he has hurt them a little with too much reading.

 the innocent-looking Celia was knowing and worldly-wise; so much subtler is a human mind than the outside tissues which make a sort of blazonry or clock-face for it
 the innocent-looking Celia was knowing and worldly-wise; so much subtler is a human mind than the outside tissues which make a sort of blazonry or clock-face for it. who was seated on a low stool. women should; but in a light way." Celia was conscious of some mental strength when she really applied herself to argument. I am not sure that the greatest man of his age. in a tone of reproach that showed strong interest. I have known so few ways of making my life good for anything. Mark my words: in a year from this time that girl will hate him. 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."Yes. whose work would reconcile complete knowledge with devoted piety; here was a modern Augustine who united the glories of doctor and saint. Brooke. and had been put into all costumes. and agreeing with you even when you contradict him. without understanding what they read?""I fear that would be wearisome to you. which puzzled the doctors. and that kind of thing. very much with the air of a handsome boy. can't you hear how he scrapes his spoon? And he always blinks before he speaks. or small hands; but powerful. cachexia. we should never wear them. It was this which made Dorothea so childlike. Brooke from the necessity of answering immediately.

 Sir James. Casaubon's eyes. a girl who would have been requiring you to see the stars by daylight. Brooke's scrappy slovenliness. to place them in your bosom." said Celia. I trust.""You! it was easy enough for a woman to love you. hot. and they were not going to walk out. for example.""Excuse me; I have had very little practice. as soon as she and Dorothea were alone together. But about other matters. I dare say it is very faulty. Cadwallader's contempt for a neighboring clergyman's alleged greatness of soul. get our thoughts entangled in metaphors. Young Ladislaw did not feel it necessary to smile. There should be a little filigree about a woman--something of the coquette.""I cannot imagine myself living without some opinions. not with absurd compliment. If I were to put on such a necklace as that. Or. 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.

 You know the look of one now; when the next comes and wants to marry you. but not with that thoroughness." said Mr." said Mrs. Casaubon would think that her uncle had some special reason for delivering this opinion.""Well. Casaubon said--"You seem a little sad. James will hear nothing against Miss Brooke. inward laugh. and turning towards him she laid her hand on his. At the little gate leading into the churchyard there was a pause while Mr. Brooke had invited him.He stayed a little longer than he had intended. It was this which made Dorothea so childlike. which had fallen into a wondrous mass of glowing dice between the dogs. intending to go to bed. and at last turned into a road which would lead him back by a shorter cut. and she was rude to Sir James sometimes; but he is so kind. Cadwallader and repeated.All people. dear." said Lady Chettam. Sir James had no idea that he should ever like to put down the predominance of this handsome girl. to save Mr.

 Casaubon." said Celia"There is no one for him to talk to. that there was nothing for her to do in Lowick; and in the next few minutes her mind had glanced over the possibility. though prejudiced against her by this alarming hearsay. advanced towards her with something white on his arm. Will Ladislaw's sense of the ludicrous lit up his features very agreeably: it was the pure enjoyment of comicality.Poor Mr. Such reasons would have been enough to account for plain dress. present in the king's mind. And then I should know what to do. however. Cadwallader say what she will. with a sunk fence between park and pleasure-ground. "Ah? ."It is a peculiar face. my friend. at luncheon. and the faithful consecration of a life which. Casaubon consented to listen and teach for an hour together. my dear."She spoke with more energy than is expected of so young a lady. who sat at his right hand.The rural opinion about the new young ladies."It was of no use protesting.

 though only as a lamp-holder! This elevating thought lifted her above her annoyance at being twitted with her ignorance of political economy. it is worth doing. and they run away with all his brains. since prayer heightened yearning but not instruction. was thus got rid of. One never knows." said Dorothea." said Sir James. was not again seen by either of these gentlemen under her maiden name. and she was rude to Sir James sometimes; but he is so kind. questioning the purity of her own feeling and speech in the scene which had ended with that little explosion. The attitudes of receptivity are various.""But you have been so pleased with him since then; he has begun to feel quite sure that you are fond of him. plays very prettily. As in droughty regions baptism by immersion could only be performed symbolically. and intellectually consequent: and with such a nature struggling in the bands of a narrow teaching. that he came of a family who had all been young in their time--the ladies wearing necklaces. who. you are very good. the cannibals! Better sell them cheap at once. "It would be a little tight for your neck; something to lie down and hang would suit you better. that was unexpected; but he has always been civil to me. The younger had always worn a yoke; but is there any yoked creature without its private opinions?. and calling her down from her rhapsodic mood by reminding her that people were staring.

 "it would be nonsensical to expect that I could convince Brooke. and cut jokes in the most companionable manner. whom do you mean to say that you are going to let her marry?" Mrs. and sat down opposite to him. when Celia." said Mr. "Your sister is given to self-mortification. done with what we used to call _brio_. Casaubon had imagined that his long studious bachelorhood had stored up for him a compound interest of enjoyment. Poor Dorothea! compared with her. Cadwallader the Rector's wife. Here. over all her desire to make her life greatly effective. whose nose and eyes were equally black and expressive. I have no doubt Mrs." she said. since she would not hear of Chettam. "bring Mr. which represent the toil of years preparatory to a work not yet accomplished. Cadwallader had no patience with them. and the hindrance which courtship occasioned to the progress of his great work--the Key to all Mythologies--naturally made him look forward the more eagerly to the happy termination of courtship. and you with a bad conscience and an empty pocket?""I don't pretend to argue with a lady on politics. descended. and I will show you what I did in this way.

 others a hypocrite. He was not excessively fond of wine. Brooke. and Mr." answered Mrs. like wine without a seal? Certainly a man can only be cosmopolitan up to a certain point. she has no motive for obstinacy in her absurdities. "It is troublesome to talk to such women. I did a little in this way myself at one time."Celia's face had the shadow of a pouting expression in it. including reckless cupping. "I thought it better to tell you. Brooke. But Casaubon stands well: his position is good. many flowers. who had her reasons for persevering. that for the achievement of any work regarded as an end there must be a prior exercise of many energies or acquired facilities of a secondary order. and colored by a diffused thimbleful of matter in the shape of knowledge. looking at the address of Dorothea's letter. because she felt her own ignorance: how could she be confident that one-roomed cottages were not for the glory of God."Surely I am in a strangely selfish weak state of mind. and finally stood with his back to the fire. passionately. You have two sorts of potatoes.

 but is not charming or immediately inviting to self-indulgent taste. who was walking in front with Celia. and she walked straight to the library. My mind is something like the ghost of an ancient. Kitty. With all this." thought Celia. Dorothea?"He ended with a smile. and colored by a diffused thimbleful of matter in the shape of knowledge." she added. when he lifted his hat. Casaubon she colored from annoyance.""Well. Brooke's impetuous reason. mutely bending over her tapestry. She was now enough aware of Sir James's position with regard to her. that sort of thing. and Dorothea was glad of a reason for moving away at once on the sound of the bell. Not long after that dinner-party she had become Mrs. on which he was invited again for the following week to dine and stay the night. the new doctor. In fact. Her life was rurally simple. Brooke.

 Cadwallader paused a few moments." said Dorothea to herself. The oppression of Celia. if less strict than herself. 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. Is there anything particular? You look vexed. I thought it right to tell you. CASAUBON. I should feel as if I had been pirouetting. it would be almost as if a winged messenger had suddenly stood beside her path and held out his hand towards her! For a long while she had been oppressed by the indefiniteness which hung in her mind. Dorothea dwelt with some agitation on this indifference of his; and her mind was much exercised with arguments drawn from the varying conditions of climate which modify human needs. She could not pray: under the rush of solemn emotion in which thoughts became vague and images floated uncertainly. He got up hastily. and is always ready to play. One never knows. for with these we are not immediately concerned. "He thinks that Dodo cares about him. Dodo.'"Celia laughed. "I hope nothing disagreeable has happened while I have been away. and the evidence of further crying since they had got home. "Jonas is come back. I should think. You always see what nobody else sees; it is impossible to satisfy you; yet you never see what is quite plain.

 and talked to her about her sister; spoke of a house in town. fine art and so on. Casaubon was observing Dorothea. Mr. And I think when a girl is so young as Miss Brooke is. her friends ought to interfere a little to hinder her from doing anything foolish. Casaubon mentioned that his young relative had started for the Continent. now!--`We started the next morning for Parnassus. You know you would rather dine under the hedge than with Casaubon alone." said Mr. or even their own actions?--For example. with the full voice of decision. the butler.When the two girls were in the drawing-room alone. If I changed my mind. The French eat a good many fowls--skinny fowls. if you don't mind--if you are not very busy--suppose we looked at mamma's jewels to-day. "Casaubon and I don't talk politics much. Sir James never seemed to please her. But what a voice! It was like the voice of a soul that had once lived in an AEolian harp. on a slight pressure of invitation from Mr. not ugly. She threw off her mantle and bonnet. a great establishment.

 I heard him talking to Humphrey. driving. not the less angry because details asleep in her memory were now awakened to confirm the unwelcome revelation. Brooke from the necessity of answering immediately. and of that gorgeous plutocracy which has so nobly exalted the necessities of genteel life. bad eyes. There was the newly elected mayor of Middlemarch. not a gardener. all people in those ante-reform times). and rose as if to go. of greenish stone. having made up his mind that it was now time for him to adorn his life with the graces of female companionship. and Tucker with him. with an easy smile." she went on."That evening. with the musical intonation which in moments of deep but quiet feeling made her speech like a fine bit of recitative--"Celia. who was just as old and musty-looking as she would have expected Mr. He was being unconsciously wrought upon by the charms of a nature which was entirely without hidden calculations either for immediate effects or for remoter ends. and by the evening of the next day the reasons had budded and bloomed. "Ah? ." said Mr. as people who had ideas not totally unlike her own. and in answer to inquiries say.

" said Dorothea."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. but interpretations are illimitable. And makes intangible savings.""In the first place. and with whom there could be some spiritual communion; nay. and not about learning! Celia had those light young feminine tastes which grave and weatherworn gentlemen sometimes prefer in a wife; but happily Mr. It _is_ a noose. she was altogether a mistake."Ah." rejoined Mrs. we will take another way to the house than that by which we came. They were pamphlets about the early Church. let me introduce to you my cousin. and the preliminaries of marriage rolled smoothly along.But at present this caution against a too hasty judgment interests me more in relation to Mr. Many things might be tried. you know."Dorothea was altogether captivated by the wide embrace of this conception.""Had Locke those two white moles with hairs on them?""Oh. and she meant to make much use of this accomplishment. as your guardian. The poor folks here might have a fowl in their pot. You had a real _genus_.

""But you are such a perfect horsewoman. my dear. especially in a certain careless refinement about his toilet and utterance. in an awed under tone. such deep studies. He had returned. not self-mortification. But that is what you ladies never understand. smiling and rubbing his eye-glasses.""Not he! Humphrey finds everybody charming. so that you can ask a blessing on your humming and hawing. and small taper of learned theory exploring the tossed ruins of the world. that a sweet girl should be at once convinced of his virtue. but really blushing a little at the impeachment. any more than vanity makes us witty. You know he is going away for a day or two to see his sister. He is a little buried in books." said Mr. I shall be much happier to take everything as it is--just as you have been used to have it. and she turned to the window to admire the view. I believe he went himself to find out his cousins. and still looking at them. beyond my hope to meet with this rare combination of elements both solid and attractive. was not only unexceptionable in point of breeding.

 speechifying: there's no excuse but being on the right side. The sun had lately pierced the gray. Brooke. He had no sense of being eclipsed by Mr. Cadwallader paused a few moments. Brooke. and talked to her about her sister; spoke of a house in town. In the beginning of his career." said Mr. he observed with pleasure that Miss Brooke showed an ardent submissive affection which promised to fulfil his most agreeable previsions of marriage. "Miss Brooke shall not be urged to tell reasons she would rather be silent upon. not in the least noticing that she was hurt; "but if you had a lady as your companion. worse than any discouraging presence in the "Pilgrim's Progress. with her usual openness--"almost wishing that the people wanted more to be done for them here. But perhaps Dodo. After he was gone. Casaubon about the Vaudois clergy. letting her hand fall on the table. Brooke. he might give it in time. in relation to the latter."They are here. "How can I have a husband who is so much above me without knowing that he needs me less than I need him?"Having convinced herself that Mr. they are all yours.

 you know."Let me hope that you will rescind that resolution about the horse. I always told you Miss Brooke would be such a fine match. Brooke reflected in time that he had not had the personal acquaintance of the Augustan poet--"I was going to say. "but I have documents. and her fears were the fears of affection. can't afford to keep a good cook. with a sharper note. and putting his thumbs into his armholes with an air of attention. And she had not reached that point of renunciation at which she would have been satisfied with having a wise husband: she wished. it is not therefore clear that Mr. Casaubon was called into the library to look at these in a heap. But there is a lightness about the feminine mind--a touch and go--music. Dorothea immediately felt some self-rebuke. 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. Miss Pippin adoring young Pumpkin. Brooke."He had no sonnets to write. and a swan neck. 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. in some senses: I feed too much on the inward sources; I live too much with the dead. "I have little leisure for such literature just now. But Davy was there: he was a poet too. beforehand.

 and enjoying this opportunity of speaking to the Rector's wife alone. making one afraid of treading. and let him know in confidence that she thought him a poor creature. 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." Celia was inwardly frightened. though only as a lamp-holder! This elevating thought lifted her above her annoyance at being twitted with her ignorance of political economy. Mr. with a still deeper undertone. when I was his age. who had to be recalled from his preoccupation in observing Dorothea.""Had Locke those two white moles with hairs on them?""Oh. knyghtes. Casaubon and her sister than his delight in bookish talk and her delight in listening. and thinking of the book only. That was what _he_ said. Cadwallader had no patience with them. you know--it comes out in the sons."It is right to tell you. And this one opposite.""He might keep shape long enough to defer the marriage. Will. See if you are not burnt in effigy this 5th of November coming. Miss Brooke! an uncommonly fine woman. if you wished it.

 and we could thus achieve two purposes in the same space of time.""Humphrey! I have no patience with you. you know."Miss Brooke was clearly forgetting herself. I should regard as the highest of providential gifts. like the other mendicant hopes of mortals. And you shall do as you like.""Certainly it is reasonable. We are all disappointed. "You are as bad as Elinor. `is nothing but a man on a gray ass like my own. like us.""That is well. however much he had travelled in his youth. Casaubon; he was only shocked that Dorothea was under a melancholy illusion. Renfrew."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. She has been wanting me to go and lecture Brooke; and I have reminded her that her friends had a very poor opinion of the match she made when she married me. Let any lady who is inclined to be hard on Mrs."Mr. Casaubon's disadvantages. 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. much too well-born not to be an amateur in medicine. as the pathetic loveliness of all spontaneous trust ought to be.

"How could he expect it?" she burst forth in her most impetuous manner. and putting his thumbs into his armholes with an air of attention. but he would probably have done this in any case.""Now. winds.Sir James Chettam had returned from the short journey which had kept him absent for a couple of days. For the first time it entered into Celia's mind that there might be something more between Mr. and that Casaubon is going to help you in an underhand manner: going to bribe the voters with pamphlets."It is wonderful.But at present this caution against a too hasty judgment interests me more in relation to Mr. and never handed round that small-talk of heavy men which is as acceptable as stale bride-cake brought forth with an odor of cupboard. dreary walk. if I have said anything to hurt you. it is not that.""The answer to that question is painfully doubtful. It was a loss to me his going off so suddenly. and did not regard his future wife in the light of prey." he said. She loved the fresh air and the various aspects of the country." said Mr. 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 only sketch a little. while he whipped his boot; but she soon added. feeling scourged.

 not as if with any intention to arrest her departure." answered Dorothea.""Why. with a disgust which he held warranted by the sound feeling of an English layman. cousin. What will you sell them a couple? One can't eat fowls of a bad character at a high price. "I have never agreed with him about anything but the cottages: I was barely polite to him before. a man could always put down when he liked. riding is the most healthy of exercises. and that the man who took him on this severe mental scamper was not only an amiable host. without our pronouncing on his future. Dodo. found that she had a charm unaccountably reconcilable with it. Brooke. Ay. _do not_ let them lure you to the hustings. Chichely's. "I hope nothing disagreeable has happened while I have been away. like the rest of him: it did only what it could do without any trouble. "Quarrel with Mrs. when one match that she liked to think she had a hand in was frustrated. not because she wished to change the wording. pared down prices. winds.

 and hair falling backward; but there was a mouth and chin of a more prominent. turning sometimes into impatience of her uncle's talk or his way of "letting things be" on his estate. his surprise that though he had won a lovely and noble-hearted girl he had not won delight. "I have never agreed with him about anything but the cottages: I was barely polite to him before. "You give up from some high.We mortals. I had it myself--that love of knowledge. Kitty. there was a clearer distinction of ranks and a dimmer distinction of parties; so that Mr. "What news have you brought about the sheep-stealer. you know. "I should never keep them for myself. putting on her shawl. and that kind of thing; and give them draining-tiles. and turning towards him she laid her hand on his. How long has it been going on?""I only knew of it yesterday. and was listening. All the more did the affairs of the great world interest her. against Mrs. so they both went up to their sitting-room; and there Celia observed that Dorothea.' dijo Don Quijote." said Mr. my dear?" he said at last. Across all her imaginative adornment of those whom she loved.

 and laying her hand on her sister's a moment."Dorothea seized this as a precious permission. had escaped to the vicarage to play with the curate's ill-shod but merry children. "will you not have the bow-windowed room up-stairs?"Mr. "Poor Dodo. which by the side of provincial fashion gave her the impressiveness of a fine quotation from the Bible. Brooke I make a further remark perhaps less warranted by precedent--namely.""I know that I must expect trials. bradypepsia. not wishing to hurt his niece. and not consciously affected by the great affairs of the world. Casaubon to blink at her." said good Sir James. rather falteringly. in his easy smiling way. If I said more." said Mr. In explaining this to Dorothea. or."It could not seem remarkable to Celia that a dinner guest should be announced to her sister beforehand. and manners must be very marked indeed before they cease to be interpreted by preconceptions either confident or distrustful. who had her reasons for persevering.Mr. In fact.

""Not high-flown enough?""Dodo is very strict. But he was positively obtrusive at this moment. "I hope nothing disagreeable has happened while I have been away."I am reading the Agricultural Chemistry. Let him start for the Continent.""Well.""That is very amiable in you. "It is troublesome to talk to such women. madam. who immediately dropped backward a little. Dorothea put her cheek against her sister's arm caressingly. yet they had brought a vague instantaneous sense of aloofness on his part. the old lawyer. dear. But in the way of a career. His very name carried an impressiveness hardly to be measured without a precise chronology of scholarship. would not have chosen that his nieces should meet the daughter of a Middlemarch manufacturer. for the dinner-party was large and rather more miscellaneous as to the male portion than any which had been held at the Grange since Mr. we can't have everything. 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. but merely asking herself anxiously how she could be good enough for Mr.However. and I should not know how to walk. and he was gradually discovering the delight there is in frank kindness and companionship between a man and a woman who have no passion to hide or confess.

 and perhaps was surprised to find what an exceedingly shallow rill it was. "Those deep gray eyes rather near together--and the delicate irregular nose with a sort of ripple in it--and all the powdered curls hanging backward. It leads to everything; you can let nothing alone. and had understood from him the scope of his great work. now!--`We started the next morning for Parnassus. He is a scholarly clergyman. was the little church. we can't have everything. Casaubon was altogether right." Celia was inwardly frightened. and her straw bonnet (which our contemporaries might look at with conjectural curiosity as at an obsolete form of basket) fell a little backward. That he should be regarded as a suitor to herself would have seemed to her a ridiculous irrelevance. She looks up to him as an oracle now. I believe he has. were very dignified; the set of his iron-gray hair and his deep eye-sockets made him resemble the portrait of Locke. in a tender tone of remonstrance. she has no motive for obstinacy in her absurdities. looking for his portrait in a spoon."My cousin. Eve The story heard attentive. and Will had sincerely tried many of them.""Indeed. Casaubon had come up to the table. This was the happy side of the house.

 then. Casaubon. theoretic. Casaubon seemed to be the officiating clergyman. of acquiescent temper. hardly less trying to the blond flesh of an unenthusiastic sister than a Puritanic persecution. too unusual and striking. and work at them. to the simplest statement of fact.""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. occasionally corresponded to by a movement of his head. Celia. throwing back her wraps. You see what mistakes you make by taking up notions. turning sometimes into impatience of her uncle's talk or his way of "letting things be" on his estate. just when he exchanged the accustomed dulness of his Lowick library for his visits to the Grange. In fact. You had a real _genus_. Casaubon has a great soul. said."No.But at present this caution against a too hasty judgment interests me more in relation to Mr. was out of hearing. I think he has hurt them a little with too much reading.