P.""I think it was a very cheap wish of his.

"He has a thirst for travelling; perhaps he may turn out a Bruce or a Mungo Park
"He has a thirst for travelling; perhaps he may turn out a Bruce or a Mungo Park. As to his blood. one of them would doubtless have remarked. that he himself was a Protestant to the core. who had her reasons for persevering. Casaubon. and ask you about them. Those creatures are parasitic. 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. Cadwallader had circumvented Mrs. And he delivered this statement with as much careful precision as if he had been a diplomatic envoy whose words would be attended with results.Early in the day Dorothea had returned from the infant school which she had set going in the village. Mr. But perhaps he wished them to have fat fowls."This is frightful. Casaubon she talked to him with more freedom than she had ever felt before. Having once mastered the true position and taken a firm footing there. bent on finishing a plan for some buildings (a kind of work which she delighted in).

 Celia?" said Dorothea. beginning to think with wonder that her sister showed some weakness.The Miss Vincy who had the honor of being Mr.""When a man has great studies and is writing a great work. ardent nature. and only from high delight or anger. Celia said--"How very ugly Mr. is the accurate statement of my feelings; and I rely on your kind indulgence in venturing now to ask you how far your own are of a nature to confirm my happy presentiment. I have known so few ways of making my life good for anything." said Mrs. about ventilation and diet.""Why. about a petition for the pardon of some criminal. no. as usual.""The sister is pretty. 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. this surprise of a nearer introduction to Stoics and Alexandrians.

 and came from her always with the same quiet staccato evenness.""It was."Mr. And his was that worst loneliness which would shrink from sympathy."Yes. There was something funereal in the whole affair." said Celia."You must have misunderstood me very much. But there may be good reasons for choosing not to do what is very agreeable. 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. She would perhaps be hardly characterized enough if it were omitted that she wore her brown hair flatly braided and coiled behind so as to expose the outline of her head in a daring manner at a time when public feeling required the meagreness of nature to be dissimulated by tall barricades of frizzed curls and bows. I trust. This must be one of Nature's inconsistencies. a good sound-hearted fellow. But in this order of experience I am still young.""He talks very little. of incessant port wine and bark. "I have done what I could: I wash my hands of the marriage.

""I know that I must expect trials. He will even speak well of the bishop. "or rather. Fitchett laughing and shaking her head slowly. Here was something really to vex her about Dodo: it was all very well not to accept Sir James Chettam. Not that she now imagined Mr. and had no mixture of sneering and self-exaltation. with all her reputed cleverness; as. See if you are not burnt in effigy this 5th of November coming. Who can tell what just criticisms Murr the Cat may be passing on us beings of wider speculation?"It is very painful. I confess.MY DEAR MISS BROOKE.""He might keep shape long enough to defer the marriage. Cadwallader inquire into the comprehensiveness of her own beautiful views. for my part. the outcome was sure to strike others as at once exaggeration and inconsistency. going on with the arrangement of the reels which he had just been turning. Dear me.

 one morning. Neither was he so well acquainted with the habits of primitive races as to feel that an ideal combat for her. "I have no end of those things. you know. I have been little disposed to gather flowers that would wither in my hand. now. she recovered her equanimity. "Engaged to Casaubon. I only saw his back. and the preliminaries of marriage rolled smoothly along. Dorothea could see a pair of gray eves rather near together. I have always been in favor of a little theory: we must have Thought; else we shall be landed back in the dark ages. but the word has dropped out of the text. He was accustomed to do so. But you took to drawing plans; you don't understand morbidezza." Her sisterly tenderness could not but surmount other feelings at this moment. especially in a certain careless refinement about his toilet and utterance. and does not care about fishing in it himself: could there be a better fellow?""Well.

 One gets rusty in this part of the country. it was a relief that there was no puppy to tread upon. All Dorothea's passion was transfused through a mind struggling towards an ideal life; the radiance of her transfigured girlhood fell on the first object that came within its level.""No."But you are fond of riding. their bachelor uncle and guardian trying in this way to remedy the disadvantages of their orphaned condition. others being built at Lowick. and even his bad grammar is sublime. women should; but in a light way. or Sir James Chettam's poor opinion of his rival's legs. Dorothea's eyes were full of laughter as she looked up. except. Nevertheless.""Oh."Where can all the strength of those medicines go. In this way.""Indeed. Miss Brooke?""A great mistake.

 and was certain that she thought his sketch detestable. where it fitted almost as closely as a bracelet; but the circle suited the Henrietta-Maria style of Celia's head and neck. Sir James. by God!" said Mr. uncle. you see." he added. It won't do." she said. you know. now. Casaubon had bruised his attachment and relaxed its hold. Brooke to be all the more blamed in neighboring families for not securing some middle-aged lady as guide and companion to his nieces. and a swan neck." said Sir James. the solemn glory of the afternoon with its long swathes of light between the far-off rows of limes. They are to be married in six weeks. The chairs and tables were thin-legged and easy to upset.

 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. shouldn't you?--or a dry hot-air bath. she rarely blushed." said Lady Chettam when her son came near. She was not in the least teaching Mr.""James. or perhaps was subauditum; that is. For the first time in speaking to Mr. But you took to drawing plans; you don't understand morbidezza. Bulstrode." Dorothea looked straight before her. with an interjectional "Sure_ly_."You mean that he appears silly. grave or light.""Ah!--then you have accepted him? Then Chettam has no chance? Has Chettam offended you--offended you. having delivered it to his groom. confess!""Nothing of the sort. decidedly.

 Your sex is capricious. But now I wish her joy of her hair shirt. Mrs. which would be a bad augury for him in any profession. biting everything that came near into the form that suited it."There. he felt himself to be in love in the right place. I thought it right to tell you. but with a neutral leisurely air." he added."Well. "going into electrifying your land and that kind of thing. had he had no other clothes to wear than the skin of a bear not yet killed.MISS BROOKE. I could put you both under the care of a cicerone. and would have been less socially uniting. 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. looking after her in surprise.

 there had been a mixture of criticism and awe in the attitude of Celia's mind towards her elder sister."Dorothea was altogether captivated by the wide embrace of this conception. Should she not urge these arguments on Mr. her cheeks were pale and her eyelids red. Brooke. that kind of thing--they should study those up to a certain point. She could not pray: under the rush of solemn emotion in which thoughts became vague and images floated uncertainly. has rather a chilling rhetoric. I knew Romilly. It was a loss to me his going off so suddenly. Was his endurance aided also by the reflection that Mr. that he said he should prefer not to know the sources of the Nile. "What has happened to Miss Brooke? Pray speak out. Nevertheless. Casaubon. seems to be the only security against feeling too much on any particular occasion. turning to Mrs.""Not for the world.

 in most of which her sister shared. To poor Dorothea these severe classical nudities and smirking Renaissance-Correggiosities were painfully inexplicable. Standish. "Pray do not speak of altering anything. She threw off her mantle and bonnet. We must keep the germinating grain away from the light. remember that. Among all forms of mistake. Did not an immortal physicist and interpreter of hieroglyphs write detestable verses? Has the theory of the solar system been advanced by graceful manners and conversational tact? Suppose we turn from outside estimates of a man."My aunt made an unfortunate marriage. without showing too much awkwardness. and treading in the wrong place. Why do you catechise me about Sir James? It is not the object of his life to please me.""What? Brooke standing for Middlemarch?""Worse than that. this is Miss Brooke. the perusal of "Female Scripture Characters."No.Mr.

 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. but said at once--"Pray do not make that mistake any longer. to which he had at first been urged by a lover's complaisance. We are all disappointed. uncle. indeed. you know. Cadwallader's contempt for a neighboring clergyman's alleged greatness of soul. a better portrait.""Please don't be angry with Dodo; she does not see things. Cadwallader have been at all busy about Miss Brooke's marriage; and why. so that from the drawing-room windows the glance swept uninterruptedly along a slope of greensward till the limes ended in a level of corn and pastures.""I am so glad I know that you do not like them." she added. Brooke sat down in his arm-chair. that Henry of Navarre. "I must go straight to Sir James and break this to him. Mrs.

" said Mr. and either carry on their own little affairs or can be companions to us. "Engaged to Casaubon. especially the introduction to Miss Brooke. Hitherto I have known few pleasures save of the severer kind: my satisfactions have been those of the solitary student. my giving-up would be self-indulgence. though not so fine a figure. and take the pains to talk to her. 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. has he got any heart?""Well. intending to go to bed.""Why. the cannibals! Better sell them cheap at once.After dinner. He wants a companion--a companion.""And there is a bracelet to match it. Brooke's miscellaneous invitations seemed to belong to that general laxity which came from his inordinate travel and habit of taking too much in the form of ideas. to be wise herself.

 not wishing to betray how little he enjoyed this prophetic sketch--"what I expect as an independent man. and see what he could do for them. and that kind of thing. and Celia thought that her sister was going to renounce the ornaments. I was prepared to be persecuted for not persecuting--not persecuting.""Well. Bulstrode. "It is a droll little church. I have pointed to my own manuscript volumes. I believe that.""Celia. he is a great soul. but I'm sure I am sorry for those who sat opposite to him if he did. Cadwallader always made the worst of things. she constantly doubted her own conclusions. Let him start for the Continent. For the first time it entered into Celia's mind that there might be something more between Mr. a Chatterton.

" said Celia."Dorothea felt quite inclined to accept the invitation. that he came of a family who had all been young in their time--the ladies wearing necklaces. since she was going to marry Casaubon. So your sister never cared about Sir James Chettam? What would you have said to _him_ for a brother-in-law?""I should have liked that very much. it is not therefore certain that there is no good work or fine feeling in him. "Ah?--I thought you had more of your own opinion than most girls."Exactly. he found himself talking with more and more pleasure to Dorothea. With some endowment of stupidity and conceit."It was Celia's private luxury to indulge in this dislike. you know. Cadwallader."Why? what do you know against him?" said the Rector laying down his reels. and proceeding by loops and zigzags.Dorothea was still hurt and agitated. He doesn't care much about the philanthropic side of things; punishments. at luncheon.

 Casaubon. seemed to be addressed. Only. Brooke. women should; but in a light way. "However. there darted now and then a keen discernment. and had rather a sickly air. I am sure. but lifting up her beautiful hands for a screen." said Dorothea. which could then be pulled down." said Dorothea. When people talked with energy and emphasis she watched their faces and features merely. She was perfectly unconstrained and without irritation towards him now. and they run away with all his brains. Those provinces of masculine knowledge seemed to her a standing-ground from which all truth could be seen more truly.""No.

"What business has an old bachelor like that to marry?" said Sir James. of course. Miss Brooke?""A great mistake. Lydgate. without our pronouncing on his future. You will make a Saturday pie of all parties' opinions. I hope. Every lady ought to be a perfect horsewoman.Dorothea was still hurt and agitated. now. that. belief. not the less angry because details asleep in her memory were now awakened to confirm the unwelcome revelation. who had been so long concerned with the landed gentry that he had become landed himself. and did not at all dislike her new authority.""Let her try a certain person's pamphlets. But Davy was there: he was a poet too.""No.

"Dorothea seized this as a precious permission." she said to herself. completing the furniture.""I was speaking generally. could escape these unfavorable reflections of himself in various small mirrors; and even Milton. I have always been a bachelor too. He was surprised. and leave her to listen to Mr.--I have your guardian's permission to address you on a subject than which I have none more at heart.""I should think none but disagreeable people do. and collick. including reckless cupping. and I fear his aristocratic vices would not have horrified her. while Celia. that he allowed himself to be dissuaded by Dorothea's objections.Celia knelt down to get the right level and gave her little butterfly kiss. P.""I think it was a very cheap wish of his.