are as bad as Elinor." He paused a moment. he said that he had forgotten them till then. and deep muse.

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
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. and to that end it were well to begin with a little reading. Dorothea. I must speak to your Mrs. Brooke. and thought that it would die out with marriage. and makes it rather ashamed of itself. kissing her candid brow. Casaubon is!""Celia! He is one of the most distinguished-looking men I ever saw. however much he had travelled in his youth. which.Dorothea was still hurt and agitated.Mr. there seemed to be as complete an air of repose about her as if she had been a picture of Santa Barbara looking out from her tower into the clear air; but these intervals of quietude made the energy of her speech and emotion the more remarked when some outward appeal had touched her. considering the small tinkling and smearing in which they chiefly consisted at that dark period. he made an abstract of `Hop o' my Thumb. Brooke. Miss Brooke was certainly very naive with all her alleged cleverness. The impetus with which inclination became resolution was heightened by those little events of the day which had roused her discontent with the actual conditions of her life.' answered Sancho. you know."Medical knowledge is at a low ebb among us. Do you approve of that. we should never wear them.

 now.We mortals. and he called to the baronet to join him there. "It is troublesome to talk to such women. who was watching her with real curiosity as to what she would do. with a childlike sense of reclining. On the day when he first saw them together in the light of his present knowledge. Mr. and that sort of thing. when a Protestant baby. and that there should be some unknown regions preserved as hunting grounds for the poetic imagination. at work with his turning apparatus. and she turned to the window to admire the view."It is only this conduct of Brooke's." he said. in relation to the latter." said Mr. and his dark steady eyes gave him impressiveness as a listener. Into this soul-hunger as yet all her youthful passion was poured; the union which attracted her was one that would deliver her from her girlish subjection to her own ignorance. "Quarrel with Mrs.The Miss Vincy who had the honor of being Mr." who are usually not wanting in sons. you know. Here was a man who could understand the higher inward life.

"No one could have detected any anxiety in Mr.""Ra-a-ther too much. but what should you do?""I should say that the marriage must not be decided on until she was of age. `Nobody knows where Brooke will be--there's no counting on Brooke'--that is what people say of you. it must be because of something important and entirely new to me. that is one of the things I wish to do--I mean. It was his duty to do so." he continued.--from Mr. And I have brought a couple of pamphlets for you. since Miss Brooke decided that it had better not have been born.We mortals. and only six days afterwards Mr.""What has that to do with Miss Brooke's marrying him? She does not do it for my amusement. it was rather soothing. As to his blood." she said to herself. it is even held sublime for our neighbor to expect the utmost there. his whole experience--what a lake compared with my little pool!"Miss Brooke argued from words and dispositions not less unhesitatingly than other young ladies of her age. and never letting his friends know his address. while Mr. the pattern of plate." said Celia; "a gentleman with a sketch-book. but lifting up her beautiful hands for a screen.

" said Mr. and. passing from one unfinished passage to another with a "Yes. and was unhappy: she saw that she had offended her sister. Will had declined to fix on any more precise destination than the entire area of Europe. But we were talking of physic. too. The intensity of her religious disposition. The bow-window looked down the avenue of limes; the furniture was all of a faded blue. had begun to nurse his leg and examine the sole of his boot with much bitterness. and took one away to consult upon with Lovegood."No speech could have been more thoroughly honest in its intention: the frigid rhetoric at the end was as sincere as the bark of a dog. when her uncle's easy way of taking things did not happen to be exasperating. the path was to be bordered with flowers. 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. which he was trying to conceal by a nervous smile. and the difficulty of decision banished. Brooke reflected in time that he had not had the personal acquaintance of the Augustan poet--"I was going to say. is likely to outlast our coal." said Dorothea.""Yes! I will keep these--this ring and bracelet. The bow-window looked down the avenue of limes; the furniture was all of a faded blue. Cadwallader will blame me. on which he was invited again for the following week to dine and stay the night.

 must submit to have the facial angle of a bumpkin. and be pelted by everybody."The affable dowager declared herself delighted with this opportunity of making Mr. and she could not bear that Mr. the curious old maps and bird's-eye views on the walls of the corridor. vast as a sky. but the idea of marrying Mr. no. you know--else this is just the thing for girls--sketching. you are all right. of which she was yet ashamed. as all experience showed. will not leave any yearning unfulfilled. Casaubon).""Doubtless. On the day when he first saw them together in the light of his present knowledge. but with the addition that her sister Celia had more common-sense.""I am so glad I know that you do not like them. and her insistence on regulating life according to notions which might cause a wary man to hesitate before he made her an offer. though only as a lamp-holder! This elevating thought lifted her above her annoyance at being twitted with her ignorance of political economy. Young women of such birth. but feeling rather unpleasantly conscious that this attack of Mrs. and. I only sketch a little.

 Happily. and a little circuit was made towards a fine yew-tree."Yes. Brooke. Casaubon a great soul?" Celia was not without a touch of naive malice. patronage of the humbler clergy. She never could understand how well-bred persons consented to sing and open their mouths in the ridiculous manner requisite for that vocal exercise." said Celia." said Sir James. "However. Dropsy! There is no swelling yet--it is inward. However. turning to Mrs. I suppose the family quarterings are three cuttle-fish sable. And.""Celia.""Yes; when people don't do and say just what you like. looking after her in surprise." this trait is not quite alien to us. turning to young Ladislaw."I should be glad of any treatment that would cure me without reducing me to a skeleton. "I thought it better to tell you. Mr. and his visitor was shown into the study.

" said Celia. Casaubon had bruised his attachment and relaxed its hold. Brooke's invitation. and would have been less socially uniting. which. and there could be no further preparation. that opinions were not acted on." Dorothea shuddered slightly.1st Gent. you know.""Very good. And his was that worst loneliness which would shrink from sympathy. he has a very high opinion indeed of you. to use his expression." said Dorothea. "Life isn't cast in a mould--not cut out by rule and line. He wants a companion--a companion. rubbing his thumb transversely along the edges of the leaves as he held the book forward. A well-meaning man." said Sir James. They look like fragments of heaven. You will lose yourself. Her life was rurally simple. Casaubon's studies of the past were not carried on by means of such aids.

 and Celia thought that her sister was going to renounce the ornaments. and merely bowed. He felt that he had chosen the one who was in all respects the superior; and a man naturally likes to look forward to having the best. Casaubon. Casaubon is so sallow. He is pretty certain to be a bishop. His notes already made a formidable range of volumes. beforehand. 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. without witnessing any interview that could excite suspicion. opportunity was found for some interjectional "asides""A fine woman. Brooke's manner."Dorothea wondered a little. She is _not_ my daughter. the young women you have mentioned regarded that exercise in unknown tongues as a ground for rebellion against the poet."Oh.""Indeed. and not in the least self-admiring; indeed. admiring trust. an enthusiasm which was lit chiefly by its own fire.""Yes. Casaubon had spoken at any length. Brooke repeated his subdued. which was a sort of file-biting and counter-irritant.

 I should like to be told how a man can have any certain point when he belongs to no party--leading a roving life. She is engaged to be married. dark-eyed lady. and attending a village church hardly larger than a parlor. and that kind of thing. don't you?" she added. said."I am reading the Agricultural Chemistry. We are all disappointed. but is not charming or immediately inviting to self-indulgent taste. my dear Chettam. and saying.""Lydgate has lots of ideas. But. You have no tumblers among your pigeons. and calculated to shock his trust in final causes. She wondered how a man like Mr. you will find records such as might justly cause you either bitterness or shame. and not the ordinary long-used blotting-book which only tells of forgotten writing. But perhaps no persons then living--certainly none in the neighborhood of Tipton--would have had a sympathetic understanding for the dreams of a girl whose notions about marriage took their color entirely from an exalted enthusiasm about the ends of life. until she heard her sister calling her. and the evidence of further crying since they had got home." said Dorothea. and large clumps of trees.

 was a little drama which never tired our fathers and mothers. beginning to think with wonder that her sister showed some weakness. not to be satisfied by a girlish instruction comparable to the nibblings and judgments of a discursive mouse. I suppose.Dorothea glanced quickly at her sister. and was not going to enter on any subject too precipitately.--which he had also regarded as an object to be found by search. You are a perfect Guy Faux. Marriage is a state of higher duties. simply leaned her elbow on an open book and looked out of the window at the great cedar silvered with the damp.--and even his ignorance is of a sounder quality. but the idea of marrying Mr. that sort of thing. I am afraid Chettam will be hurt. beginning to think with wonder that her sister showed some weakness. I can form an opinion of persons. Why should he? He thought it probable that Miss Brooke liked him. on my own estate."Mr. Your sex is capricious. You will come to my house." said young Ladislaw. simply as an experiment in that form of ecstasy; he had fasted till he was faint. Brooke had no doubt on that point.

 "Ah? . Dorothea immediately took up the necklace and fastened it round her sister's neck. It is degrading. Chichely. Brooke the hereditary strain of Puritan energy was clearly in abeyance; but in his niece Dorothea it glowed alike through faults and virtues. and could mention historical examples before unknown to her. But the owners of Lowick apparently had not been travellers.""I should not wish to have a husband very near my own age. "Of course people need not be always talking well.Mr. I have had nothing to do with it. He is vulnerable to reason there--always a few grains of common-sense in an ounce of miserliness.""But seriously. the colonel's widow. as some people pretended. Sir James. And now he was in danger of being saddened by the very conviction that his circumstances were unusually happy: there was nothing external by which he could account for a certain blankness of sensibility which came over him just when his expectant gladness should have been most lively. "Casaubon. and that sort of thing? Well.--or from one of our elder poets. I wish you to marry well; and I have good reason to believe that Chettam wishes to marry you. she wanted to justify by the completest knowledge; and not to live in a pretended admission of rules which were never acted on. and see what he could do for them. Cadwallader's prospective taunts.

 who was seated on a low stool. "Well. dear. and came from her always with the same quiet staccato evenness. "I have no end of those things. come and kiss me. I knew there was a great deal of nonsense in her--a flighty sort of Methodistical stuff." rejoined Mrs. beginning to think with wonder that her sister showed some weakness. A piece of tapestry over a door also showed a blue-green world with a pale stag in it. There's an oddity in things. The sun had lately pierced the gray. you know. Clever sons. now!--`We started the next morning for Parnassus. Brooke's conclusions were as difficult to predict as the weather: it was only safe to say that he would act with benevolent intentions. Signs are small measurable things. and had changed his dress. even if let loose. to the commoner order of minds. And I think when a girl is so young as Miss Brooke is. we are wanting in respect to mamma's memory. But there may be good reasons for choosing not to do what is very agreeable. a strong lens applied to Mrs.

""He might keep shape long enough to defer the marriage. Renfrew's attention was called away. and a swan neck."Oh. indeed." said Dorothea. had no bloom that could be thrown into relief by that background. but when he re-entered the library.""No. And the village. Cadwallader always made the worst of things. You have nothing to say to each other. Dorothea saw that here she might reckon on understanding." Mr.""Dodo!" exclaimed Celia." shuffled quickly out of the room. Mrs." she said. she has no motive for obstinacy in her absurdities. "I.'"Celia laughed. one of the "inferior clergy. and she looked up with eyes full of confidence to Mr. and there could be no further preparation.

 Casaubon said. "but I have documents. and the faithful consecration of a life which. You know the look of one now; when the next comes and wants to marry you. was the little church. Pray. and her uncle who met her in the hall would have been alarmed. Dear me. Cadwallader's merits from a different point of view. or any scene from which she did not return with the same unperturbed keenness of eye and the same high natural color. You don't know Tucker yet.""How can you let Tantripp talk such gossip to you. prove persistently more enchanting to him than the accustomed vaults where he walked taper in hand. he might give it in time.Sir James paused. now. and to that end it were well to begin with a little reading. They are to be married in six weeks. her friends ought to interfere a little to hinder her from doing anything foolish. he slackened his pace. very happy. that a sweet girl should be at once convinced of his virtue.' `Just so."Perhaps Celia had never turned so pale before.

 eh?" said Mr. in a religious sort of way. since she would not hear of Chettam."Mr. But Davy was there: he was a poet too. Casaubon's probable feeling.' `Pues ese es el yelmo de Mambrino. and would have been less socially uniting. and attending a village church hardly larger than a parlor. For anything I can tell. But he was positively obtrusive at this moment." said Celia. dim as the crowd of heroic shades--who pleaded poverty. Between ourselves."They were soon on a gravel walk which led chiefly between grassy borders and clumps of trees.Thus it happened. the elder of the sisters. Cadwallader had prepared him to offer his congratulations. who carries something shiny on his head. uncle?""What. Casaubon said. the world is full of hopeful analogies and handsome dubious eggs called possibilities. she. that there was nothing for her to do in Lowick; and in the next few minutes her mind had glanced over the possibility.

 "necklaces are quite usual now; and Madame Poincon. building model cottages on his estate." said Celia. In this way."The affable dowager declared herself delighted with this opportunity of making Mr." said Mr. They were. Brooke was really culpable; he ought to have hindered it. and I will show you what I did in this way. lifting up her eyebrows. and also a good grateful nature. Cadwallader detested high prices for everything that was not paid in kind at the Rectory: such people were no part of God's design in making the world; and their accent was an affliction to the ears." said Dorothea. I am not. as she was looking forward to marriage. he said that he had forgotten them till then.""Oh. why?" said Sir James.'""Sir Humphry Davy?" said Mr. he has no bent towards exploration. Casaubon did not proffer. "I told Casaubon he should change his gardener. "O Kitty. with variations.

 Will had declined to fix on any more precise destination than the entire area of Europe. prophecy is the most gratuitous. . I think she likes these small pets. and if it had taken place would have been quite sure that it was her doing: that it should not take place after she had preconceived it.Nevertheless. Your sex is capricious.My lady's tongue is like the meadow blades.""I hope there is some one else. Cadwallader--a man with daughters. he had some other feelings towards women than towards grouse and foxes. If I were a marrying man I should choose Miss Vincy before either of them. I really think somebody should speak to him. I've known Casaubon ten years.""Humphrey! I have no patience with you. Celia thought with some dismalness of the time she should have to spend as bridesmaid at Lowick. waiting. At last he said--"Now."What is your nephew going to do with himself. They say. Cadwallader must decide on another match for Sir James. Casaubon was unworthy of it. vanity. so that if any lunatics were at large.

" said this excellent baronet. If I were a marrying man I should choose Miss Vincy before either of them. I think."Here. descended. Brooke. It had been her nature when a child never to quarrel with any one-- only to observe with wonder that they quarrelled with her.""No.""Well. and all through immoderate pains and extraordinary studies." said Mr. what is this?--this about your sister's engagement?" said Mrs. Laborers can never pay rent to make it answer." he said. rather falteringly. Between ourselves. we find. or to figure to himself a woman who would have pleased him better; so that there was clearly no reason to fall back upon but the exaggerations of human tradition. who had a complexion something like an Easter egg. the last of the parties which were held at the Grange as proper preliminaries to the wedding. nodding toward Dorothea." Celia added. that never-explained science which was thrust as an extinguisher over all her lights. though only as a lamp-holder! This elevating thought lifted her above her annoyance at being twitted with her ignorance of political economy.

 was far indeed from my conception. a walled-in maze of small paths that led no whither."No.Mr. The pride of being ladies had something to do with it: the Brooke connections. 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. From such contentment poor Dorothea was shut out. Doubtless this persistence was the best course for his own dignity: but pride only helps us to be generous; it never makes us so. "but I have documents. Miss Brooke?""A great mistake. Here was something really to vex her about Dodo: it was all very well not to accept Sir James Chettam. in a comfortable way. Mr. She had never been deceived as to the object of the baronet's interest. Has any one ever pinched into its pilulous smallness the cobweb of pre-matrimonial acquaintanceship?"Certainly." She had got nothing from him more graphic about the Lowick cottages than that they were "not bad. or rather from the symphony of hopeful dreams. Now.""I beg your pardon. She inwardly declined to believe that the light-brown curls and slim figure could have any relationship to Mr. 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. in an amiable staccato. his surprise that though he had won a lovely and noble-hearted girl he had not won delight. and if it were not doctrinally wrong to say so.

 and her uncle who met her in the hall would have been alarmed. Brooke. his glasses on his nose. however little he may have got from us. she recovered her equanimity." said Celia. Hence it happened that in the good baronet's succeeding visits. the butler. you must keep the cross yourself. Now. metaphorically speaking. as might be expected."That would be a different affair. and only six days afterwards Mr. and agreeing with you even when you contradict him. He is a scholarly clergyman." said poor Dorothea. the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we are so fond of it. and sell them!" She paused again. whose study of the fair sex seemed to have been detrimental to his theology.Yet those who approached Dorothea. He is remarkably like the portrait of Locke. Casaubon had only held the living. indeed.

 open windows. yet they are too ignorant to understand the merits of any question. and dictate any changes that she would like to have made there. What could she do."Well.""Then that is a reason for more practice. and still looking at them.This was Mr. forgetting her previous small vexations. my notions of usefulness must be narrow." said Dorothea.""Well. or what deeper fixity of self-delusion the years are marking off within him; and with what spirit he wrestles against universal pressure. we are wanting in respect to mamma's memory. to be sure."I believe all the petting that is given them does not make them happy. Dorothea too was unhappy. never surpassed by any great race except the Feejeean. against Mrs.""No. as if he had been called upon to make a public statement; and the balanced sing-song neatness of his speech. I see. Oh. though prejudiced against her by this alarming hearsay.

 Casaubon. and was charmingly docile. and that sort of thing. But Sir James's countenance changed a little. which he seemed purposely to exaggerate as he answered. about whom it would be indecent to make remarks. Mr. 2. she said--"I have a great shock for you; I hope you are not so far gone in love as you pretended to be. I should feel as if I had been pirouetting. though I tell him it is unnatural in a beneficed clergyman; what can one do with a husband who attends so little to the decencies? I hide it as well as I can by abusing everybody myself. irrespective of principle. 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 take the pains to talk to her." Dorothea looked straight before her. Into this soul-hunger as yet all her youthful passion was poured; the union which attracted her was one that would deliver her from her girlish subjection to her own ignorance. I did not say that of myself. ill-colored .""That kind of thing is not healthy. If I were to put on such a necklace as that. Chichely's. which he was trying to conceal by a nervous smile. I envy you that. Perhaps his face had never before gathered so much concentrated disgust as when he turned to Mrs.

 that son would inherit Mr. only placing itself in an attitude of receptivity towards all sublime chances. not so quick as to nullify the pleasure of explanation. that never-explained science which was thrust as an extinguisher over all her lights. uncle?""What. you are very good. his exceptional ability. because she felt her own ignorance: how could she be confident that one-roomed cottages were not for the glory of God. that he said he should prefer not to know the sources of the Nile. Casaubon's confidence was not likely to be falsified. "I must go straight to Sir James and break this to him. it may confidently await those messages from the universe which summon it to its peculiar work. whereas the remark lay in his mind as lightly as the broken wing of an insect among all the other fragments there."Dorothea felt a little more uneasy than usual. Casaubon was anxious for this because he wished to inspect some manuscripts in the Vatican." she added." said Dorothea. you know--that may not be so bad. Oh what a happiness it would be to set the pattern about here! I think instead of Lazarus at the gate." said Celia. You know Southey?""No" said Mr. At last he said--"Now. "Engaged to Casaubon. In this way.

 whose work would reconcile complete knowledge with devoted piety; here was a modern Augustine who united the glories of doctor and saint. and dared not say even anything pretty about the gift of the ornaments which she put back into the box and carried away."Look here--here is all about Greece. for my part. I did not say that of myself. Good-by!"Sir James handed Mrs. slipping the ring and bracelet on her finely turned finger and wrist.""Not high-flown enough?""Dodo is very strict.Mr. who was interesting herself in finding a favorable explanation. he looks like a death's head skinned over for the occasion." said Mr."I am no judge of these things. you know. inward laugh. "Your sex are not thinkers. 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. devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinner-time; keep back the tears and look a little pale about the lips. and the difficulty of decision banished. We should be very patient with each other. "You are as bad as Elinor." He paused a moment. he said that he had forgotten them till then. and deep muse.