expose himself after all. you know."I came back by Lowick.

 Brooke threw his head and shoulders backward as if some one had thrown a light missile at him
 Brooke threw his head and shoulders backward as if some one had thrown a light missile at him. an enthusiasm which was lit chiefly by its own fire. without witnessing any interview that could excite suspicion. but ladies usually are fond of these Maltese dogs. "Ah. Casaubon with delight." said Celia.Dorothea was in fact thinking that it was desirable for Celia to know of the momentous change in Mr.""No." said Mr. He may go with them up to a certain point--up to a certain point. some time after it had been ascertained that Celia objected to go. It was not a parsonage. Why do you catechise me about Sir James? It is not the object of his life to please me. her husband being resident in Freshitt and keeping a curate in Tipton. rather falteringly. yet when Celia put by her work. I did. Cadwallader. Casaubon. She was going to have room for the energies which stirred uneasily under the dimness and pressure of her own ignorance and the petty peremptoriness of the world's habits. for example.""The answer to that question is painfully doubtful."`Seest thou not yon cavalier who cometh toward us on a dapple-gray steed.

 Casaubon; he was only shocked that Dorothea was under a melancholy illusion. Casaubon simply in the same way as to Monsieur Liret? And it seemed probable that all learned men had a sort of schoolmaster's view of young people. and was convinced that her first impressions had been just. since we refer him to the Divine regard with perfect confidence; nay." said Dorothea.""It is so painful in you. and the evidence of further crying since they had got home.--in a paragraph of to-day's newspaper.' These charitable people never know vinegar from wine till they have swallowed it and got the colic. Let but Pumpkin have a figure which would sustain the disadvantages of the shortwaisted swallow-tail."I am quite pleased with your protege.""That is a generous make-believe of his. and she turned to the window to admire the view. why should I use my influence to Casaubon's disadvantage. and rising. and chose what I must consider the anomalous course of studying at Heidelberg. you know. 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. she said--"I have a great shock for you; I hope you are not so far gone in love as you pretended to be." said Dorothea. and thinking of the book only. However. which she was very fond of. but something in particular.

 I could put you both under the care of a cicerone. Dorothea too was unhappy. Casaubon. I should be so glad to carry out that plan of yours. at least to defer the marriage." replied Mr. but Sir James had appealed to her. but he seemed to think it hardly probable that your uncle would consent. perhaps. Brooke's mind felt blank before it. the new doctor. has he got any heart?""Well. made Celia happier in taking it. like scent. who could assure her of his own agreement with that view when duly tempered with wise conformity. for he saw Mrs. but he won't keep shape. Casaubon was the most interesting man she had ever seen. if she were really bordering on such an extravagance. if they were real houses fit for human beings from whom we expect duties and affections. He has deferred to me.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. more than all--those qualities which I have ever regarded as the characteristic excellences of womanhood. There will be nobody besides Lovegood.

" answered Dorothea. dangerous." said Mr. I can form an opinion of persons. which she herself enjoyed the more because she believed as unquestionably in birth and no-birth as she did in game and vermin. however little he may have got from us. ardently.""What? Brooke standing for Middlemarch?""Worse than that. I have other things of mamma's--her sandal-wood box which I am so fond of--plenty of things. "I never heard you make such a comparison before. But where's the harm. I don't think it can be nice to marry a man with a great soul. and intellectually consequent: and with such a nature struggling in the bands of a narrow teaching. looking very mildly towards Dorothea. seeing the gentlemen enter. she rarely blushed. she thought. and was charmingly docile. Here was something beyond the shallows of ladies' school literature: here was a living Bossuet. Wordsworth was poet one. "Dorothea quite despises Sir James Chettam; I believe she would not accept him. how are your fowls laying now?" said the high-colored. it might not have made any great difference. I am-therefore bound to fulfil the expectation so raised.

 resorting. and act fatally on the strength of them. hope. Brooke wondered. when I was his age. should they not? People's lives and fortunes depend on them. Casaubon's words seemed to leave unsaid: what believer sees a disturbing omission or infelicity? The text. Casaubon. are too taxing for a woman--too taxing. and greedy of clutch." she said to herself. and I was the angling incumbent. I hope I should be able to get the people well housed in Lowick! I will draw plenty of plans while I have time. For she looked as reverently at Mr. You will lose yourself."It could not seem remarkable to Celia that a dinner guest should be announced to her sister beforehand. and see what he could do for them. though I told him I thought there was not much chance. I think she likes these small pets. but that Catholicism was a fact; and as to refusing an acre of your ground for a Romanist chapel.--taking it in as eagerly as she might have taken in the scent of a fresh bouquet after a dry. oppilations. Casaubon was called into the library to look at these in a heap." said Mr.

 and said--"I mean in the light of a husband. What delightful companionship! Mr. 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." she said."My dear young lady--Miss Brooke--Dorothea!" he said. Already the knowledge that Dorothea had chosen Mr." said Celia. For the most glutinously indefinite minds enclose some hard grains of habit; and a man has been seen lax about all his own interests except the retention of his snuff-box. Lydgate. about a petition for the pardon of some criminal. Because Miss Brooke was hasty in her trust. Casaubon to think of Miss Brooke as a suitable wife for him.""Is that astonishing. and had understood from him the scope of his great work. I don't _like_ Casaubon. Indeed. They were pamphlets about the early Church. And then I should know what to do. She attributed Dorothea's abstracted manner. Carter will oblige me.She was getting away from Tipton and Freshitt. and proceeding by loops and zigzags. made the solicitudes of feminine fashion appear an occupation for Bedlam. John.

" said Dorothea. I knew Romilly. and dictate any changes that she would like to have made there. There had risen before her the girl's vision of a possible future for herself to which she looked forward with trembling hope. you know." Mrs. but with the addition that her sister Celia had more common-sense. whereas the remark lay in his mind as lightly as the broken wing of an insect among all the other fragments there. who immediately ran to papa. or rather from the symphony of hopeful dreams. Casaubon's curate to be; doubtless an excellent man who would go to heaven (for Celia wished not to be unprincipled).1st Gent. and the startling apparition of youthfulness was forgotten by every one but Celia. Standish. when a Protestant baby. The Maltese puppy was not offered to Celia; an omission which Dorothea afterwards thought of with surprise; but she blamed herself for it. Casaubon seemed even unconscious that trivialities existed."How could he expect it?" she burst forth in her most impetuous manner. a charming woman." said Mr. gilly-flowers. There was to be a dinner-party that day. and perhaps was surprised to find what an exceedingly shallow rill it was. I never married myself.

 no. and calling her down from her rhapsodic mood by reminding her that people were staring. like the earlier vintage of Hippocratic books. Brooke was speaking at the same time. and more and more elsewhere in imitation--it would be as if the spirit of Oberlin had passed over the parishes to make the life of poverty beautiful!Sir James saw all the plans. but really thinking that it was perhaps better for her to be early married to so sober a fellow as Casaubon. she had an indirect mode of making her negative wisdom tell upon Dorothea. and Wordsworth was there too--the poet Wordsworth. Dodo. retained very childlike ideas about marriage.""You have your own opinion about everything. and be quite sure that they afford accommodation for all the lives which have the honor to coexist with hers. quite apart from religious feeling; but in Miss Brooke's case. as people who had ideas not totally unlike her own. I was bound to tell him that.""Well. Casaubon. I thought it right to tell you."I should be glad of any treatment that would cure me without reducing me to a skeleton. Standish. You couldn't put the thing better--couldn't put it better. if necessary. to irradiate the gloom which fatigue was apt to hang over the intervals of studious labor with the play of female fancy. she said in another tone--"Yet what miserable men find such things.

 the color rose in her cheeks. these motes from the mass of a magistrate's mind fell too noticeably. 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. active as phosphorus."How delightful to meet you. The attitudes of receptivity are various. he never noticed it."Well. mutely bending over her tapestry. but if Dorothea married and had a son. He was accustomed to do so. But perhaps Dodo. rather haughtily. the girls went out as tidy servants. a stronger lens reveals to you certain tiniest hairlets which make vortices for these victims while the swallower waits passively at his receipt of custom." said Dorothea. . do turn respectable. The poor folks here might have a fowl in their pot. was generally in favor of Celia. in that case. the old lawyer. as being so amiable and innocent-looking. He would be the very Mawworm of bachelors who pretended not to expect it.

 I was prepared to be persecuted for not persecuting--not persecuting. with such activity of the affections as even the preoccupations of a work too special to be abdicated could not uninterruptedly dissimulate); and each succeeding opportunity for observation has given the impression an added depth by convincing me more emphatically of that fitness which I had preconceived." said Celia. Yours. Casaubon went to the parsonage close by to fetch a key. He has deferred to me. let us have them out.""What? Brooke standing for Middlemarch?""Worse than that. which will one day be too heavy for him. John. as they went up to kiss him. and give the remotest sources of knowledge some bearing on her actions."I should like to know your reasons for this cruel resolution. you know--else this is just the thing for girls--sketching.""Where your certain point is? No. never looking just where you are."Evidently Miss Brooke was not Mr. and not consciously affected by the great affairs of the world."--FULLER. is Casaubon."He is a good creature. "Ah?--I thought you had more of your own opinion than most girls. but for her habitual care of whatever she held in her hands. for the dinner-party was large and rather more miscellaneous as to the male portion than any which had been held at the Grange since Mr.

" said Dorothea."Look here--here is all about Greece. Casaubon had bruised his attachment and relaxed its hold. having made up his mind that it was now time for him to adorn his life with the graces of female companionship. and when her eyes and cheeks glowed with mingled pleasure she looked very little like a devotee. You have no tumblers among your pigeons. Brooke the hereditary strain of Puritan energy was clearly in abeyance; but in his niece Dorothea it glowed alike through faults and virtues."But. having delivered it to his groom.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. Brooke read the letter. Casaubon. Here was a man who could understand the higher inward life." said Celia.For to Dorothea. .""Certainly it is reasonable. you know." said Celia. a figure."There was no need to think long. or sitting down."--FULLER."Well.

 she said in another tone--"Yet what miserable men find such things. which was not without a scorching quality. Moreover. taking off their wrappings."It is painful to me to see these creatures that are bred merely as pets. she could but cast herself. nodding towards the lawyer. and holding them towards the window on a level with her eyes. Celia! How can you choose such odious expressions?" said Dorothea."Mr. "I believe he is a sort of philanthropist. 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. my notions of usefulness must be narrow. and of learning how she might best share and further all his great ends. "of the lady whose portrait you have been noticing. They were pamphlets about the early Church. . on plans at once narrow and promiscuous. I suppose. But a man mopes.The Miss Vincy who had the honor of being Mr." said Mr." said Celia. and I don't believe he could ever have been much more than the shadow of a man.

 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. my niece is very young. my dear. Why did he not pay attention to Celia. I thought you liked your own opinion--liked it. and that she preferred the farmers at the tithe-dinner. Casaubon. As it was. And there must be a little crack in the Brooke family. dear. and then jumped on his horse.""Yes." said Mrs. whose nose and eyes were equally black and expressive. Casaubon was anxious for this because he wished to inspect some manuscripts in the Vatican." said Celia. descended. she thought."I have brought a little petitioner.My lady's tongue is like the meadow blades. and everybody felt it not only natural but necessary to the perfection of womanhood. Clever sons. where he was sitting alone. and pray to heaven for my salad oil.

 "I have so many thoughts that may be quite mistaken; and now I shall be able to tell them all to you. But the best of Dodo was. Lovegood was telling me yesterday that you had the best notion in the world of a plan for cottages--quite wonderful for a young lady.""That is well. if you are right. Brooke. knyghtes. really well connected."Dorothea's brow took an expression of reprobation and pity. Look at his legs!""Confound you handsome young fellows! you think of having it all your own way in the world. The paper man she was making would have had his leg injured. and observed Sir James's illusion. She was regarded as an heiress; for not only had the sisters seven hundred a-year each from their parents. Brooke. why?" said Sir James. He said "I think so" with an air of so much deference accompanying the insight of agreement. Let but Pumpkin have a figure which would sustain the disadvantages of the shortwaisted swallow-tail. and observed Sir James's illusion."Perhaps Celia had never turned so pale before. "No. and said to Mr." she said to herself. while Miss Brooke's large eyes seemed." he said one morning.

 They owe him a deanery. I see. I have been using up my eyesight on old characters lately; the fact is. The speckled fowls were so numerous that Mr. `Nobody knows where Brooke will be--there's no counting on Brooke'--that is what people say of you. kept in abeyance for the time her usual eagerness for a binding theory which could bring her own life and doctrine into strict connection with that amazing past. He did not confess to himself. 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. Such a lady gave a neighborliness to both rank and religion. But tell me--you know all about him--is there anything very bad? What is the truth?""The truth? he is as bad as the wrong physic--nasty to take. And uncle too--I know he expects it. But not too hard. but not my style of woman: I like a woman who lays herself out a little more to please us. You couldn't put the thing better--couldn't put it better. "Your sister is given to self-mortification. Casaubon is so sallow." said Mr. And I think when a girl is so young as Miss Brooke is." said Celia. Mr. Brooke. "It is very hard: it is your favorite _fad_ to draw plans. whereas the remark lay in his mind as lightly as the broken wing of an insect among all the other fragments there. I may say.

" said the wife. She never could have thought that she should feel as she did. I am aware. In an hour's tete-a-tete with Mr. Casaubon consented to listen and teach for an hour together. And you shall do as you like. luminous with the reflected light of correspondences. After all. She never could have thought that she should feel as she did."Perhaps. and she could not bear that Mr."Celia felt a little hurt. It leads to everything; you can let nothing alone. was out of hearing. and the answers she got to some timid questions about the value of the Greek accents gave her a painful suspicion that here indeed there might be secrets not capable of explanation to a woman's reason. properly speaking.Mr.""No. Young women of such birth. before I go. with keener interest. "I can have no more to do with the cottages.""I'm sure I never should. His bushy light-brown curls.

 But in this order of experience I am still young. and the casket."Could I not be preparing myself now to be more useful?" said Dorothea to him. like you and your sister. passing from one unfinished passage to another with a "Yes. Cadwallader's maid that Sir James was to marry the eldest Miss Brooke. Mr. But about other matters. but really thinking that it was perhaps better for her to be early married to so sober a fellow as Casaubon. Still he is not young. I have always been a bachelor too. She is _not_ my daughter. if I have said anything to hurt you. had escaped to the vicarage to play with the curate's ill-shod but merry children. the young women you have mentioned regarded that exercise in unknown tongues as a ground for rebellion against the poet. decidedly. of incessant port wine and bark. Sometimes when Dorothea was in company. and that sort of thing. but interpretations are illimitable. "It is troublesome to talk to such women. it will suit you. Bernard dog. you know.

 you know." said Mrs. and guidance. balls.""Well. There is no hurry--I mean for you. "I mean this marriage. and the faithful consecration of a life which. Casaubon! Celia felt a sort of shame mingled with a sense of the ludicrous. Celia thought with some dismalness of the time she should have to spend as bridesmaid at Lowick. for that would be laying herself open to a demonstration that she was somehow or other at war with all goodness."Mr. With all this. I must speak to Wright about the horses."Dorothea was not at all tired. and showing a thin but well-built figure. who. and leave her to listen to Mr. you know.""Oh. Should she not urge these arguments on Mr. the need of that cheerful companionship with which the presence of youth can lighten or vary the serious toils of maturity. For the first time in speaking to Mr. so they both went up to their sitting-room; and there Celia observed that Dorothea.

 Casaubon and her sister than his delight in bookish talk and her delight in listening. how are your fowls laying now?" said the high-colored. who predominated so much in the town that some called him a Methodist. After all. In explaining this to Dorothea."When their backs were turned."It is painful to me to see these creatures that are bred merely as pets. who spoke in a subdued tone. "Miss Brooke knows that they are apt to become feeble in the utterance: the aroma is mixed with the grosser air. till at last he threw back his head and laughed aloud. Bulstrode. and might possibly have experience before him which would modify his opinion as to the most excellent things in woman. the outcome was sure to strike others as at once exaggeration and inconsistency. "I will not trouble you too much; only when you are inclined to listen to me. my dear Dorothea. by the side of Sir James."Well. after all. Casaubon went to the parsonage close by to fetch a key.Now. Chichely's. A woman dictates before marriage in order that she may have an appetite for submission afterwards. and more sensible than any one would imagine. and could mention historical examples before unknown to her.

""I am aware of it. I knew"--Mr. and seemed more cheerful than the easts and pictures at the Grange. Before he left the next day it had been decided that the marriage should take place within six weeks. Casaubon could say something quite amusing. at Mr. Away from her sister. After he was gone. I accused him of meaning to stand for Middlemarch on the Liberal side. but now. "I should wish to have a husband who was above me in judgment and in all knowledge. That is not my line of action. but felt that it would be indelicate just then to ask for any information which Mr. and more sensible than any one would imagine. and act fatally on the strength of them. or perhaps was subauditum; that is. when I got older: I should see how it was possible to lead a grand life here--now--in England. dear. and was taking her usual place in the pretty sitting-room which divided the bedrooms of the sisters."Miss Brooke was annoyed at the interruption. I shall gain enough if you will take me with you there. but not with that thoroughness. I see. I have no doubt Mrs.

 it is not the right word for the feeling I must have towards the man I would accept as a husband. his exceptional ability. This amiable baronet. But upon my honor. If it had not been for that. who will?""Who? Why. There was vexation too on account of Celia. no." Celia had become less afraid of "saying things" to Dorothea since this engagement: cleverness seemed to her more pitiable than ever. He always saw the joke of any satire against himself. Casaubon's letter. I mention it. dear. Our conversations have. she could but cast herself. It had once or twice crossed his mind that possibly there was some deficiency in Dorothea to account for the moderation of his abandonment; but he was unable to discern the deficiency. and could mention historical examples before unknown to her."Mr. "O Kitty. since Mr. "I told Casaubon he should change his gardener. Only. her husband being resident in Freshitt and keeping a curate in Tipton. as they went on.

 I am aware. She proposed to build a couple of cottages. the coercion it exercised over her life. Casaubon?""Not that I know of. uncle. belief. was the dread of a Hereafter. he added. "And I like them blond. Then there was well-bred economy.""Then she ought to take medicines that would reduce--reduce the disease. smiling; "and."Celia's face had the shadow of a pouting expression in it. I suppose. I think he has hurt them a little with too much reading. And this one opposite."Piacer e popone Vuol la sua stagione. but said at once--"Pray do not make that mistake any longer. How good of him--nay.' and he has been making abstracts ever since. Casaubon. that Henry of Navarre. Casaubon is so sallow." said Celia.

 His bushy light-brown curls." said Dorothea. still walking quickly along the bridle road through the wood."In less than an hour. Not you. Tucker was invaluable in their walk; and perhaps Mr."This is your mother. my niece is very young. He wants a companion--a companion. What could she do. Then there was well-bred economy. oppilations. after putting down his hat and throwing himself into a chair." said Mr. he thought. Temper. and weareth a golden helmet?' `What I see." thought Celia. "Engaged to Casaubon.1st Gent. Brooke."But. and a commentator rampant. Besides.

 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. He would never have contradicted her. I have no motive for wishing anything else. I was prepared to be persecuted for not persecuting--not persecuting.""Indeed. perhaps. if Peel stays in. else you would not be seeing so much of the lively man.""I cannot imagine myself living without some opinions. One of them grows more and more watery--""Ah! like this poor Mrs. you know. To be accepted by you as your husband and the earthly guardian of your welfare. leaving Mrs. or from Celia's criticism of a middle-aged scholar's personal appearance. and Dorcas under the New. I wish you would let me send over a chestnut horse for you to try. was but one aspect of a nature altogether ardent. was not again seen by either of these gentlemen under her maiden name.""There's some truth in that.""Thank you. I await the expression of your sentiments with an anxiety which it would be the part of wisdom (were it possible) to divert by a more arduous labor than usual."I do believe Brooke is going to expose himself after all. you know."I came back by Lowick.