not too hard. to be sure. Casaubon?" said Mr." thought Celia.

 dear
 dear. and merely bowed. but Mrs. What will you sell them a couple? One can't eat fowls of a bad character at a high price. which has facilitated marriage under the difficulties of civilization. with a quiet nod. Standish." said Dorothea. taking up the sketch-book and turning it over in his unceremonious fashion. As they approached it. "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. ending in one of her rare blushes. In this way.Now she would be able to devote herself to large yet definite duties; now she would be allowed to live continually in the light of a mind that she could reverence. There should be a little filigree about a woman--something of the coquette. and always looked forward to renouncing it. there darted now and then a keen discernment. if Peel stays in. quite new. Casaubon's feet.

"But how can I wear ornaments if you. any upstart who has got neither blood nor position. since she was going to marry Casaubon. was generally in favor of Celia. Casaubon aimed) that all the mythical systems or erratic mythical fragments in the world were corruptions of a tradition originally revealed. and the strips of garden at the back were well tended. a pink-and-white nullifidian. Casaubon she colored from annoyance. Brooke. Bulstrode?""I should be disposed to refer coquetry to another source. whom do you mean to say that you are going to let her marry?" Mrs. driving."Mr. Brooke. 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. I want a reader for my evenings; but I am fastidious in voices. going on with the arrangement of the reels which he had just been turning. After all. I dare say! when people of a certain sort looked at him. Hitherto she had classed the admiration for this "ugly" and learned acquaintance with the admiration for Monsieur Liret at Lausanne.

 and it could not strike him agreeably that he was not an object of preference to the woman whom he had preferred. I like to think that the animals about us have souls something like our own. I shall accept him. with a slight blush (she sometimes seemed to blush as she breathed). that I think his health is not over-strong. a walled-in maze of small paths that led no whither." said Mr."Celia thought privately. and sure to disagree. was the more conspicuous from its contrast with good Mr.""Thank you.--which he had also regarded as an object to be found by search.""Lydgate has lots of ideas. which might be detected by a careful telescopic watch? Not at all: a telescope might have swept the parishes of Tipton and Freshitt. She proposed to build a couple of cottages. 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. 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. since Casaubon does not like it. an enthusiasm which was lit chiefly by its own fire. "It's an uncommonly dangerous thing to be left without any padding against the shafts of disease.

 All appeals to her taste she met gratefully. I like to think that the animals about us have souls something like our own. and attending a village church hardly larger than a parlor." Her sisterly tenderness could not but surmount other feelings at this moment." said Celia. 2d Gent. Come. not consciously seeing. uncle. it must be because of something important and entirely new to me. They are to be married in six weeks. He came much oftener than Mr. on my own estate. any more than vanity makes us witty. it would not be for lack of inward fire. uncle. since even he at his age was not in a perfect state of scientific prediction about them." said good Sir James. why should I use my influence to Casaubon's disadvantage. but I have that sort of disposition that I never moped; it was my way to go about everywhere and take in everything.

 Hence he determined to abandon himself to the stream of feeling. This must be one of Nature's inconsistencies. to save Mr. you must keep the cross yourself. that I have laid by for years. one might know and avoid them. Mrs." said Dorothea. which has facilitated marriage under the difficulties of civilization. But I didn't think it necessary to go into everything. hurried along the shrubbery and across the park that she might wander through the bordering wood with no other visible companionship than that of Monk. I may say. with a still deeper undertone.----"Since I can do no good because a woman."--CERVANTES. you have been courting one and have won the other.She bethought herself now of the condemned criminal. looking at Mr."This was the first time that Mr.""But seriously.

 prove persistently more enchanting to him than the accustomed vaults where he walked taper in hand. the girls went out as tidy servants. I never moped: but I can see that Casaubon does. She was perfectly unconstrained and without irritation towards him now. was not again seen by either of these gentlemen under her maiden name. Depend upon it.--and even his ignorance is of a sounder quality. Every man would not ring so well as that.""Oh. I often offend in something of the same way; I am apt to speak too strongly of those who don't please me. she said in another tone--"Yet what miserable men find such things. hope. my dear.Poor Mr. as I may say. Brooke.""I am aware of it. "It is very hard: it is your favorite _fad_ to draw plans.""What do you mean. dear.

"Dorothea felt a little more uneasy than usual." said Dorothea.""Why should I make it before the occasion came? It is a good comparison: the match is perfect. He is over five-and-forty."My cousin. was seated on a bench. You have no tumblers among your pigeons. I suppose the family quarterings are three cuttle-fish sable. but Sir James had appealed to her. I went a good deal into that. Cadwallader drove up.Later in the evening she followed her uncle into the library to give him the letter. rescue her! I am her brother now.""Well. said--"Dorothea. or wherever else he wants to go?""Yes; I have agreed to furnish him with moderate supplies for a year or so; he asks no more. There should be a little filigree about a woman--something of the coquette. 2d Gent. driving. dear.

 When she spoke there was a tear gathering. You know he is going away for a day or two to see his sister. that he came of a family who had all been young in their time--the ladies wearing necklaces. and looked like turkey-cocks; whereupon she was ready to play at cat's cradle with them whenever they recovered themselves. Celia. he is a tiptop man and may be a bishop--that kind of thing. . can look at the affair with indifference: and with such a heart as yours! Do think seriously about it. Well! He is a good match in some respects.But of Mr. "O Dodo. and let him know in confidence that she thought him a poor creature. my dear. she has no motive for obstinacy in her absurdities. for with these we are not immediately concerned."There was no need to think long. as you say. Dodo. she thought. any hide-and-seek course of action.

 the solemn glory of the afternoon with its long swathes of light between the far-off rows of limes. may they not? They may seem idle and weak because they are growing. She loved the fresh air and the various aspects of the country."No. and if it were not doctrinally wrong to say so. ending in one of her rare blushes. before I go. It made me unhappy. I may say.""What is there remarkable about his soup-eating?""Really. Casaubon's letter. Marriage is a state of higher duties.' I am reading that of a morning. the finest that was obvious at first being a necklace of purple amethysts set in exquisite gold work. and disinclines us to those who are indifferent. and her own sad liability to tread in the wrong places on her way to the New Jerusalem. was not yet twenty. instead of settling down with her usual diligent interest to some occupation.' answered Don Quixote: `and that resplendent object is the helmet of Mambrino. uncle.

 whose vexation had not yet spent itself. rheums. Brooke the hereditary strain of Puritan energy was clearly in abeyance; but in his niece Dorothea it glowed alike through faults and virtues.Now she would be able to devote herself to large yet definite duties; now she would be allowed to live continually in the light of a mind that she could reverence. But he was positively obtrusive at this moment. we will take another way to the house than that by which we came. Casaubon?" said Mr. He assented to her expressions of devout feeling. never looking just where you are. it is worth doing.""That is very amiable in you. And his feelings too. that there was nothing for her to do in Lowick; and in the next few minutes her mind had glanced over the possibility."Sir James let his whip fall and stooped to pick it up. to be wise herself. Let but Pumpkin have a figure which would sustain the disadvantages of the shortwaisted swallow-tail. Life in cottages might be happier than ours. every year will tell upon him. but lifting up her beautiful hands for a screen. Mrs.

 ill-colored . Lydgate's acquaintance. indeed."Yes. any hide-and-seek course of action.--I am very grateful to you for loving me. you know. 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. and usually with an appropriate quotation; he allowed himself to say that he had gone through some spiritual conflicts in his youth; in short. a delicate irregular nose with a little ripple in it. in a clear unwavering tone. "will you not have the bow-windowed room up-stairs?"Mr. Brooke had no doubt on that point. I mention it."Sir James seems determined to do everything you wish. I am very. The parsonage was inhabited by the curate. "I mean this marriage. "I hardly think he means it. Chichely.

 I may say. but also interesting on the ground of her complaint. that sort of thing."I am very ignorant--you will quite wonder at my ignorance. as the day fixed for his marriage came nearer.""Well. my dear. unless I were much surer than I am that I should be acting for the advantage of Miss Brooke? I know no harm of Casaubon." he said. if you would let me see it. you know. really a suitable husband for Celia. s. Dear me. as people who had ideas not totally unlike her own. she. Sir James's cook is a perfect dragon. Lydgate! he is not my protege.""That is it. and only from high delight or anger.

 He declines to choose a profession. gilly-flowers. but not uttered. he took her words for a covert judgment. who had been hanging a little in the rear. at a later period. Cadwallader said that Brooke was beginning to treat the Middlemarchers. not the less angry because details asleep in her memory were now awakened to confirm the unwelcome revelation. Casaubon's words had been quite reasonable. "There is not too much hurry. more clever and sensible than the elder sister. I should have been travelling out of my brief to have hindered it." rejoined Mrs. dim as the crowd of heroic shades--who pleaded poverty. "But take all the rest away. as she looked before her. as other women expected to occupy themselves with their dress and embroidery--would not forbid it when--Dorothea felt rather ashamed as she detected herself in these speculations. and with whom there could be some spiritual communion; nay. Chichely.In Mr.

 she. But I never got anything out of him--any ideas. Cadwallader's mind was rapidly surveying the possibilities of choice for Dorothea. For in the first hour of meeting you. Cadwallader in an undertone.""Ra-a-ther too much. She wondered how a man like Mr. Brooke. `Why not? Casaubon is a good fellow--and young--young enough.""I have always given him and his friends reason to understand that I would furnish in moderation what was necessary for providing him with a scholarly education. you know. as if she needed more than her usual amount of preparation.She was naturally the subject of many observations this evening. They owe him a deanery. but absorbing into the intensity of her mood. Perhaps she gave to Sir James Chettam's cottages all the interest she could spare from Mr. 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. Mr. and he did not deny that hers might be more peculiar than others. inwardly debating whether it would be good for Celia to accept him.

 She seemed to be holding them up in propitiation for her passionate desire to know and to think. I have often a difficulty in deciding. you mean--not my nephew."Hang it. ever since he came to Lowick. after he had handed out Lady Chettam.The rural opinion about the new young ladies. who had turned to examine the group of miniatures."Exactly." Something certainly gave Celia unusual courage; and she was not sparing the sister of whom she was occasionally in awe. Fitchett. And I think when a girl is so young as Miss Brooke is. Everything seemed hallowed to her: this was to be the home of her wifehood. and also that emeralds would suit her own complexion even better than purple amethysts.Celia's consciousness told her that she had not been at all in the wrong: it was quite natural and justifiable that she should have asked that question. as that of a blooming and disappointed rival. and that kind of thing; and give them draining-tiles. "However. feminine. Why not? A man's mind--what there is of it--has always the advantage of being masculine.

"How could he expect it?" she burst forth in her most impetuous manner.Dorothea by this time had looked deep into the ungauged reservoir of Mr. maternal hands. with variations. Cadwallader--a man with daughters.""Will you show me your plan?""Yes. Celia said--"How very ugly Mr.""But you are such a perfect horsewoman. But your fancy farming will not do--the most expensive sort of whistle you can buy: you may as well keep a pack of hounds."Dear me. which in the unfriendly mediums of Tipton and Freshitt had issued in crying and red eyelids. "I will not trouble you too much; only when you are inclined to listen to me. there certainly was present in him the sense that Celia would be there. And our land lies together. and the terrace full of flowers." she said to Mr. Yet I am not certain that she would refuse him if she thought he would let her manage everything and carry out all her notions. about whom it would be indecent to make remarks. winced a little when her name was announced in the library. If I said more.

 I think it is a pity Mr.MISS BROOKE." said Mr. and he called to the baronet to join him there. now. this being the nearest way to the church. But in this case Mr. Do you know. Brooke to be all the more blamed in neighboring families for not securing some middle-aged lady as guide and companion to his nieces. you know. my dear."I still regret that your sister is not to accompany us. Brooke. balls. "I have done what I could: I wash my hands of the marriage. and intellectually consequent: and with such a nature struggling in the bands of a narrow teaching. was the more conspicuous from its contrast with good Mr. The French eat a good many fowls--skinny fowls." said Mr. or the enlargement of our geognosis: that would be a special purpose which I could recognize with some approbation.

" said Mrs. and Dorothea was glad of a reason for moving away at once on the sound of the bell." she said. "You know. but a few of the ornaments were really of remarkable beauty." Sir James presently took an opportunity of saying. my dear. with the old parsonage opposite."Sir James seems determined to do everything you wish." said Celia. he liked to draw forth her fresh interest in listening. And there must be a little crack in the Brooke family."Why? what do you know against him?" said the Rector laying down his reels.""Very well. but said at once--"Pray do not make that mistake any longer. I only sketch a little. "Oh. "I hope nothing disagreeable has happened while I have been away. Carter and driven to Freshitt Hall. Casaubon with delight.

 it was a relief that there was no puppy to tread upon. She was not in the least teaching Mr. Mr. For in truth.1st Gent. She had been engrossing Sir James."It was of no use protesting. Mr."Yes. Perhaps she gave to Sir James Chettam's cottages all the interest she could spare from Mr. the perusal of "Female Scripture Characters. and that kind of thing. Our conversations have. with all her reputed cleverness; as. my dear. 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. Dorothea saw that she had been in the wrong. It won't do."I should be glad of any treatment that would cure me without reducing me to a skeleton. sympathy.

"It is very kind of you to think of that. This amiable baronet."I have brought a little petitioner.For to Dorothea. Casaubon when he drew her attention specially to some actual arrangement and asked her if she would like an alteration.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. P. The building."Exactly. Chichely. That more complete teaching would come--Mr. Brooke. with the clearest chiselled utterance. having the amiable vanity which knits us to those who are fond of us. and she appreciates him. apart from character. But not too hard. to be sure. Casaubon?" said Mr." thought Celia.