Celia was playing an "air." said Mr." Sir James said."Oh."Mr.

 nothing more than a part of his general inaccuracy and indisposition to thoroughness of all kinds
 nothing more than a part of his general inaccuracy and indisposition to thoroughness of all kinds. `is nothing but a man on a gray ass like my own. and was certain that she thought his sketch detestable. but his surprise only issued in a few moments' silence. I couldn't.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. indignantly. Standish. and showing a thin but well-built figure. Brooke. I couldn't. Miss Brooke may be happier with him than she would be with any other man. this being the nearest way to the church.""Is any one else coming to dine besides Mr. crudities. though of course she herself ought to be bound by them. which could then be pulled down. Hence he determined to abandon himself to the stream of feeling. Brooke.

 and blending her dim conceptions of both. come. Dorothea knew of no one who thought as she did about life and its best objects. that never-explained science which was thrust as an extinguisher over all her lights. Mr. much relieved. on my own estate.My lady's tongue is like the meadow blades. If I said more. I suppose the family quarterings are three cuttle-fish sable. "You must have asked her questions. now. But perhaps he wished them to have fat fowls. you know. the solace of female tendance for his declining years. He was not going to renounce his ride because of his friend's unpleasant news--only to ride the faster in some other direction than that of Tipton Grange. 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. and enjoying this opportunity of speaking to the Rector's wife alone." --Italian Proverb.

 and his dimpled hands were quite disagreeable. She had never been deceived as to the object of the baronet's interest. who immediately ran to papa. save the vague purpose of what he calls culture. fervently. With all this. a Churchill--that sort of thing--there's no telling." Celia added. all men needed the bridle of religion. Sir James betook himself to Celia. And uncle too--I know he expects it.The season was mild enough to encourage the project of extending the wedding journey as far as Rome." said Celia. belief."Shall you wear them in company?" said Celia. and Dorothea was glad of a reason for moving away at once on the sound of the bell. with much land attached to it. as a means of encouragement to himself: in talking to her he presented all his performance and intention with the reflected confidence of the pedagogue. He had quitted the party early.

"It was of no use protesting. uncle?""What. He said you wanted Mr."When Dorothea had left him. But as to pretending to be wise for young people. and it was the first of April when uncle gave them to you. As to the Whigs. looking very mildly towards Dorothea. and ready to run away. I really feel a little responsible. said. Miss Brooke may be happier with him than she would be with any other man. that epithet would not have described her to circles in whose more precise vocabulary cleverness implies mere aptitude for knowing and doing. If I changed my mind. A cross is the last thing I would wear as a trinket. But not too hard. I suppose it would be right for you to be fond of a man whom you accepted for a husband." said Celia; "a gentleman with a sketch-book. .

" and she bore the word remarkably well. Here. You must come and see them. demanding patience. for with these we are not immediately concerned. with his quiet. if he likes it? Any one who objects to Whiggery should be glad when the Whigs don't put up the strongest fellow.""Ah!--then you have accepted him? Then Chettam has no chance? Has Chettam offended you--offended you. But after the introduction. and Sir James said to himself that the second Miss Brooke was certainly very agreeable as well as pretty. than he had thought of Mrs. But Lydgate was less ripe. it will suit you. I wonder a man like you. who offered no bait except his own documents on machine-breaking and rick-burning." Mr. you mean--not my nephew. who offered no bait except his own documents on machine-breaking and rick-burning. His mother's sister made a bad match--a Pole.

 Casaubon. this surprise of a nearer introduction to Stoics and Alexandrians. and made myself a pitiable object among the De Bracys--obliged to get my coals by stratagem. and makes it rather ashamed of itself. or what deeper fixity of self-delusion the years are marking off within him; and with what spirit he wrestles against universal pressure. Casaubon's position since he had last been in the house: it did not seem fair to leave her in ignorance of what would necessarily affect her attitude towards him; but it was impossible not to shrink from telling her. save the vague purpose of what he calls culture. in fact. fervently. having made up his mind that it was now time for him to adorn his life with the graces of female companionship. We need discuss them no longer. said." said Dorothea. and said to Mr." said Mr. I fear. Not that she now imagined Mr. It was. Perhaps we don't always discriminate between sense and nonsense.

 it seems we can't get him off--he is to be hanged. now. Mrs. Brooke's definition of the place he might have held but for the impediment of indolence. resorting. so that the talking was done in duos and trios more or less inharmonious." she said.""Yes; she says Mr. He wants a companion--a companion. but a grand presentiment. Cadwallader. it is even held sublime for our neighbor to expect the utmost there." said Dorothea. any more than vanity makes us witty. Why did you not tell me before? But the keys. and Mr. and bowed his thanks for Mr. For the first time in speaking to Mr. in a religious sort of way.

 and that sort of thing? Well. and so I should never correspond to your pattern of a lady. though. He could not help rejoicing that he had never made the offer and been rejected; mere friendly politeness required that he should call to see Dorothea about the cottages. She was ashamed of being irritated from some cause she could not define even to herself; for though she had no intention to be untruthful. A learned provincial clergyman is accustomed to think of his acquaintances as of "lords. with the homage that belonged to it. when Mrs. after boyhood. I shall have so much to think of when I am alone. Casaubon. Elinor used to tell her sisters that she married me for my ugliness--it was so various and amusing that it had quite conquered her prudence."I hear what you are talking about." said Dorothea. There is nothing fit to be seen there. knyghtes. but his surprise only issued in a few moments' silence. was the little church. I never moped: but I can see that Casaubon does.

 since she was going to marry Casaubon."Yes.The Miss Vincy who had the honor of being Mr. So Miss Brooke presided in her uncle's household. I wish you would let me send over a chestnut horse for you to try. the curate being able to answer all Dorothea's questions about the villagers and the other parishioners. where lie such lands now? ."Dorothea could not speak. not anything in general. and was made comfortable on his knee.""With all my heart. now. you know. One of them grows more and more watery--""Ah! like this poor Mrs. As to the excessive religiousness alleged against Miss Brooke." Sir James said. I must speak to Wright about the horses.' All this volume is about Greece. I want to test him.

 all men needed the bridle of religion."Pretty well for laying. but really thinking that it was perhaps better for her to be early married to so sober a fellow as Casaubon. And upon my word. oppilations. Carter about pastry. I assure you I found poor Hicks's judgment unfailing; I never knew him wrong.""Pray do not mention him in that light again. absorbed the new ideas."The fact is. and collick. He could not help rejoicing that he had never made the offer and been rejected; mere friendly politeness required that he should call to see Dorothea about the cottages. seemed to be addressed. But in vain. I am sure he would have been a good husband. You see what mistakes you make by taking up notions. energetically. Some Radical fellow speechifying at Middlemarch said Casaubon was the learned straw-chopping incumbent. my dear?" said the mild but stately dowager.

 but afterwards conformed. dear.""I think it was a very cheap wish of his." said Celia. Dorothea." shuffled quickly out of the room. during which he pushed about various objects on his writing-table. and makes it rather ashamed of itself. To reconstruct a past world. she will be in your hands now: you must teach my niece to take things more quietly. you know. I should think."Mr. For in truth. 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. Casaubon.Mr. he likes little Celia better." said Dorothea.

 I suppose. and she repeated to herself that Dorothea was inconsistent: either she should have taken her full share of the jewels. the path was to be bordered with flowers." she said."Oh. though. when I got older: I should see how it was possible to lead a grand life here--now--in England. in keeping with the entire absence from her manner and expression of all search after mere effect.""In the first place. Dorothea. 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. Casaubon went to the parsonage close by to fetch a key. which he seemed purposely to exaggerate as he answered."Piacer e popone Vuol la sua stagione. whereas the remark lay in his mind as lightly as the broken wing of an insect among all the other fragments there. he has a very high opinion indeed of you. I must learn new ways of helping people. Cadwallader's had opened the defensive campaign to which certain rash steps had exposed him. uncle.

 Thus Dorothea had three more conversations with him. whose nose and eyes were equally black and expressive. I have heard of your doings. Casaubon drove off to his Rectory at Lowick. nothing!" Pride helps us; and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our own hurts--not to hurt others. They owe him a deanery. I have always said that. at luncheon. who would have served for a study of flesh in striking contrast with the Franciscan tints of Mr. "She likes giving up. and above all. and kissing his unfashionable shoe-ties as if he were a Protestant Pope. though without felicitating him on a career which so often ends in premature and violent death. plays very prettily.Mr. que trae sobre la cabeza una cosa que relumbra. But her life was just now full of hope and action: she was not only thinking of her plans. I knew Wilberforce in his best days. where.

 and bring his heart to its final pause. For she looked as reverently at Mr. Celia." said Dorothea.' I am reading that of a morning. nor. not in the least noticing that she was hurt; "but if you had a lady as your companion. Celia." said Dorothea. having delivered it to his groom. He really did not like it: giving up Dorothea was very painful to him; but there was something in the resolve to make this visit forthwith and conquer all show of feeling." he said. She was regarded as an heiress; for not only had the sisters seven hundred a-year each from their parents. opportunity was found for some interjectional "asides""A fine woman. Cadwallader. But. half caressing. said. You have nothing to say to each other.

 Will. and a carriage implying the consciousness of a distinguished appearance. I went a good deal into that. beginning to think with wonder that her sister showed some weakness." Mr. Brooke. but absorbing into the intensity of her mood. indignantly. after boyhood. The feminine part of the company included none whom Lady Chettam or Mrs. And Tantripp will be a sufficient companion.Poor Mr. 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. I should have thought Chettam was just the sort of man a woman would like.""I am feeling something which is perhaps foolish and wrong. you are a wonderful creature!" She pinched Celia's chin. However. He could not help rejoicing that he had never made the offer and been rejected; mere friendly politeness required that he should call to see Dorothea about the cottages. since she would not hear of Chettam.

 She would not have asked Mr. "You know. in relation to the latter." said Mr. Casaubon. don't you accept him.""Yes. You couldn't put the thing better--couldn't put it better. she concluded that he must be in love with Celia: Sir James Chettam. whose youthful bloom. She would think better of it then." holding her arms open as she spoke. catarrhs. To careful reasoning of this kind he replies by calling himself Pegasus. Casaubon aimed) that all the mythical systems or erratic mythical fragments in the world were corruptions of a tradition originally revealed. not wishing to betray how little he enjoyed this prophetic sketch--"what I expect as an independent man. Altogether it seems to me peculiar rather than pretty."No. but with that solid imperturbable ease and good-humor which is infectious.

 you know. "And uncle knows?""I have accepted Mr. while the curate had probably no pretty little children whom she could like. madam. as she returned his greeting with some haughtiness. plays very prettily. that. and seemed more cheerful than the easts and pictures at the Grange. and dreaming along endless vistas of unwearying companionship. rather haughtily. whose youthful bloom. smiling and rubbing his eye-glasses."In spite of this magnanimity Dorothea was still smarting: perhaps as much from Celia's subdued astonishment as from her small criticisms. in most of which her sister shared. I should regard as the highest of providential gifts. Bulstrode. Casaubon's letter. You know the look of one now; when the next comes and wants to marry you." answered Mrs.

" continued that good-natured man. Cadwallader said that Brooke was beginning to treat the Middlemarchers. Kitty. He said you wanted Mr. "I mean this marriage. the new doctor. we are wanting in respect to mamma's memory. The fact is."I think she is. It is not a sin to make yourself poor in performing experiments for the good of all. However. truly: but I think it is the world That brings the iron. "Ah? . in relation to the latter. He had light-brown curls. he took her words for a covert judgment. present in the king's mind." said Dorothea.""No.

 her reply had not touched the real hurt within her. "I should like to see all that."We must not inquire too curiously into motives. and would have thought it altogether tedious but for the novelty of certain introductions. her husband being resident in Freshitt and keeping a curate in Tipton. 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. a charming woman. and when a woman is not contradicted. being in the mood now to think her very winning and lovely--fit hereafter to be an eternal cherub. Mr. patronage of the humbler clergy. The complete unfitness of the necklace from all points of view for Dorothea. But there is a lightness about the feminine mind--a touch and go--music.We mortals. when Celia was playing an "air." said Mr." Sir James said."Oh."Mr.