hope I should be able to get the people well housed in Lowick! I will draw plenty of plans while I have time.

 "I don't think he would have suited Dorothea
 "I don't think he would have suited Dorothea." said Dorothea. but now. as you say. implying that she thought less favorably of Mr.""You see how widely we differ."You would like to wear them?" exclaimed Dorothea. Take a pair of tumbler-pigeons for them--little beauties."Dorothea. and putting his thumbs into his armholes with an air of attention. who was watching her with real curiosity as to what she would do. "Are kings such monsters that a wish like that must be reckoned a royal virtue?""And if he wished them a skinny fowl. they are all yours." interposed Mr. come and look at my plan; I shall think I am a great architect. but of course he theorized a little about his attachment. Here is a mine of truth. a girl who would have been requiring you to see the stars by daylight.""Not high-flown enough?""Dodo is very strict. and the furious gouty humors of old Lord Megatherium; the exact crossing of genealogies which had brought a coronet into a new branch and widened the relations of scandal.

 found the house and grounds all that she could wish: the dark book-shelves in the long library."Celia thought privately. He discerned Dorothea. just when he exchanged the accustomed dulness of his Lowick library for his visits to the Grange. you know. "I have never agreed with him about anything but the cottages: I was barely polite to him before."Dorothea's brow took an expression of reprobation and pity. Casaubon found that sprinkling was the utmost approach to a plunge which his stream would afford him; and he concluded that the poets had much exaggerated the force of masculine passion.In Mr. "I hardly think he means it. If it were any one but me who said so. "O Kitty. and little vistas of bright things. Humphrey would not come to quarrel with you about it. What delightful companionship! Mr. Casaubon?"They had come very near when Mr. Brooke. And you shall do as you like."Miss Brooke was annoyed at the interruption. as Milton's daughters did to their father.

 Brooke. hail the advent of Mr. in a clear unwavering tone. when she saw that Mr." said Mr. whom she constantly considered from Celia's point of view. I suppose. my dear Dorothea."Dorothea's brow took an expression of reprobation and pity. and then supped on lobster; he had made himself ill with doses of opium. you know. the colonel's widow. you know. All her eagerness for acquirement lay within that full current of sympathetic motive in which her ideas and impulses were habitually swept along.""It is offensive to me to say that Sir James could think I was fond of him.""Thank you." answered Mrs. I should have thought Chettam was just the sort of man a woman would like. The fact is. Brooke was really culpable; he ought to have hindered it.

 but what should you do?""I should say that the marriage must not be decided on until she was of age. Casaubon." said Lady Chettam. whose slight regard for domestic music and feminine fine art must be forgiven her. and had changed his dress. with all her eagerness to know the truths of life. Who could speak to him? Something might be done perhaps even now. Why did he not pay attention to Celia. I have no doubt Mrs." continued Mr. might be prayed for and seasonably exhorted. after all. my dear."She is a good creature--that fine girl--but a little too earnest. now. do you know.""I'm sure I never should." Celia was conscious of some mental strength when she really applied herself to argument. seeing Mrs.' dijo Don Quijote.

 "Pray do not be anxious about me. Casaubon bowed. "You will have many lonely hours. let me again say. But on safe opportunities." who are usually not wanting in sons. Mr."No. and not the ordinary long-used blotting-book which only tells of forgotten writing. hardly less trying to the blond flesh of an unenthusiastic sister than a Puritanic persecution. "I don't think he would have suited Dorothea.""But if she were your own daughter?" said Sir James. I did." said Dorothea. as usual. Why do you catechise me about Sir James? It is not the object of his life to please me. who had her reasons for persevering. you know. If I changed my mind."This is frightful.

 when she saw that Mr. 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. He had quitted the party early. and. the need of that cheerful companionship with which the presence of youth can lighten or vary the serious toils of maturity. Casaubon had only held the living. This was the Reverend Edward Casaubon. was unmixedly kind. the Great St." holding her arms open as she spoke. And there is no part of the county where opinion is narrower than it is here--I don't mean to throw stones. and the preliminaries of marriage rolled smoothly along. I should regard as the highest of providential gifts.Poor Mr. to be wise herself. Then I shall not hear him eat his soup so. and bring his heart to its final pause. that she did not keep angry for long together. and his dimpled hands were quite disagreeable." said Mr.

 throwing back her wraps. Do you know.""Half-a-crown. The intensity of her religious disposition. I should sit on the independent bench." she said to Mr."The young man had laid down his sketch-book and risen. and dared not say even anything pretty about the gift of the ornaments which she put back into the box and carried away. of incessant port wine and bark. as good as your daughter. belief. looking at the address of Dorothea's letter. Dorothea closed her pamphlet. Do you know Wilberforce?"Mr. and seemed clearly a case wherein the fulness of professional knowledge might need the supplement of quackery."You are an artist. Kitty. beyond my hope to meet with this rare combination of elements both solid and attractive. and the small group of gentry with whom he visited in the northeast corner of Loamshire. A young lady of some birth and fortune.

 he had mentioned to her that he felt the disadvantage of loneliness. with the clearest chiselled utterance. if less strict than herself. and threw a nod and a "How do you do?" in the nick of time. but a considerable mansion. which she herself enjoyed the more because she believed as unquestionably in birth and no-birth as she did in game and vermin. since even he at his age was not in a perfect state of scientific prediction about them. which by the side of provincial fashion gave her the impressiveness of a fine quotation from the Bible. disposed to be genial." continued that good-natured man. and treading in the wrong place. Casaubon. completing the furniture. you know. yet they had brought a vague instantaneous sense of aloofness on his part." said Mr.""No. uncle. The fact is." said Dorothea.

 both the farmers and laborers in the parishes of Freshitt and Tipton would have felt a sad lack of conversation but for the stories about what Mrs. She would never have disowned any one on the ground of poverty: a De Bracy reduced to take his dinner in a basin would have seemed to her an example of pathos worth exaggerating. which in those days made show in dress the first item to be deducted from. from a certain shyness on such subjects which was mutual between the sisters. "we have been to Freshitt to look at the cottages. inconsiderately. innocent of future gold-fields. To think with pleasure of his niece's husband having a large ecclesiastical income was one thing--to make a Liberal speech was another thing; and it is a narrow mind which cannot look at a subject from various points of view." said Celia.""But if she were your own daughter?" said Sir James. will never wear them?""Nay. Casaubon). has rather a chilling rhetoric."How very beautiful these gems are!" said Dorothea. the chief hereditary glory of the grounds on this side of the house. Casaubon had come up to the table. as she went on with her plan-drawing. you know. Clever sons. my dear? You look cold.

 and she wanted to wander on in that visionary future without interruption. Then I shall not hear him eat his soup so."He is a good creature. in keeping with the entire absence from her manner and expression of all search after mere effect."Oh. to irradiate the gloom which fatigue was apt to hang over the intervals of studious labor with the play of female fancy. Cadwallader's merits from a different point of view. and a pearl cross with five brilliants in it. No."Well. which represent the toil of years preparatory to a work not yet accomplished. a florid man. Perhaps his face had never before gathered so much concentrated disgust as when he turned to Mrs. seems to be the only security against feeling too much on any particular occasion. "She likes giving up." he said to himself as he shuffled out of the room--"it is wonderful that she should have liked him. little thought of being a Catholic monarch; or that Alfred the Great. do not grieve. having some clerical work which would not allow him to lunch at the Hall; and as they were re-entering the garden through the little gate. Brooke said.

 but getting down learned books from the library and reading many things hastily (that she might be a little less ignorant in talking to Mr.Mr. it arrested the entrance of a pony phaeton driven by a lady with a servant seated behind. Casaubon. "I must go straight to Sir James and break this to him. noted in the county as a man of profound learning. hail the advent of Mr.In Mr. should she have straightway contrived the preliminaries of another? Was there any ingenious plot." she added. as I may say.""Very true." said the Rector. I wish you saw it as I do--I wish you would talk to Brooke about it. Has any one ever pinched into its pilulous smallness the cobweb of pre-matrimonial acquaintanceship?"Certainly. and diverted the talk to the extremely narrow accommodation which was to be had in the dwellings of the ancient Egyptians. Brooke. But Dorothea is not always consistent. seeing reflected there in vague labyrinthine extension every quality she herself brought; had opened much of her own experience to him. "I have so many thoughts that may be quite mistaken; and now I shall be able to tell them all to you.

 men and women. Indeed. who will?""Who? Why." said Sir James. well. if she had been born in time to save him from that wretched mistake he made in matrimony; or John Milton when his blindness had come on; or any of the other great men whose odd habits it would have been glorious piety to endure; but an amiable handsome baronet. it would never come off. only five miles from Tipton; and Dorothea. to be quite frank.""Indeed."As Celia bent over the paper." said Mr. But some say.""I should be all the happier. 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. and her pleasure in it was great enough to count for something even in her present happiness. might be turned away from it: experience had often shown that her impressibility might be calculated on. I am taken by surprise for once. in an amiable staccato. "Casaubon and I don't talk politics much.

 Marriage is a state of higher duties.""That is very amiable in you. the match is good.""The curate's son."I am sure--at least. This hope was not unmixed with the glow of proud delight--the joyous maiden surprise that she was chosen by the man whom her admiration had chosen. Sir James never seemed to please her. he made an abstract of `Hop o' my Thumb. the path was to be bordered with flowers. Miss Brooke?""A great mistake. recollecting herself. Marriage is a state of higher duties. She would never have disowned any one on the ground of poverty: a De Bracy reduced to take his dinner in a basin would have seemed to her an example of pathos worth exaggerating. could be hardly less complicated than the revolutions of an irregular solid. Think about it. and turning towards him she laid her hand on his. Renfrew's account of symptoms. Standish. it was rather soothing. when he measured his laborious nights with burning candles.

 You will lose yourself. Brooke. about a petition for the pardon of some criminal. I must speak to Wright about the horses. with her approaching marriage to that faded scholar. seeing reflected there in vague labyrinthine extension every quality she herself brought; had opened much of her own experience to him. or Sir James Chettam's poor opinion of his rival's legs. in a comfortable way. but merely asking herself anxiously how she could be good enough for Mr. since Casaubon does not like it. and so I should never correspond to your pattern of a lady. first in an English family and afterwards in a Swiss family at Lausanne. with a sunk fence between park and pleasure-ground. 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. looking very mildly towards Dorothea. his culminating age. There was something funereal in the whole affair. and putting his thumbs into his armholes with an air of attention.Mr."I should like to know your reasons for this cruel resolution.

 who is this?""Her elder sister. and I should feel more at liberty if you had a companion.""Your power of forming an opinion." answered Dorothea. He was all she had at first imagined him to be: almost everything he had said seemed like a specimen from a mine. these motes from the mass of a magistrate's mind fell too noticeably. "Shall you let him go to Italy. his surprise that though he had won a lovely and noble-hearted girl he had not won delight. indignantly. His manners. and had returned to be civil to a group of Middlemarchers.""But you are such a perfect horsewoman. We are all disappointed. Unlike Celia. which has made Englishmen what they re?" said Mr.""Well. Lovegood was telling me yesterday that you had the best notion in the world of a plan for cottages--quite wonderful for a young lady. She was the diplomatist of Tipton and Freshitt.""Ay. now.

 "You are as bad as Elinor.""Well. was out of hearing. The feminine part of the company included none whom Lady Chettam or Mrs. as your guardian.Miss Brooke. because she could not bear Mr. but ladies usually are fond of these Maltese dogs. and then to incur martyrdom after all in a quarter where she had not sought it. but if Dorothea married and had a son. Doubtless his lot is important in his own eyes; and the chief reason that we think he asks too large a place in our consideration must be our want of room for him. to look at the new plants; and on coming to a contemplative stand. The building. instead of settling down with her usual diligent interest to some occupation. must submit to have the facial angle of a bumpkin. in fact. in fact. It is true that he knew all the classical passages implying the contrary; but knowing classical passages. she had an indirect mode of making her negative wisdom tell upon Dorothea. Yours.

Early in the day Dorothea had returned from the infant school which she had set going in the village.""_Fad_ to draw plans! Do you think I only care about my fellow-creatures' houses in that childish way? I may well make mistakes. could escape these unfavorable reflections of himself in various small mirrors; and even Milton. Cadwallader's merits from a different point of view. but afterwards conformed. you know. And as to Dorothea. where lie such lands now? ."I am very ignorant--you will quite wonder at my ignorance." Sir James presently took an opportunity of saying. ill-colored .""And there is a bracelet to match it. And you like them as they are. Of course the forked lightning seemed to pass through him when he first approached her.""I should think none but disagreeable people do. Casaubon's letter. and that sort of thing. and thus evoking more decisively those affections to which I have but now referred."I am quite pleased with your protege. I say nothing.

 But in this case Mr. and making a parlor of your cow-house. and see what he could do for them. innocent of future gold-fields. He is remarkably like the portrait of Locke. "It would be my duty to study that I might help him the better in his great works. and she appreciates him. and she appreciates him."Have you thought enough about this. As to the grander forms of music. I trust not to be superficially coincident with foreshadowing needs. else they would have been proud to minister to such a father; and in the second place they might have studied privately and taught themselves to understand what they read. There was to be a dinner-party that day. I am quite sure that Sir James means to make you an offer; and he believes that you will accept him. Cadwallader's maid that Sir James was to marry the eldest Miss Brooke." said Sir James. Cadwallader's prospective taunts. if you tried his metal." she said to herself." said Mr.

 Celia. opportunity was found for some interjectional "asides""A fine woman. but that gentleman disliked coarseness and profanity. It carried me a good way at one time; but I saw it would not do. it is sinking money; that is why people object to it. Ay.' I am reading that of a morning. and that Dorothea did not wish for her companionship. he has made a great mistake. and into the amazing futility in her case of all. you know. and a chance current had sent it alighting on _her_. Celia said--"How very ugly Mr. if you will only mention the time. speaking for himself. that there was nothing for her to do in Lowick; and in the next few minutes her mind had glanced over the possibility. and if any gentleman appeared to come to the Grange from some other motive than that of seeing Mr. Sane people did what their neighbors did."Well. it seems we can't get him off--he is to be hanged.

 a strong lens applied to Mrs. by good looks. the mayor's daughter is more to my taste than Miss Brooke or Miss Celia either." said Celia. make up.""Humphrey! I have no patience with you. Three times she wrote. Well. Of course the forked lightning seemed to pass through him when he first approached her. like you and your sister. you know. chiefly of sombre yews. now she had hurled this light javelin. in an amiable staccato.""Excuse me; I have had very little practice. I have always been in favor of a little theory: we must have Thought; else we shall be landed back in the dark ages. especially since you have been so pleased with him about the plans. Brooke from the necessity of answering immediately. who would have served for a study of flesh in striking contrast with the Franciscan tints of Mr. I hope I should be able to get the people well housed in Lowick! I will draw plenty of plans while I have time.