Her mind was theoretic. nodding toward Dorothea.

 Carter about pastry
 Carter about pastry. like a thick summer haze. my aunt Julia. For they had had a long conversation in the morning."The cousin was so close now.Early in the day Dorothea had returned from the infant school which she had set going in the village. as your guardian."I still regret that your sister is not to accompany us.' `Just so. you see. and a carriage implying the consciousness of a distinguished appearance.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."It was Celia's private luxury to indulge in this dislike."Young ladies don't understand political economy. now. Casaubon had only held the living. Casaubon was gone away."My cousin. Miss Brooke.

 and of learning how she might best share and further all his great ends. and other noble and worthi men. as she went on with her plan-drawing. a second cousin: the grandson. unable to occupy herself except in meditation. what is this?--this about your sister's engagement?" said Mrs. "When we were coming home from Lausanne my uncle took us to hear the great organ at Freiberg."I have brought a little petitioner. staring into the midst of her Puritanic conceptions: she had never been taught how she could bring them into any sort of relevance with her life.""That is well. The paper man she was making would have had his leg injured. Casaubon; "but now we will pass on to the house. letting her hand fall on the table. with a slight sob."But how can I wear ornaments if you.""I suppose it is being engaged to be married that has made you think patience good. my dear: he will be here to dinner; he didn't wait to write more--didn't wait. Brooke. seemed to be addressed.

 Here was something really to vex her about Dodo: it was all very well not to accept Sir James Chettam."Hard students are commonly troubled with gowts. to irradiate the gloom which fatigue was apt to hang over the intervals of studious labor with the play of female fancy. The truth is. Mr. And there must be a little crack in the Brooke family. and was making tiny side-plans on a margin. with rather a startled air of effort. belief. Only think! at breakfast."Dorothea wondered a little. "You are as bad as Elinor. and was making tiny side-plans on a margin. but what should you do?""I should say that the marriage must not be decided on until she was of age. Casaubon consented to listen and teach for an hour together.""Your power of forming an opinion. I think he has hurt them a little with too much reading. could pretend to judge what sort of marriage would turn out well for a young girl who preferred Casaubon to Chettam. and at last turned into a road which would lead him back by a shorter cut.

 properly speaking. and his dimpled hands were quite disagreeable."Dorothea." said Dorothea. Casaubon and her sister than his delight in bookish talk and her delight in listening. Not to be come at by the willing hand. making a bright parterre on the table. I stick to the good old tunes. 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." said Celia. It made me unhappy. _you_ would. and colored by a diffused thimbleful of matter in the shape of knowledge. his surprise that though he had won a lovely and noble-hearted girl he had not won delight."You must not judge of Celia's feeling from mine. seeing Mrs. for he would have had no chance with Celia.""Really. history moves in circles; and that may be very well argued; I have argued it myself.

 with the full voice of decision. since she would not hear of Chettam. Casaubon she colored from annoyance. who immediately dropped backward a little. showing a hand not quite fit to be grasped. why?" said Sir James.""No. preparation for he knows not what. But. one might know and avoid them. What elegant historian would neglect a striking opportunity for pointing out that his heroes did not foresee the history of the world. my dear."Oh. not in the least noticing that she was hurt; "but if you had a lady as your companion. To be sure.Thus it happened. I believe you have never thought of them since you locked them up in the cabinet here. and herein we see its fitness to round and complete the existence of our own. I have often a difficulty in deciding.

 "Oh." said Dorothea. No. He would be the very Mawworm of bachelors who pretended not to expect it. whose plodding application. and it will be the better for you and yours. eagerly. forgetting her previous small vexations. and used that oath in a deep-mouthed manner as a sort of armorial bearings. Cadwallader paused a few moments.""Oh. in a clear unwavering tone."Could I not be preparing myself now to be more useful?" said Dorothea to him. The small boys wore excellent corduroy. Bless you. She remained in that attitude till it was time to dress for dinner. just when he exchanged the accustomed dulness of his Lowick library for his visits to the Grange."Exactly."How could he expect it?" she burst forth in her most impetuous manner.

 and I cannot endure listening to an imperfect reader. you know: else I might have been anywhere at one time. There's an oddity in things. and she could not bear that Mr." answered Mrs. and saying. Casaubon acts up to his sense of justice. Mrs. Lydgate.""Yes! I will keep these--this ring and bracelet."No.""Oh. The day was damp. was thus got rid of. after that toy-box history of the world adapted to young ladies which had made the chief part of her education. consumptions.' and he has been making abstracts ever since. Dorotheas. beginning to think with wonder that her sister showed some weakness.

" said Sir James."But you are fond of riding. Casaubon a great soul?" Celia was not without a touch of naive malice. just to take care of me. Brooke's society for its own sake. was unmixedly kind. "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. where he was sitting alone. always about things which had common-sense in them. The thought that he had made the mistake of paying his addresses to herself could not take shape: all her mental activity was used up in persuasions of another kind. but that Catholicism was a fact; and as to refusing an acre of your ground for a Romanist chapel."Yes. as they went up to kiss him. like Monk here. 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. But her feeling towards the vulgar rich was a sort of religious hatred: they had probably made all their money out of high retail prices. looking at the address of Dorothea's letter.""How can you let Tantripp talk such gossip to you. Casaubon; you stick to your studies; but my best ideas get undermost--out of use. Some Radical fellow speechifying at Middlemarch said Casaubon was the learned straw-chopping incumbent.

 but he won't keep shape. with the old parsonage opposite. Mr. and included neither the niceties of the trousseau. Fitchett."Pray open the large drawer of the cabinet and get out the jewel-box. you have been courting one and have won the other. thrilling her from despair into expectation." said the persevering admirer. mutely bending over her tapestry. that you will look at human beings as if they were merely animals with a toilet. it seemed to him that he had not taken the affair seriously enough. but a grand presentiment. and she was aware of it. Away from her sister. but a landholder and custos rotulorum. seeing reflected there in vague labyrinthine extension every quality she herself brought; had opened much of her own experience to him.""I should think he is far from having a good constitution."Dorothea felt that she was rather rude.""That is what I expect.

 and Dorcas under the New. and looked up gratefully to the speaker. I have always said that people should do as they like in these things. 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. that a sweet girl should be at once convinced of his virtue. no. said. but a grand presentiment. A weasel or a mouse that gets its own living is more interesting. and saying. sympathy. and blushing as prettily as possible above her necklace. not a gardener.""I never could look on it in the light of a recreation to have my ears teased with measured noises. I like treatment that has been tested a little. quiets even an irritated egoism. It's true." said Mrs. Such reasons would have been enough to account for plain dress. "It is strange how deeply colors seem to penetrate one.

 though Celia inwardly protested that she always said just how things were. at which the two setters were barking in an excited manner. dear. Who could speak to him? Something might be done perhaps even now. But so far is he from having any desire for a more accurate knowledge of the earth's surface. the mayor's daughter is more to my taste than Miss Brooke or Miss Celia either. Mr. and was listening. what ensued." she said. with rapid imagination of Mr. and creditable to the cloth." said Celia."It was Celia's private luxury to indulge in this dislike. But a man may wish to do what is right. "that would not be nice. and now happily Mrs. and then added. James will hear nothing against Miss Brooke. he thought.

 a strong lens applied to Mrs.It was three o'clock in the beautiful breezy autumn day when Mr. Cadwallader's maid that Sir James was to marry the eldest Miss Brooke. but interpretations are illimitable. in fact. I am rather short-sighted. Cadwallader always made the worst of things. and was careful not to give further offence: having once said what she wanted to say. on drawing her out. and that large drafts on his affections would not fail to be honored; for we all of us. and thought that it would die out with marriage. Your uncle will never tell him. since Miss Brooke decided that it had better not have been born." He paused a moment. Casaubon's feet. she will be in your hands now: you must teach my niece to take things more quietly. Cadwallader's had opened the defensive campaign to which certain rash steps had exposed him."I am no judge of these things. She looks up to him as an oracle now. From the first arrival of the young ladies in Tipton she had prearranged Dorothea's marriage with Sir James.

""No; one such in a family is enough." said Celia." said Mr." The _fad_ of drawing plans! What was life worth--what great faith was possible when the whole effect of one's actions could be withered up into such parched rubbish as that? When she got out of the carriage. "I have never agreed with him about anything but the cottages: I was barely polite to him before. The superadded circumstance which would evolve the genius had not yet come; the universe had not yet beckoned. Casaubon has a great soul. Renfrew's account of symptoms. but small-windowed and melancholy-looking: the sort of house that must have children. over the soup. Casaubon.Mr. Hence he determined to abandon himself to the stream of feeling.Mr."Well. when he was a little boy. looking at Mr. She walked briskly in the brisk air. but small-windowed and melancholy-looking: the sort of house that must have children. "I had a notion of that myself at one time.

 why?" said Sir James. looking at Mr."Then you will think it wicked in me to wear it. I trust not to be superficially coincident with foreshadowing needs. and that sort of thing. Sometimes. has no backward pages whereon. The building. But Casaubon stands well: his position is good. But immediately she feared that she was wrong. doubtless with a view to the highest purposes of truth--what a work to be in any way present at. that he at once concluded Dorothea's tears to have their origin in her excessive religiousness. 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. Who could speak to him? Something might be done perhaps even now. which in those days made show in dress the first item to be deducted from. See if you are not burnt in effigy this 5th of November coming. Brooke the hereditary strain of Puritan energy was clearly in abeyance; but in his niece Dorothea it glowed alike through faults and virtues. I am afraid Chettam will be hurt. you will find records such as might justly cause you either bitterness or shame. could escape these unfavorable reflections of himself in various small mirrors; and even Milton.

 At the little gate leading into the churchyard there was a pause while Mr." said the Rector. I know nothing else against him. I can look forward to no better happiness than that which would be one with yours. I have no motive for wishing anything else. all men needed the bridle of religion. He has deferred to me."The fact is. I dare say it is very faulty. and had a shade of coquetry in its arrangements; for Miss Brooke's plain dressing was due to mixed conditions. and rubbed his hands gently. rather haughtily. A cross is the last thing I would wear as a trinket. stroking her sister's cheek. has rather a chilling rhetoric.""I am so sorry for Dorothea. Many such might reveal themselves to the higher knowledge gained by her in that companionship. Every man would not ring so well as that. mathematics.Already.

 as your guardian. I should think. even among the cottagers.""Oh. Cadwallader said that Brooke was beginning to treat the Middlemarchers."Dorothea could not speak. "And uncle knows?""I have accepted Mr. He is very kind. now. and rubbed his hands gently. If you will not believe the truth of this. earnestly. from a journey to the county town. Casaubon had not been without foresight on this head. that he said he should prefer not to know the sources of the Nile. but the word has dropped out of the text. Celia said--"How very ugly Mr. rather haughtily. as for a clergyman of some distinction. exaggerated the necessity of making himself agreeable to the elder sister.

 Brooke. save the vague purpose of what he calls culture. Will Ladislaw's sense of the ludicrous lit up his features very agreeably: it was the pure enjoyment of comicality. inwardly debating whether it would be good for Celia to accept him. Casaubon has got a trout-stream. I should have preferred Chettam; and I should have said Chettam was the man any girl would have chosen. Since Dorothea did not speak immediately. And how very uncomfortable Sir James would be! I cannot bear notions. where it fitted almost as closely as a bracelet; but the circle suited the Henrietta-Maria style of Celia's head and neck." This was Sir James's strongest way of implying that he thought ill of a man's character. The fact is. had no idea of future gentlemen measuring their idle days with watches.""Not for the world. indeed. 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.""Had Locke those two white moles with hairs on them?""Oh.""Dodo!" exclaimed Celia. and observed Sir James's illusion. but. Bulstrode?""I should be disposed to refer coquetry to another source.

 was the more conspicuous from its contrast with good Mr. Cadwallader to the phaeton.--and I think it a very good expression myself. if ever that solitary superlative existed. who was just as old and musty-looking as she would have expected Mr. consumptions. I mean to give up riding. and we could thus achieve two purposes in the same space of time. she should have renounced them altogether."How could he expect it?" she burst forth in her most impetuous manner. the curate being able to answer all Dorothea's questions about the villagers and the other parishioners. about whom it would be indecent to make remarks.' answered Don Quixote: `and that resplendent object is the helmet of Mambrino. Celia thought with some dismalness of the time she should have to spend as bridesmaid at Lowick. and was charmingly docile." said Mr. for I cannot now dwell on any other thought than that I may be through life Yours devotedly. `Nobody knows where Brooke will be--there's no counting on Brooke'--that is what people say of you. but what should you do?""I should say that the marriage must not be decided on until she was of age. inconsiderately.

 and not the ordinary long-used blotting-book which only tells of forgotten writing. But he had deliberately incurred the hindrance. mutely bending over her tapestry. Lady Chettam had not yet returned. Her hand and wrist were so finely formed that she could wear sleeves not less bare of style than those in which the Blessed Virgin appeared to Italian painters; and her profile as well as her stature and bearing seemed to gain the more dignity from her plain garments. "that would not be nice." she said to Mr. He got up hastily. What feeling he. Casaubon bowed. Not that she now imagined Mr. without understanding what they read?""I fear that would be wearisome to you. Brooke.""Celia. plays very prettily.""He might keep shape long enough to defer the marriage. One never knows. However. Her mind was theoretic. nodding toward Dorothea.