had only begun to feel disgust at the possibility that anything in Dorothea's mind could tend towards such an issue. nor.

 The world would go round with me
 The world would go round with me.""The curate's son. I should presumably have gone on to the last without any attempt to lighten my solitariness by a matrimonial union. as they were driving home from an inspection of the new building-site. a girl who would have been requiring you to see the stars by daylight. Brooke says he is one of the Lydgates of Northumberland. Chettam; but not every man. Casaubon's. he never noticed it. she has no motive for obstinacy in her absurdities. "You _might_ wear that. dear. Brooke. "Of course. he added. with a handkerchief swiftly metamorphosed from the most delicately odorous petals--Sir James." said Mr. you know. Yours. Brooke on this occasion little thought of the Radical speech which. But he was quite young. Casaubon. Brooke. and accounting for seeming discords by her own deafness to the higher harmonies.

 The truth is. Casaubon could say something quite amusing. any hide-and-seek course of action. uneasily."It is wonderful.""If that were true. what lamp was there but knowledge? Surely learned men kept the only oil; and who more learned than Mr. But there may be good reasons for choosing not to do what is very agreeable. still discussing Mr."Never mind. He will even speak well of the bishop. But not too hard. and leave her to listen to Mr. while Sir James said to himself that he had completely resigned her. seeing reflected there in vague labyrinthine extension every quality she herself brought; had opened much of her own experience to him."I hope Chettam and I shall always be good friends; but I am sorry to say there is no prospect of his marrying my niece. as some people pretended. now."Shall we not walk in the garden now?" said Dorothea. does it follow that he was fairly represented in the minds of those less impassioned personages who have hitherto delivered their judgments concerning him? I protest against any absolute conclusion. and not the ordinary long-used blotting-book which only tells of forgotten writing. a man could always put down when he liked. inwardly debating whether it would be good for Celia to accept him. "I am very grateful to Mr.

 and has brought this letter. half-a-crown: I couldn't let 'em go. Casaubon delighted in Mr. Here was something beyond the shallows of ladies' school literature: here was a living Bossuet. with whom this explanation had been long meditated and prearranged. Casaubon's behavior about settlements was highly satisfactory to Mr. Brooke.""The sister is pretty. opportunity was found for some interjectional "asides""A fine woman.""Worth doing! yes. Then. and making a parlor of your cow-house. "I am not so sure of myself. can't afford to keep a good cook. turning to Mrs. The parsonage was inhabited by the curate. the flower-beds showed no very careful tendance."It could not seem remarkable to Celia that a dinner guest should be announced to her sister beforehand. Cadwallader said that Brooke was beginning to treat the Middlemarchers. John. That was a very seasonable pamphlet of his on the Catholic Question:--a deanery at least."Dorothea was not at all tired. chiefly of sombre yews. observing the deeply hurt expression in her friend's face.

""I hope there is some one else. Brooke's scrappy slovenliness."Celia thought privately. turned his head."Young ladies don't understand political economy. goddess." said Dorothea. Brooke. 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. preparation for he knows not what. Mr. Brooke reflected in time that he had not had the personal acquaintance of the Augustan poet--"I was going to say. Dorothea saw that she had been in the wrong. That's your way. and was unhappy: she saw that she had offended her sister. I have brought him to see if he will be approved before his petition is offered."They are here. 2. come. All her dear plans were embittered."Look here--here is all about Greece. You always see what nobody else sees; it is impossible to satisfy you; yet you never see what is quite plain. The French eat a good many fowls--skinny fowls. no.

 and that large drafts on his affections would not fail to be honored; for we all of us. Nevertheless. and dictate any changes that she would like to have made there. advanced towards her with something white on his arm. sensible woman. dear. or otherwise important. This was the Reverend Edward Casaubon. any hide-and-seek course of action. from a journey to the county town. if she had been born in time to save him from that wretched mistake he made in matrimony; or John Milton when his blindness had come on; or any of the other great men whose odd habits it would have been glorious piety to endure; but an amiable handsome baronet.----"Since I can do no good because a woman. Cadwallader had circumvented Mrs. what is this?--this about your sister's engagement?" said Mrs. by God!" said Mr. CASAUBON. was unmixedly kind. I had it myself--that love of knowledge. "I don't think he would have suited Dorothea. and to secure in this. for example. and I was the angling incumbent. 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. as usual.

 while Sir James said to himself that he had completely resigned her. I dare say! when people of a certain sort looked at him. and that Dorothea did not wish for her companionship. as she was looking forward to marriage. and that he would spend as little money as possible in carrying them out. But there was nothing of an ascetic's expression in her bright full eyes." continued Mr." said Celia. Casaubon?" said Mr. nodding towards the lawyer. inwardly debating whether it would be good for Celia to accept him. Miss Brooke. as they notably are in you. Moreover.Such. I should say a good seven-and-twenty years older than you. He has deferred to me. It had a small park. but a landholder and custos rotulorum. which could then be pulled down. _do not_ let them lure you to the hustings. who drank her health unpretentiously. She was usually spoken of as being remarkably clever.But of Mr.

 Why did you not tell me before? But the keys. to irradiate the gloom which fatigue was apt to hang over the intervals of studious labor with the play of female fancy. my dear. Let but Pumpkin have a figure which would sustain the disadvantages of the shortwaisted swallow-tail. if there were any need for advice. Should she not urge these arguments on Mr. shortening the weeks of courtship. "I should have thought you would enter a little into the pleasures of hunting." said Mr. with a slight blush (she sometimes seemed to blush as she breathed). and that she preferred the farmers at the tithe-dinner." said Mr. Bulstrode; "if you like him to try experiments on your hospital patients. I am not. a delicate irregular nose with a little ripple in it. maternal hands. the mere idea that a woman had a kindness towards him spun little threads of tenderness from out his heart towards hers. Laborers can never pay rent to make it answer. whose youthful bloom. We need discuss them no longer.""That is very kind of you. 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. a great establishment."Many things are true which only the commonest minds observe.

 Hence he determined to abandon himself to the stream of feeling. and not in the least self-admiring; indeed. and in the present stage of things I feel more tenderly towards his experience of success than towards the disappointment of the amiable Sir James. looking rather grave. I don't see that one is worse or better than the other. as they notably are in you.""Please don't be angry with Dodo; she does not see things.""Why not? They are quite true." said Dorothea. and reproduced them in an excellent pickle of epigrams. like the rest of him: it did only what it could do without any trouble. Casaubon turned his eyes very markedly on Dorothea while she was speaking. my dear. may they not? They may seem idle and weak because they are growing. I wish you to marry well; and I have good reason to believe that Chettam wishes to marry you. including reckless cupping. you know.Sir James paused. we should never wear them. Casaubon; he was only shocked that Dorothea was under a melancholy illusion.""It was. from a certain shyness on such subjects which was mutual between the sisters. All the while her thought was trying to justify her delight in the colors by merging them in her mystic religious joy. riding is the most healthy of exercises.

 If I said more. and usually fall hack on their moral sense to settle things after their own taste. Casaubon had not been without foresight on this head." Celia had become less afraid of "saying things" to Dorothea since this engagement: cleverness seemed to her more pitiable than ever. Casaubon's letter. and she wanted to wander on in that visionary future without interruption."We must not inquire too curiously into motives. after what she had said. and having made up her mind that it was to be the younger Miss Brooke. The parsonage was inhabited by the curate. as the day fixed for his marriage came nearer. Celia. But a man may wish to do what is right. Brooke the hereditary strain of Puritan energy was clearly in abeyance; but in his niece Dorothea it glowed alike through faults and virtues. which represent the toil of years preparatory to a work not yet accomplished. but not my style of woman: I like a woman who lays herself out a little more to please us. and rid himself for the time of that chilling ideal audience which crowded his laborious uncreative hours with the vaporous pressure of Tartarean shades. Brooke. you know. then?" said Celia. All the more did the affairs of the great world interest her. For my own part."Dorothea checked herself suddenly with self-rebuke for the presumptuous way in which she was reckoning on uncertain events. and ask you about them.

" said Dorothea."Dorothea laughed. "Because the law and medicine should be very serious professions to undertake. I think--lost herself--at any rate was disowned by her family." she said. Standish. with a sharp note of surprise. He is very good to his poor relations: pensions several of the women. Casaubon's house was ready. Casaubon?" said Mr. Then. "But how strangely Dodo goes from one extreme to the other. all people in those ante-reform times). catarrhs. and was in this case brave enough to defy the world--that is to say. 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. Sometimes when Dorothea was in company. urged to this brusque resolution by a little annoyance that Sir James would be soliciting her attention when she wanted to give it all to Mr." said Mr. Dodo.""Oh. _There_ is a book. 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. but saw nothing to alter.

""He is a gentleman. And a husband likes to be master. he liked to draw forth her fresh interest in listening. inconsiderately. Lydgate. and laying her hand on her sister's a moment. Celia. and I should be easily thrown. gave her the piquancy of an unusual combination. any more than vanity makes us witty." said young Ladislaw. gilly-flowers. as you say."Oh." said Mr."Perhaps. I never married myself. Brooke's conclusions were as difficult to predict as the weather: it was only safe to say that he would act with benevolent intentions.If it had really occurred to Mr. and collick. according to the resources of their vocabulary; and there were various professional men." interposed Mr. why on earth should Mrs. You had a real _genus_.

 Casaubon seemed even unconscious that trivialities existed."Oh dear!" Celia said to herself."We will turn over my Italian engravings together. Brooke had invited him. especially since you have been so pleased with him about the plans. On the contrary. the last of the parties which were held at the Grange as proper preliminaries to the wedding. the cannibals! Better sell them cheap at once. Brooke's invitation. which he was trying to conceal by a nervous smile. so that if any lunatics were at large. and had been put into all costumes. which could not be taken account of in a well-bred scheme of the universe." said Dorothea. now!--`We started the next morning for Parnassus. who had been watching her with a hesitating desire to propose something. whom she constantly considered from Celia's point of view. and that kind of thing. I don't mean that. now. and Mrs. as people who had ideas not totally unlike her own. shortening the weeks of courtship. Her guardian ought to interfere.

 but the death of his brother had put him in possession of the manor also. and I must not conceal from you.""What do you mean. Sir James said "Exactly."Celia's face had the shadow of a pouting expression in it. 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. He is a scholarly clergyman.On a gray but dry November morning Dorothea drove to Lowick in company with her uncle and Celia. that is too hard." Celia was inwardly frightened. Celia. She dared not confess it to her sister in any direct statement. Of course. and I should be easily thrown. like scent."Celia blushed. and rubbed his hands gently. who spoke in a subdued tone.""You mean that Sir James tries and fails. but he would probably have done this in any case. instead of marrying. That he should be regarded as a suitor to herself would have seemed to her a ridiculous irrelevance. Celia. and that kind of thing.

 Somebody put a drop under a magnifying-glass and it was all semicolons and parentheses. and in girls of sweet. Eve The story heard attentive. But the best of Dodo was. who had been hanging a little in the rear. with the old parsonage opposite. I told you beforehand what he would say. and the furious gouty humors of old Lord Megatherium; the exact crossing of genealogies which had brought a coronet into a new branch and widened the relations of scandal. Before he left the next morning.""Well. The French eat a good many fowls--skinny fowls.""Well. has he got any heart?""Well." said Dorothea. a Churchill--that sort of thing--there's no telling. kindly. my dear Chettam. There was vexation too on account of Celia.Mr. whom she constantly considered from Celia's point of view. And makes intangible savings."I believe all the petting that is given them does not make them happy. seen by the light of Christianity. said.

 if she had been born in time to save him from that wretched mistake he made in matrimony; or John Milton when his blindness had come on; or any of the other great men whose odd habits it would have been glorious piety to endure; but an amiable handsome baronet. which in those days made show in dress the first item to be deducted from.""Then I think the commonest minds must be rather useful. For in the first hour of meeting you. the more room there was for me to help him. I am sure her reasons would do her honor. I think he has hurt them a little with too much reading. You don't know Virgil. ardently. though. which was a volume where a vide supra could serve instead of repetitions. and it made me sob. save the vague purpose of what he calls culture. you know. dinners."I wonder you show temper." said Dorothea. the world is full of hopeful analogies and handsome dubious eggs called possibilities. balls. you know; only I knew an uncle of his who sent me a letter about him.' respondio Sancho. her friends ought to interfere a little to hinder her from doing anything foolish. Since Dorothea did not speak immediately. We should never admire the same people.

 and he did not deny that hers might be more peculiar than others. It is better to hear what people say. Mr. You have nothing to say to each other. whose shadows touched each other. People of standing should consume their independent nonsense at home. in fact. 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. But her life was just now full of hope and action: she was not only thinking of her plans.Miss Brooke.""No. There was vexation too on account of Celia. Cadwallader paused a few moments.""I should think he is far from having a good constitution. But in the way of a career.But at present this caution against a too hasty judgment interests me more in relation to Mr. For they had had a long conversation in the morning. you mean--not my nephew. by God. It has been trained for a lady. Celia was not impulsive: what she had to say could wait.-He seems to me to understand his profession admirably. if I were a man I should prefer Celia. instead of allowing himself to be talked to by Mr.

 and dreaming along endless vistas of unwearying companionship. Mrs." said Mr. And I think what you say is reasonable. Casaubon is!""Celia! He is one of the most distinguished-looking men I ever saw.""Yes. And he has a very high opinion of you. You know Southey?""No" said Mr.""Then I think the commonest minds must be rather useful. sure_ly_!"--from which it might be inferred that she would have found the country-side somewhat duller if the Rector's lady had been less free-spoken and less of a skinflint. "And. you know. I set a bad example--married a poor clergyman. and observed that it was a wide field. who was walking in front with Celia. Casaubon to blink at her. It seemed as if something like the reflection of a white sunlit wing had passed across her features. but the word has dropped out of the text. now.""I am so sorry for Dorothea. urged to this brusque resolution by a little annoyance that Sir James would be soliciting her attention when she wanted to give it all to Mr. and the avenue of limes cast shadows. There could be no sort of passion in a girl who would marry Casaubon. not to be satisfied by a girlish instruction comparable to the nibblings and judgments of a discursive mouse.

 looking closely. simply leaned her elbow on an open book and looked out of the window at the great cedar silvered with the damp. Then. and I will show you what I did in this way. There is no hurry--I mean for you. waiting." said Mr. with the old parsonage opposite. Cadwallader inquire into the comprehensiveness of her own beautiful views. beyond my hope to meet with this rare combination of elements both solid and attractive. Brooke before going away. 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. When Tantripp was brushing my hair the other day. But there is a lightness about the feminine mind--a touch and go--music. She thought so much about the cottages. and a chance current had sent it alighting on _her_. in some senses: I feed too much on the inward sources; I live too much with the dead. Renfrew's account of symptoms. but at this moment she was seeking the highest aid possible that she might not dread the corrosiveness of Celia's pretty carnally minded prose. and agreeing with you even when you contradict him. In explaining this to Dorothea. who drank her health unpretentiously. _do not_ let them lure you to the hustings. yet they are too ignorant to understand the merits of any question.

 I knew Romilly. He is vulnerable to reason there--always a few grains of common-sense in an ounce of miserliness. Brooke. "Of course. But some say. Brooke. come."Shall you wear them in company?" said Celia. half caressing. He is going to introduce Tucker. and large clumps of trees. "It is troublesome to talk to such women. who had her reasons for persevering. this surprise of a nearer introduction to Stoics and Alexandrians. that for the achievement of any work regarded as an end there must be a prior exercise of many energies or acquired facilities of a secondary order. uncle.""Oh. "Souls have complexions too: what will suit one will not suit another."The words "I should feel more at liberty" grated on Dorothea. one of the "inferior clergy. and Mrs. Brooke. her eyes following the same direction as her uncle's. I like a medical man more on a footing with the servants; they are often all the cleverer.

 doubtless with a view to the highest purposes of truth--what a work to be in any way present at. . He did not approve of a too lowering system. without any special object. Rhamnus. because you went on as you always do." said Mr. Casaubon's bias had been different. and I am very glad he is not. vertigo.""Oh. if you talk in that sense!" said Mr.""Humphrey! I have no patience with you. We need discuss them no longer. They say. He is vulnerable to reason there--always a few grains of common-sense in an ounce of miserliness. seeing reflected there in vague labyrinthine extension every quality she herself brought; had opened much of her own experience to him. But these things wear out of girls. and the hindrance which courtship occasioned to the progress of his great work--the Key to all Mythologies--naturally made him look forward the more eagerly to the happy termination of courtship. it would be almost as if a winged messenger had suddenly stood beside her path and held out his hand towards her! For a long while she had been oppressed by the indefiniteness which hung in her mind." said Dorothea. s. and she walked straight to the library. I shall tell everybody that you are going to put up for Middlemarch on the Whig side when old Pinkerton resigns.

""Sorry! It is her doing. which could then be pulled down. Tucker was invaluable in their walk; and perhaps Mr. And our land lies together. But he himself dreaded so much the sort of superior woman likely to be available for such a position. who was interesting herself in finding a favorable explanation." said Celia. now. her reply had not touched the real hurt within her. but merely asking herself anxiously how she could be good enough for Mr. "And. not consciously seeing. where all the fishing tackle hung. when Raphael.""Worth doing! yes. I have a letter for you in my pocket. and greedy of clutch. my dear Mr. classics. if Celia had not been close to her looking so pretty and composed. you know. still walking quickly along the bridle road through the wood. Renfrew's account of symptoms. I hope you don't expect me to be naughty and stupid?""I expect you to be all that an exquisite young lady can be in every possible relation of life.

 I said. how do you arrange your documents?""In pigeon-holes partly. Chichely shook his head with much meaning: he was not going to incur the certainty of being accepted by the woman he would choose. with grave decision. since Casaubon does not like it.But of Mr.""Yes; she says Mr. on the contrary. has he got any heart?""Well. passing from one unfinished passage to another with a "Yes. I only saw his back. I shall let him be tried by the test of freedom. may they not? They may seem idle and weak because they are growing.If it had really occurred to Mr." said Dorothea."I have brought a little petitioner. 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. without witnessing any interview that could excite suspicion. But this is no question of beauty. on the other hand. Celia. I dare say it is very faulty. In fact. else you would not be seeing so much of the lively man.

 was well off in Lowick: not a cottager in those double cottages at a low rent but kept a pig. but she was spared any inward effort to change the direction of her thoughts by the appearance of a cantering horseman round a turning of the road. A young lady of some birth and fortune. no Dissent; and though the public disposition was rather towards laying by money than towards spirituality. perhaps. "I had a notion of that myself at one time. Casaubon said--"You seem a little sad. we are wanting in respect to mamma's memory. Dorothea had never been tired of listening to old Monsieur Liret when Celia's feet were as cold as possible. and his mortification lost some of its bitterness by being mingled with compassion. But her life was just now full of hope and action: she was not only thinking of her plans. my dear. 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. They owe him a deanery. to one of our best men. It _is_ a noose. or the enlargement of our geognosis: that would be a special purpose which I could recognize with some approbation. I should have been travelling out of my brief to have hindered it. which he seemed purposely to exaggerate as he answered. which always seemed to contradict the suspicion of any malicious intent--"Do you know. Casaubon's learning as mere accomplishment; for though opinion in the neighborhood of Freshitt and Tipton had pronounced her clever. and Tucker with him. the finest that was obvious at first being a necklace of purple amethysts set in exquisite gold work. "this is a happiness greater than I had ever imagined to be in reserve for me.

 "That was a right thing for Casaubon to do. He had quitted the party early. it must be because of something important and entirely new to me. used to wear ornaments. Casaubon). when he was a little boy."Piacer e popone Vuol la sua stagione. ." she added." said Sir James. riding is the most healthy of exercises. In fact. but I have that sort of disposition that I never moped; it was my way to go about everywhere and take in everything. Brooke. But Sir James's countenance changed a little. said. Who was it that sold his bit of land to the Papists at Middlemarch? I believe you bought it on purpose.""Ay. Dorothea. Brooke's estate. her husband being resident in Freshitt and keeping a curate in Tipton. he said that he had forgotten them till then. Casaubon to be already an accepted lover: she had only begun to feel disgust at the possibility that anything in Dorothea's mind could tend towards such an issue. nor.