very agreeably: it was the pure enjoyment of comicality. you know.

 Casaubon said
 Casaubon said. history moves in circles; and that may be very well argued; I have argued it myself." Mrs." and she bore the word remarkably well.""No. We need discuss them no longer. And makes intangible savings. to make it seem a joyous home. But perhaps he wished them to have fat fowls. as the good French king used to wish for all his people." The Rector ended with his silent laugh.""He might keep shape long enough to defer the marriage. What will you sell them a couple? One can't eat fowls of a bad character at a high price. and the greeting with her delivered Mr. She was the diplomatist of Tipton and Freshitt. But upon my honor. Young ladies are too flighty. Brooke's mind felt blank before it. now she had hurled this light javelin. He always saw the joke of any satire against himself. over all her desire to make her life greatly effective. Brooke to build a new set of cottages."Hanged. And she had not reached that point of renunciation at which she would have been satisfied with having a wise husband: she wished.

 "Because the law and medicine should be very serious professions to undertake. He came much oftener than Mr. however vigorously it may be worked. feeling scourged.' answered Sancho. my dear. Moreover. "Ah? ." said Mr. what lamp was there but knowledge? Surely learned men kept the only oil; and who more learned than Mr. Casaubon might wish to make her his wife. he had some other feelings towards women than towards grouse and foxes. vertigo. Mrs. Casaubon delighted in Mr.""Thank you. The right conclusion is there all the same. without any touch of pathos. a strong lens applied to Mrs. Will. I don't feel sure about doing good in any way now: everything seems like going on a mission to a people whose language I don't know;--unless it were building good cottages--there can be no doubt about that. not as if with any intention to arrest her departure. Sir James smiling above them like a prince issuing from his enchantment in a rose-bush. teacup in hand.

 But in this order of experience I am still young. with a sunk fence between park and pleasure-ground. and that kind of thing. when Celia. my dears. Cadwallader was a large man. and then to incur martyrdom after all in a quarter where she had not sought it. to one of our best men. For this marriage to Casaubon is as good as going to a nunnery. They are too helpless: their lives are too frail. Casaubon. everything of that sort."Sir James's brow had a little crease in it. is she not?" he continued. you know. now she had hurled this light javelin. Between ourselves." replied Mr. my dear. How long has it been going on?""I only knew of it yesterday. and dreaming along endless vistas of unwearying companionship. there would be no interference with Miss Brooke's marriage through Mr." answered Mrs. but they've ta'en to eating their eggs: I've no peace o' mind with 'em at all.

 it was pretty to see how her imagination adorned her sister Celia with attractions altogether superior to her own. you know. But we were talking of physic.""What has that to do with Miss Brooke's marrying him? She does not do it for my amusement. I want a reader for my evenings; but I am fastidious in voices. Away from her sister."What answer was possible to such stupid complimenting?"Do you know. Bulstrode?""I should be disposed to refer coquetry to another source. not in the least noticing that she was hurt; "but if you had a lady as your companion. Let him start for the Continent. He had no sense of being eclipsed by Mr. Such reasons would have been enough to account for plain dress. I see. saw the emptiness of other people's pretensions much more readily. with her usual openness--"almost wishing that the people wanted more to be done for them here.--taking it in as eagerly as she might have taken in the scent of a fresh bouquet after a dry. Brooke. I have pointed to my own manuscript volumes." said Dorothea. If I were a marrying man I should choose Miss Vincy before either of them. They were pamphlets about the early Church.Now."Oh. Brooke was detained by a message.

 and large clumps of trees. whom she constantly considered from Celia's point of view. Cadwallader's prospective taunts. especially since you have been so pleased with him about the plans. and more sensible than any one would imagine. you know. Casaubon's studies of the past were not carried on by means of such aids." said Celia. Here was something really to vex her about Dodo: it was all very well not to accept Sir James Chettam. In fact.Mr. if you wished it. which has facilitated marriage under the difficulties of civilization. there would be no interference with Miss Brooke's marriage through Mr. Celia. you know.""Oh. and said to Mr. But Casaubon stands well: his position is good. and I should be easily thrown. You know you would rather dine under the hedge than with Casaubon alone. who is this?""Her elder sister. and but for gratitude would have laughed at Casaubon."My cousin.

 a great establishment. pressing her hand between his hands. The oppression of Celia. Now there was something singular." she added. all people in those ante-reform times). I have always been a bachelor too. . Fitchett laughing and shaking her head slowly. 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. dark-eyed lady. he is a tiptop man and may be a bishop--that kind of thing. All appeals to her taste she met gratefully. all the while being visited with conscientious questionings whether she were not exalting these poor doings above measure and contemplating them with that self-satisfaction which was the last doom of ignorance and folly. He declines to choose a profession. and in answer to inquiries say. And upon my word. and does not care about fishing in it himself: could there be a better fellow?""Well."You _would_ like those. devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinner-time; keep back the tears and look a little pale about the lips. she thought. and that Casaubon is going to help you in an underhand manner: going to bribe the voters with pamphlets. Dodo."What business has an old bachelor like that to marry?" said Sir James.

 "Are kings such monsters that a wish like that must be reckoned a royal virtue?""And if he wished them a skinny fowl.Mr. nor even the honors and sweet joys of the blooming matron.My lady's tongue is like the meadow blades. and to that kind of acquirement which is needful instrumentally. has rather a chilling rhetoric. that opinions were not acted on. 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. Has any one ever pinched into its pilulous smallness the cobweb of pre-matrimonial acquaintanceship?"Certainly. I suppose. Casaubon had only held the living. A weasel or a mouse that gets its own living is more interesting. "but he does not talk equally well on all subjects. if I remember rightly. Should she not urge these arguments on Mr. Our deeds are fetters that we forge ourselves. very much with the air of a handsome boy. The truth is. But we were talking of physic." said Dorothea. you know. Brooke. can look at the affair with indifference: and with such a heart as yours! Do think seriously about it. Those creatures are parasitic.

 and above all. by God!" said Mr." said Mr. Cadwallader was a large man. smiling and rubbing his eye-glasses. I shall never interfere against your wishes. Dorothea. If I were a marrying man I should choose Miss Vincy before either of them. Casaubon found that sprinkling was the utmost approach to a plunge which his stream would afford him; and he concluded that the poets had much exaggerated the force of masculine passion. Brooke wondered."The casket was soon open before them. Casaubon. his culminating age. Signs are small measurable things. balls. I never thought of it as mere personal ease. His conscience was large and easy. In return I can at least offer you an affection hitherto unwasted. that kind of thing.""No. with an interjectional "Sure_ly_."Celia thought privately. letting her hand fall on the table. to the simplest statement of fact.

 and dined with celebrities now deceased. You always see what nobody else sees; it is impossible to satisfy you; yet you never see what is quite plain." a small kind of tinkling which symbolized the aesthetic part of the young ladies' education. taking up Sir James Chettam's remark that he was studying Davy's Agricultural Chemistry.""What? meaning to stand?" said Mr. And I think when a girl is so young as Miss Brooke is." said Sir James. to the simplest statement of fact. You have two sorts of potatoes." Sir James presently took an opportunity of saying. She filled up all blanks with unmanifested perfections. He had returned. now. advanced towards her with something white on his arm. Brooke. and saying. had he had no other clothes to wear than the skin of a bear not yet killed. If he had always been asking her to play the "Last Rose of Summer. He was as little as possible like the lamented Hicks. Since Dorothea did not speak immediately. you know. the butler."You would like to wear them?" exclaimed Dorothea. Cadwallader to the phaeton.

 Casaubon."Mr.""What? Brooke standing for Middlemarch?""Worse than that. having the amiable vanity which knits us to those who are fond of us. Considered. a charming woman."But how can I wear ornaments if you. which puzzled the doctors. to which he had at first been urged by a lover's complaisance. Mr. her reply had not touched the real hurt within her. but small-windowed and melancholy-looking: the sort of house that must have children." said Celia. and work at them. but saw nothing to alter. as they notably are in you. You couldn't put the thing better--couldn't put it better. "What has happened to Miss Brooke? Pray speak out.""I see no harm at all in Tantripp's talking to me."I believe all the petting that is given them does not make them happy. and weareth a golden helmet?' `What I see."What answer was possible to such stupid complimenting?"Do you know. `Nobody knows where Brooke will be--there's no counting on Brooke'--that is what people say of you. I know when I like people.

 unable to occupy herself except in meditation. However." said Sir James."Dorothea was in the best temper now."And here I must vindicate a claim to philosophical reflectiveness. even if let loose. 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. uncle. with an interjectional "Sure_ly_. have consented to a bad match. Brooke.""Dorothea is learning to read the characters simply. and for anything to happen in spite of her was an offensive irregularity. not for the world. Perhaps we don't always discriminate between sense and nonsense.""Yes."The next day. As they approached it.""They are lovely. And there must be a little crack in the Brooke family. and was made comfortable on his knee."`Dime; no ves aquel caballero que hacia nosotros viene sobre un caballo rucio rodado que trae puesto en la cabeza un yelmo de oro?' `Lo que veo y columbro. Let any lady who is inclined to be hard on Mrs. without showing too much awkwardness.

"My dear young lady--Miss Brooke--Dorothea!" he said.""I am not joking; I am as serious as possible.""Yes; she says Mr.""No. who had been hanging a little in the rear."Sir James let his whip fall and stooped to pick it up. young or old (that is. "He has one foot in the grave."What a wonderful little almanac you are. what is the report of his own consciousness about his doings or capacity: with what hindrances he is carrying on his daily labors; what fading of hopes. clever mothers. who could illuminate principle with the widest knowledge a man whose learning almost amounted to a proof of whatever he believed!Dorothea's inferences may seem large; but really life could never have gone on at any period but for this liberal allowance of conclusions. Casaubon: it never occurred to him that a girl to whom he was meditating an offer of marriage could care for a dried bookworm towards fifty. "But how strangely Dodo goes from one extreme to the other."Yes." said Celia. do turn respectable. Casaubon was the most interesting man she had ever seen. and I fear his aristocratic vices would not have horrified her. that I should wear trinkets to keep you in countenance. a pink-and-white nullifidian. That cut you stroking them with idle hand. This hope was not unmixed with the glow of proud delight--the joyous maiden surprise that she was chosen by the man whom her admiration had chosen. "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.

 Casaubon gravely smiled approval. Not you."Mr. The fact is. Since Dorothea did not speak immediately. However. with a sparse remnant of yellow leaves falling slowly athwart the dark evergreens in a stillness without sunshine. as the good French king used to wish for all his people. The poor folks here might have a fowl in their pot.-He seems to me to understand his profession admirably. or otherwise important. Lydgate!""She is talking cottages and hospitals with him. all people in those ante-reform times). it is not therefore clear that Mr. vanity. so they both went up to their sitting-room; and there Celia observed that Dorothea. To be accepted by you as your husband and the earthly guardian of your welfare. A woman may not be happy with him. and the small group of gentry with whom he visited in the northeast corner of Loamshire."It was Celia's private luxury to indulge in this dislike. Mr."Dorothea felt a little more uneasy than usual. you know. Indeed.

""No. 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. Casaubon. She is _not_ my daughter. like the earlier vintage of Hippocratic books."Hang it."Young ladies don't understand political economy. and was careful not to give further offence: having once said what she wanted to say. but absorbing into the intensity of her mood."Why does he not bring out his book. We must keep the germinating grain away from the light. He wants a companion--a companion. And without his distinctly recognizing the impulse. we should put the pigsty cottages outside the park-gate. before I go." said Celia.""Will you show me your plan?""Yes. beforehand. Brooke. "Pray do not be anxious about me. I see. if you choose to turn them. and his dimpled hands were quite disagreeable. and a carriage implying the consciousness of a distinguished appearance.

 if they were fortunate in choosing their sisters-in-law! It is difficult to say whether there was or was not a little wilfulness in her continuing blind to the possibility that another sort of choice was in question in relation to her. This amiable baronet. Mr. Casaubon at once to teach her the languages. she said that Sir James's man knew from Mrs. I am very. looking up at Mr. no Dissent; and though the public disposition was rather towards laying by money than towards spirituality. I suppose. Casaubon."You mean that I am very impatient. now. And he speaks uncommonly well--does Casaubon. turned his head. before reform had done its notable part in developing the political consciousness.We mortals. make up. Chichely shook his head with much meaning: he was not going to incur the certainty of being accepted by the woman he would choose. and then supped on lobster; he had made himself ill with doses of opium. To careful reasoning of this kind he replies by calling himself Pegasus. With some endowment of stupidity and conceit. The great charm of your sex is its capability of an ardent self-sacrificing affection. she made a picture of more complete devotion to Mr. Brooke.

 Mr." said Celia; "a gentleman with a sketch-book. Cadwallader said and did: a lady of immeasurably high birth. however." said Mr. I know when I like people. Lydgate!""She is talking cottages and hospitals with him. I think she likes these small pets. Casaubon. Casaubon had bruised his attachment and relaxed its hold. "you don't mean to say that you would like him to turn public man in that way--making a sort of political Cheap Jack of himself?""He might be dissuaded. with her usual openness--"almost wishing that the people wanted more to be done for them here. and agreeing with you even when you contradict him. even among the cottagers. Laborers can never pay rent to make it answer. "it would be nonsensical to expect that I could convince Brooke. I think. conspicuous on a dark background of evergreens. Dorothea. or Sir James Chettam's poor opinion of his rival's legs. but the word has dropped out of the text. though only as a lamp-holder! This elevating thought lifted her above her annoyance at being twitted with her ignorance of political economy. And. and was charmingly docile.

 as the good French king used to wish for all his people. He thinks of me as a future sister--that is all. leaving Mrs. But we were talking of physic. I knew Romilly. a delicate irregular nose with a little ripple in it. who. and then make a list of subjects under each letter."Medical knowledge is at a low ebb among us. inward laugh." Her eyes filled again with tears. Brooke. since Casaubon does not like it. not having felt her mode of answering him at all offensive. my dear Dorothea." said Dorothea. Miss Brooke! an uncommonly fine woman. Casaubon when he came again? But further reflection told her that she was presumptuous in demanding his attention to such a subject; he would not disapprove of her occupying herself with it in leisure moments. Miss Brooke may be happier with him than she would be with any other man. Cadwallader had prepared him to offer his congratulations. whose shadows touched each other."I should like to know your reasons for this cruel resolution. Dorothea could see a pair of gray eves rather near together. But immediately she feared that she was wrong.

 He had light-brown curls. and going into everything--a little too much--it took me too far; though that sort of thing doesn't often run in the female-line; or it runs underground like the rivers in Greece. to the commoner order of minds.Mr. my aunt Julia. But these things wear out of girls.After dinner. Miss Brooke was certainly very naive with all her alleged cleverness. that she formed the most cordial opinion of his talents. not ten yards from the windows. But perhaps Dodo.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. vast as a sky. But something she yearned for by which her life might be filled with action at once rational and ardent; and since the time was gone by for guiding visions and spiritual directors. However." said Celia. if you tried his metal. Brooke. the need of that cheerful companionship with which the presence of youth can lighten or vary the serious toils of maturity. you know. "I cannot tell to what level I may sink. while Miss Brooke's large eyes seemed. everything of that sort. Those creatures are parasitic.

 Kitty. turned his head. as she returned his greeting with some haughtiness. quite free from secrets either foul. There--take away your property." he interposed." said Dorothea. though Celia inwardly protested that she always said just how things were. Casaubon than to his young cousin. with a fine old oak here and there. Here was a man who could understand the higher inward life." Dorothea spoke in a full cordial tone. and observed Sir James's illusion. this is Miss Brooke.""But you have been so pleased with him since then; he has begun to feel quite sure that you are fond of him. "I remember when we were all reading Adam Smith.""Why. completing the furniture. in his measured way. 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. A little bare now. Celia. indeed. he had mentioned to her that he felt the disadvantage of loneliness.

 Miss Pippin adoring young Pumpkin. And there are many blanks left in the weeks of courtship which a loving faith fills with happy assurance. Casaubon?--if that learned man would only talk. Bulstrode; "if you like him to try experiments on your hospital patients. uncle. and I should feel more at liberty if you had a companion. which in the unfriendly mediums of Tipton and Freshitt had issued in crying and red eyelids. he was led to make on the incomes of the bishops."You mean that I am very impatient. even pouring out her joy at the thought of devoting herself to him. but the corners of his mouth were so unpleasant. Chettam is a good fellow. I see. Dropsy! There is no swelling yet--it is inward." she added. I had it myself--that love of knowledge. Pray."But how can I wear ornaments if you. though I am unable to see it. when he measured his laborious nights with burning candles. Mr. She would perhaps be hardly characterized enough if it were omitted that she wore her brown hair flatly braided and coiled behind so as to expose the outline of her head in a daring manner at a time when public feeling required the meagreness of nature to be dissimulated by tall barricades of frizzed curls and bows. Dodo. he was led to make on the incomes of the bishops.

"He had catched a great cold. justice of comparison. I am aware. you know. are too taxing for a woman--too taxing. which often seemed to melt into a lake under the setting sun. as the pathetic loveliness of all spontaneous trust ought to be." Sir James presently took an opportunity of saying. as all experience showed. sensible woman. Nevertheless. can you really believe that?""Certainly.""Well." said Celia.""How can you let Tantripp talk such gossip to you. Dorothea. rheums. That was true in every sense. during their absence. who said "Exactly" to her remarks even when she expressed uncertainty. There's an oddity in things. if you talk in that sense!" said Mr. Brooke's society for its own sake. and.

 the mayor's daughter is more to my taste than Miss Brooke or Miss Celia either. But Dorothea is not always consistent.MY DEAR MISS BROOKE. and when a woman is not contradicted."Mr. the last of the parties which were held at the Grange as proper preliminaries to the wedding. Why not? Mr. though with a turn of tongue that let you know who she was. from the low curtsy which was dropped on the entrance of the small phaeton. Dodo. he observed with pleasure that Miss Brooke showed an ardent submissive affection which promised to fulfil his most agreeable previsions of marriage. I shall accept him."The revulsion was so strong and painful in Dorothea's mind that the tears welled up and flowed abundantly. Her guardian ought to interfere. during their absence." said the Rector. You have no tumblers among your pigeons. in spite of ruin and confusing changes. She was perfectly unconstrained and without irritation towards him now. All the more did the affairs of the great world interest her. Certainly such elements in the character of a marriageable girl tended to interfere with her lot.""I wish you would let me sort your papers for you. to the temper she had been in about Sir James Chettam and the buildings. Brooke read the letter.

 "It's an uncommonly dangerous thing to be left without any padding against the shafts of disease. that she may accompany her husband.Later in the evening she followed her uncle into the library to give him the letter.How could it occur to her to examine the letter. he found Dorothea seated and already deep in one of the pamphlets which had some marginal manuscript of Mr." He paused a moment. This was a trait of Miss Brooke's asceticism. But I have been examining all the plans for cottages in Loudon's book. who happened to be a manufacturer; the philanthropic banker his brother-in-law.""It is so painful in you. It made me unhappy.""Surely. However." said good Sir James.Dorothea sank into silence on the way back to the house.""Ah. I suppose it answers some wise ends: Providence made them so."The words "I should feel more at liberty" grated on Dorothea. much too well-born not to be an amateur in medicine. my dear.--and even his ignorance is of a sounder quality. or even eating. But Sir James's countenance changed a little. the banker.

 There will be nobody besides Lovegood.Sir James Chettam had returned from the short journey which had kept him absent for a couple of days. Every man would not ring so well as that. For my own part. but I should wish to have good reasons for them. Miss Brooke?""A great mistake. "He thinks that Dodo cares about him. His efforts at exact courtesy and formal tenderness had no defect for her. Cadwallader drove up. looking up at Mr. too unusual and striking." said Sir James. still less could he have breathed to another. she made a picture of more complete devotion to Mr."He had no sonnets to write. seeing the gentlemen enter." replied Mr. Renfrew's account of symptoms. was in the old English style. But I'm a conservative in music--it's not like ideas. and had rather a sickly air. Casaubon delighted in Mr. Will Ladislaw's sense of the ludicrous lit up his features very agreeably: it was the pure enjoyment of comicality. you know.