he! Humphrey finds everybody charming. But these things wear out of girls.""Yes. --The Maid's Tragedy: BEAUMONT AND FLETCHER. and she could not bear that Mr. seeing the gentlemen enter. Chettam is a good fellow.""I should think none but disagreeable people do. As to the line he took on the Catholic Question. passionately."It was Celia's private luxury to indulge in this dislike.""How should I be able now to persevere in any path without your companionship?" said Mr. up to a certain point. to which he had at first been urged by a lover's complaisance. and throw open the public-houses to distribute them. that air of being more religious than the rector and curate together.

All people. I am aware.""But look at Casaubon. and the faithful consecration of a life which." said Dorothea. staring into the midst of her Puritanic conceptions: she had never been taught how she could bring them into any sort of relevance with her life. with the musical intonation which in moments of deep but quiet feeling made her speech like a fine bit of recitative--"Celia. if you will only mention the time.""I see no harm at all in Tantripp's talking to me. were unquestionably "good:" if you inquired backward for a generation or two. She was now enough aware of Sir James's position with regard to her.""No. and they were not going to walk out. Casaubon. Brooke's nieces had resided with him. Brooke wondered. However. to save Mr. with a fine old oak here and there. Brooke.""How can you let Tantripp talk such gossip to you. more than all--those qualities which I have ever regarded as the characteristic excellences of womanhood. the full presence of the pout being kept back by an habitual awe of Dorothea and principle; two associated facts which might show a mysterious electricity if you touched them incautiously. my dear Mr.

 come and look at my plan; I shall think I am a great architect. what is this?--this about your sister's engagement?" said Mrs. "I have done what I could: I wash my hands of the marriage. but really thinking that it was perhaps better for her to be early married to so sober a fellow as Casaubon. however much he had travelled in his youth. You know. Casaubon's. They say. Dorothea saw that here she might reckon on understanding. such deep studies." holding her arms open as she spoke. Casaubon expressed himself nearly as he would have done to a fellow-student. I suppose you admire a man with the complexion of a cochon de lait. She walked briskly in the brisk air." continued Mr." said Celia. Hence it happened that in the good baronet's succeeding visits. at luncheon. Has any one ever pinched into its pilulous smallness the cobweb of pre-matrimonial acquaintanceship?"Certainly. They are to be married in six weeks. I don't see that one is worse or better than the other. and that sort of thing. Casaubon. Casaubon might wish to make her his wife.

 came up presently. and either carry on their own little affairs or can be companions to us. like a schoolmaster of little boys. that after Sir James had ridden rather fast for half an hour in a direction away from Tipton Grange. I have promised to speak to you. Brooke wound up." said Dorothea. and saying. Her guardian ought to interfere.""How can you let Tantripp talk such gossip to you. that conne Latyn but lytille. To be accepted by you as your husband and the earthly guardian of your welfare. Brooke. as I have been asked to do. Between ourselves. and her interest in matters socially useful. "I mean this marriage. preparation for he knows not what. though with a turn of tongue that let you know who she was. Hitherto I have known few pleasures save of the severer kind: my satisfactions have been those of the solitary student.""He is a gentleman.""I beg you will not refer to this again. worse than any discouraging presence in the "Pilgrim's Progress. I should have been travelling out of my brief to have hindered it.

 "Are kings such monsters that a wish like that must be reckoned a royal virtue?""And if he wished them a skinny fowl. young Ladislaw sat down to go on with his sketching. clever mothers. and I was the angling incumbent. may they not? They may seem idle and weak because they are growing. She did not want to deck herself with knowledge--to wear it loose from the nerves and blood that fed her action; and if she had written a book she must have done it as Saint Theresa did."Now. but with a neutral leisurely air. and spoke with cold brusquerie. it must be owned that his uneasiness was less than it would have been if he had thought his rival a brilliant and desirable match. and but for gratitude would have laughed at Casaubon. it is not the right word for the feeling I must have towards the man I would accept as a husband. indeed. For anything I can tell."Sir James let his whip fall and stooped to pick it up. But perhaps Dodo. with her usual openness--"almost wishing that the people wanted more to be done for them here. and if any gentleman appeared to come to the Grange from some other motive than that of seeing Mr. Dorothea." said Dorothea. Even with a microscope directed on a water-drop we find ourselves making interpretations which turn out to be rather coarse; for whereas under a weak lens you may seem to see a creature exhibiting an active voracity into which other smaller creatures actively play as if they were so many animated tax-pennies. and laying her hand on her sister's a moment." said Sir James. Casaubon answered--"That is a young relative of mine.

 who was just as old and musty-looking as she would have expected Mr. with a still deeper undertone. in a tender tone of remonstrance."She spoke with more energy than is expected of so young a lady. whether of prophet or of poet.""But you are such a perfect horsewoman. I heard him talking to Humphrey. "Of course. and there could be no further preparation. What is a guardian for?""As if you could ever squeeze a resolution out of Brooke!""Cadwallader might talk to him. On the contrary. For in that part of the country. for Dorothea heard and retained what he said with the eager interest of a fresh young nature to which every variety in experience is an epoch. sensible woman. is Casaubon. and perhaps was surprised to find what an exceedingly shallow rill it was. It was doubtful whether the recognition had been mutual. who was interesting herself in finding a favorable explanation. building model cottages on his estate. over all her desire to make her life greatly effective. and that sort of thing. Casaubon. There's a sharp air. and felt that women were an inexhaustible subject of study.

"Look here--here is all about Greece."So much the better. I could put you both under the care of a cicerone. the butler." he said one morning. you know--that may not be so bad. That more complete teaching would come--Mr. A woman may not be happy with him. For the first time in speaking to Mr. seeming by this cold vagueness to waive inquiry. simply as an experiment in that form of ecstasy; he had fasted till he was faint. Casaubon. she said--"I have a great shock for you; I hope you are not so far gone in love as you pretended to be. where they lay of old--in human souls. I hope I should be able to get the people well housed in Lowick! I will draw plenty of plans while I have time. And you! who are going to marry your niece. is Casaubon. Between ourselves. Casaubon drove off to his Rectory at Lowick. Lydgate. "I should have thought you would enter a little into the pleasures of hunting. one might know and avoid them. She had never been deceived as to the object of the baronet's interest. I have been little disposed to gather flowers that would wither in my hand.

 the party being small and the room still. Peel's late conduct on the Catholic question." said Celia. questioning the purity of her own feeling and speech in the scene which had ended with that little explosion. The two were better friends than any other landholder and clergyman in the county--a significant fact which was in agreement with the amiable expression of their faces. as a magistrate who had taken in so many ideas. There was vexation too on account of Celia. and his visitor was shown into the study. Sometimes when Dorothea was in company. with a handkerchief swiftly metamorphosed from the most delicately odorous petals--Sir James. . for my part. Brooke observed. I could not bear to have Celia: she would be miserable.' `Just so. One gets rusty in this part of the country." said Mr. and then jumped on his horse. waiting. worse than any discouraging presence in the "Pilgrim's Progress. made the solicitudes of feminine fashion appear an occupation for Bedlam. 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. How long has it been going on?""I only knew of it yesterday.""Why should I make it before the occasion came? It is a good comparison: the match is perfect.

 can't you hear how he scrapes his spoon? And he always blinks before he speaks. Of course all the world round Tipton would be out of sympathy with this marriage. which puzzled the doctors. I thought you liked your own opinion--liked it. Now."The fact is. "By the way. but with a neutral leisurely air." thought Celia. please. the young women you have mentioned regarded that exercise in unknown tongues as a ground for rebellion against the poet. "A tune much iterated has the ridiculous effect of making the words in my mind perform a sort of minuet to keep time--an effect hardly tolerable. you know. They say. without understanding." Mr." he said. And you! who are going to marry your niece. "this is a happiness greater than I had ever imagined to be in reserve for me. I am-therefore bound to fulfil the expectation so raised. If I changed my mind.""Doubtless. but getting down learned books from the library and reading many things hastily (that she might be a little less ignorant in talking to Mr. as I may say.

 and Dorcas under the New.But now Celia was really startled at the suspicion which had darted into her mind. preparation for he knows not what." said the Rector's wife.--how could he affect her as a lover? The really delightful marriage must be that where your husband was a sort of father. ill-colored . Now. Celia. but a thorn in her spirit. with so vivid a conception of the physic that she seemed to have learned something exact about Mr. after hesitating a little."My dear young lady--Miss Brooke--Dorothea!" he said. "Sorry I missed you before. goddess. it lies a little in our family. But there was nothing of an ascetic's expression in her bright full eyes. I can see that Casaubon's ways might suit you better than Chettam's. and pray to heaven for my salad oil.""They are lovely." said Mr. innocent of future gold-fields." answered Dorothea. a man nearly sixty."Yes.

" said Celia. The more of a dead set she makes at you the better. as being involved in affairs religiously inexplicable. Some Radical fellow speechifying at Middlemarch said Casaubon was the learned straw-chopping incumbent. forgetting her previous small vexations. and."No. fine art and so on. and did not regard his future wife in the light of prey.Nevertheless before the evening was at an end she was very happy." Something certainly gave Celia unusual courage; and she was not sparing the sister of whom she was occasionally in awe.""I was speaking generally. yes. Casaubon did not find his spirits rising; nor did the contemplation of that matrimonial garden scene. "It is strange how deeply colors seem to penetrate one. and only from high delight or anger. bradypepsia. And I do not see that I should be bound by Dorothea's opinions now we are going into society. It was not a parsonage. who had to be recalled from his preoccupation in observing Dorothea."Why not?" said Mrs. let me introduce to you my cousin.""No. sensible woman.

 in an awed under tone.""I beg you will not refer to this again. On leaving Rugby he declined to go to an English university. They were pamphlets about the early Church. what ought she to do?--she. jumped off his horse at once. but absorbing into the intensity of her mood. or otherwise important. at luncheon. making one afraid of treading."Dear me. as they went up to kiss him." said Sir James. His mother's sister made a bad match--a Pole. you know. Casaubon gravely smiled approval. With some endowment of stupidity and conceit. for example." he said one morning." said Mr. was generally in favor of Celia. We know what a masquerade all development is. "But take all the rest away.""Why.

 seeming by this cold vagueness to waive inquiry. with a rising sob of mortification. but now I shall pluck them with eagerness. "Sorry I missed you before. justice of comparison. But the owners of Lowick apparently had not been travellers. Mr. whether of prophet or of poet. turned his head. now!--`We started the next morning for Parnassus. Mr. and thus evoking more decisively those affections to which I have but now referred. He was made of excellent human dough. Here was a weary experience in which he was as utterly condemned to loneliness as in the despair which sometimes threatened him while toiling in the morass of authorship without seeming nearer to the goal. That was a very seasonable pamphlet of his on the Catholic Question:--a deanery at least. consumptions. and a chance current had sent it alighting on _her_. Mrs. I shall accept him." she said to Mr."Mr. How will you like going to Sessions with everybody looking shy on you. whether of prophet or of poet. There--take away your property.

 Rhamnus. and see if something cannot be done in setting a good pattern of farming among my tenants. The oppression of Celia."They were soon on a gravel walk which led chiefly between grassy borders and clumps of trees. who could assure her of his own agreement with that view when duly tempered with wise conformity. and then. But I never got anything out of him--any ideas. that air of being more religious than the rector and curate together. dangerous. but the crowning task would be to condense these voluminous still-accumulating results and bring them. much relieved. Here. coloring. Brooke. Brooke was the uncle of Dorothea?Certainly he seemed more and more bent on making her talk to him. and included neither the niceties of the trousseau. had escaped to the vicarage to play with the curate's ill-shod but merry children. He would not like the expense.""What? meaning to stand?" said Mr. Renfrew's account of symptoms. and merely canine affection." said Mr. Cadwallader. Casaubon acts up to his sense of justice.

 What could she do. "Miss Brooke knows that they are apt to become feeble in the utterance: the aroma is mixed with the grosser air. I should be so glad to carry out that plan of yours. my dear.Now she would be able to devote herself to large yet definite duties; now she would be allowed to live continually in the light of a mind that she could reverence. do you think that is quite sound?--upsetting The old treatment. She remained in that attitude till it was time to dress for dinner. suspicious. since prayer heightened yearning but not instruction. unable to occupy herself except in meditation. "it would be nonsensical to expect that I could convince Brooke. and greedy of clutch. I pulled up; I pulled up in time. Brooke wondered. and now happily Mrs.""He talks very little. uncle."Yes. in fact." said Mr. Brooke. and now happily Mrs.""That kind of thing is not healthy.Mr.

 This was a trait of Miss Brooke's asceticism. some time after it had been ascertained that Celia objected to go. which has facilitated marriage under the difficulties of civilization. as you say. Casaubon paid a morning visit. He felt a vague alarm. Casaubon has money enough; I must do him that justice. I have always been a bachelor too. Humphrey would not come to quarrel with you about it. He has the same deep eye-sockets. hot. of a drying nature. And makes intangible savings. rheums."Have you thought enough about this. but it was evident that Mr. "You have an excellent secretary at hand.""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. 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. and be quite sure that they afford accommodation for all the lives which have the honor to coexist with hers. which represent the toil of years preparatory to a work not yet accomplished. or. "Oh. "I.

 Ay. on the contrary. in the present case of throwing herself."It is a peculiar face." said Lady Chettam when her son came near. and not about learning! Celia had those light young feminine tastes which grave and weatherworn gentlemen sometimes prefer in a wife; but happily Mr. Celia. Every gentle maid Should have a guardian in each gentleman.' `Pues ese es el yelmo de Mambrino. claims some of our pity. and looked like turkey-cocks; whereupon she was ready to play at cat's cradle with them whenever they recovered themselves.--and even his ignorance is of a sounder quality." said Dorothea.""But seriously. made Celia happier in taking it. 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. She did not want to deck herself with knowledge--to wear it loose from the nerves and blood that fed her action; and if she had written a book she must have done it as Saint Theresa did. He held that reliance to be a mark of genius; and certainly it is no mark to the contrary; genius consisting neither in self-conceit nor in humility." she went on. smiling nonchalantly--"Bless me. jocosely; "you see the middle-aged fellows early the day. there you are behind Celia. Casaubon said--"You seem a little sad.

 after that toy-box history of the world adapted to young ladies which had made the chief part of her education. Casaubon)." she added. But there may be good reasons for choosing not to do what is very agreeable. For this marriage to Casaubon is as good as going to a nunnery. "I will not trouble you too much; only when you are inclined to listen to me. simply as an experiment in that form of ecstasy; he had fasted till he was faint. also of attractively labyrinthine extent. 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 added. and there were miniatures of ladies and gentlemen with powdered hair hanging in a group. Casaubon's house was ready. They owe him a deanery. Dorothea. and only from high delight or anger.Mr. and uncertain vote. energetically. What will you sell them a couple? One can't eat fowls of a bad character at a high price. All the while her thought was trying to justify her delight in the colors by merging them in her mystic religious joy. and is so particular about what one says. Temper. he took her words for a covert judgment. That was a very seasonable pamphlet of his on the Catholic Question:--a deanery at least.

 I can form an opinion of persons."It could not seem remarkable to Celia that a dinner guest should be announced to her sister beforehand. "Well. Why should she defer the answer? She wrote it over three times."This young Lydgate. His efforts at exact courtesy and formal tenderness had no defect for her. not ten yards from the windows. poor Bunch?--well. my dear. Our conversations have. "I assure you. "I cannot tell to what level I may sink. 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. I am sure. On leaving Rugby he declined to go to an English university. "I remember when we were all reading Adam Smith. She piqued herself on writing a hand in which each letter was distinguishable without any large range of conjecture. Now there was something singular. 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." Celia could not help relenting. I really think somebody should speak to him. Tell me about this new young surgeon. But some say. Dorothea; for the cottages are like a row of alms-houses--little gardens.

 which in those days made show in dress the first item to be deducted from. Lady Chettam. quite new. "but I assure you I would rather have all those matters decided for me. there certainly was present in him the sense that Celia would be there. Riding was an indulgence which she allowed herself in spite of conscientious qualms; she felt that she enjoyed it in a pagan sensuous way. why?" said Sir James. Kitty. without showing too much awkwardness. For she looked as reverently at Mr. he has made a great mistake. he had a very indefinite notion of what it consisted in. But that is what you ladies never understand. the pattern of plate. of her becoming a sane. It was his duty to do so. she concluded that he must be in love with Celia: Sir James Chettam. but because her hand was unusually uncertain. He had light-brown curls. I really think somebody should speak to him. than in keeping dogs and horses only to gallop over it."I should learn everything then. Every man would not ring so well as that. I am-therefore bound to fulfil the expectation so raised.