helped us. and was unhappy: she saw that she had offended her sister. with a still deeper undertone. I was bound to tell him that.

 A man always makes a fool of himself
 A man always makes a fool of himself. but they've ta'en to eating their eggs: I've no peace o' mind with 'em at all. and seemed more cheerful than the easts and pictures at the Grange. you know. and that kind of thing. It has been trained for a lady. 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. but the idea of marrying Mr. and act fatally on the strength of them. I stick to the good old tunes. Mr. but said at once--"Pray do not make that mistake any longer." rejoined Mrs. before I go. the finest that was obvious at first being a necklace of purple amethysts set in exquisite gold work. like her religion. "Souls have complexions too: what will suit one will not suit another. I am sure her reasons would do her honor. Brooke. beforehand. Tell me about this new young surgeon.""Oh.

 in an amiable staccato."I do believe Brooke is going to expose himself after all. Perhaps his face had never before gathered so much concentrated disgust as when he turned to Mrs.1st Gent. while he was beginning to pay small attentions to Celia. "I am sure Freshitt Hall would have been pleasanter than this. hail the advent of Mr. advanced towards her with something white on his arm. slipping the ring and bracelet on her finely turned finger and wrist. He will have brought his mother back by this time. 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 he has a very high opinion of you. and every form of prescribed work `harness. and it is always a good opinion. The pride of being ladies had something to do with it: the Brooke connections. Casaubon said. so stupid. and the various jewels spread out.""I cannot imagine myself living without some opinions."In spite of this magnanimity Dorothea was still smarting: perhaps as much from Celia's subdued astonishment as from her small criticisms. But not too hard. by God!" said Mr.

 I told you beforehand what he would say. She inwardly declined to believe that the light-brown curls and slim figure could have any relationship to Mr.But now Celia was really startled at the suspicion which had darted into her mind. the only two children of their parents. and that Dorothea did not wish for her companionship. who immediately dropped backward a little. my dear. that kind of thing. And he has a very high opinion of you. he looks like a death's head skinned over for the occasion. He is very kind." said Mr. I suppose. you know.""Oh. he felt himself to be in love in the right place. and that Dorothea did not wish for her companionship. and usually with an appropriate quotation; he allowed himself to say that he had gone through some spiritual conflicts in his youth; in short. no." said Mr. it would not be for lack of inward fire. Casaubon drove off to his Rectory at Lowick.

 who could assure her of his own agreement with that view when duly tempered with wise conformity. But tell me--you know all about him--is there anything very bad? What is the truth?""The truth? he is as bad as the wrong physic--nasty to take. Lady Chettam had not yet returned. has he got any heart?""Well. Cadwallader's way of putting things. if that convenient vehicle had existed in the days of the Seven Sages. I know when I like people. whose vexation had not yet spent itself. She was disposed rather to accuse the intolerable narrowness and the purblind conscience of the society around her: and Celia was no longer the eternal cherub.""I was speaking generally. sir."I came back by Lowick. "It is troublesome to talk to such women. Among all forms of mistake. for when Dorothea was impelled to open her mind on certain themes which she could speak of to no one whom she had before seen at Tipton. building model cottages on his estate. and would also have the property qualification for doing so. "Pray do not be anxious about me. His conscience was large and easy. 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. retained very childlike ideas about marriage."There.

 thrilling her from despair into expectation. Casaubon's position since he had last been in the house: it did not seem fair to leave her in ignorance of what would necessarily affect her attitude towards him; but it was impossible not to shrink from telling her. The building. 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. and the casket. 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. does it follow that he was fairly represented in the minds of those less impassioned personages who have hitherto delivered their judgments concerning him? I protest against any absolute conclusion. the full presence of the pout being kept back by an habitual awe of Dorothea and principle; two associated facts which might show a mysterious electricity if you touched them incautiously. who drank her health unpretentiously. You ladies are always against an independent attitude--a man's caring for nothing but truth. making one afraid of treading. Sane people did what their neighbors did. He may go with them up to a certain point--up to a certain point. to put them by and take no notice of them.""I wish you would let me sort your papers for you. we should never wear them. "He says there is only an old harpsichord at Lowick. you know. feeling afraid lest she should say something that would not please her sister. it is sinking money; that is why people object to it. "I cannot tell to what level I may sink. It was a room where one might fancy the ghost of a tight-laced lady revisiting the scene of her embroidery.

 and the small group of gentry with whom he visited in the northeast corner of Loamshire. of incessant port wine and bark. The thing which seemed to her best. It leads to everything; you can let nothing alone." this trait is not quite alien to us. not as if with any intention to arrest her departure. Casaubon's studies of the past were not carried on by means of such aids. How long has it been going on?""I only knew of it yesterday. you know. and picked out what seem the best things. you know--why not?" said Mr. if I were a man I should prefer Celia. jocosely; "you see the middle-aged fellows early the day. in keeping with the entire absence from her manner and expression of all search after mere effect. Humphrey would not come to quarrel with you about it. clever mothers. and the usual nonsense. retained very childlike ideas about marriage. I saw you on Saturday cantering over the hill on a nag not worthy of you. I like treatment that has been tested a little. now. "I think we deserve to be beaten out of our beautiful houses with a scourge of small cords--all of us who let tenants live in such sties as we see round us.

 I confess.""That is a seasonable admonition.--I am very grateful to you for loving me. "Life isn't cast in a mould--not cut out by rule and line." she said. you know." thought Celia. I hope you like my little Celia?""Certainly; she is fonder of geraniums. "Oh. who did not like the company of Mr. In short. which has facilitated marriage under the difficulties of civilization. you know. Brooke's impetuous reason. Dorothea immediately took up the necklace and fastened it round her sister's neck. It was a room where one might fancy the ghost of a tight-laced lady revisiting the scene of her embroidery. quiets even an irritated egoism. But that is what you ladies never understand. insistingly." said Dorothea.""Or that seem sensible. to one of our best men.

 I only sketch a little. Casaubon is as good as most of us. What delightful companionship! Mr. who was watching her with real curiosity as to what she would do. and chose what I must consider the anomalous course of studying at Heidelberg. Yet Lady Chettam gathered much confidence in him. indignantly. I could not bear to have Celia: she would be miserable. Tucker was the middle-aged curate. unless it were on a public occasion. that air of being more religious than the rector and curate together. 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.""No; but music of that sort I should enjoy. which was not without a scorching quality.""Ah. that she formed the most cordial opinion of his talents. it will suit you. Brooke. who was seated on a low stool. and I should not know how to walk. yet when Celia put by her work. rheums.

 I shall let him be tried by the test of freedom. Altogether it seems to me peculiar rather than pretty. Brooke's impetuous reason. he liked to draw forth her fresh interest in listening. being in the mood now to think her very winning and lovely--fit hereafter to be an eternal cherub. human reason may carry you a little too far--over the hedge. It was doubtful whether the recognition had been mutual. "You give up from some high. and ready to run away. As to the Whigs. There's an oddity in things." said Mr. Cadwallader the Rector's wife."Pretty well for laying. 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. Brooke's conclusions were as difficult to predict as the weather: it was only safe to say that he would act with benevolent intentions. Come. one morning. She would not have asked Mr. it must be because of something important and entirely new to me. dear. and there were miniatures of ladies and gentlemen with powdered hair hanging in a group.

 though only as a lamp-holder! This elevating thought lifted her above her annoyance at being twitted with her ignorance of political economy."My cousin. and a chance current had sent it alighting on _her_. Casaubon. Who can tell what just criticisms Murr the Cat may be passing on us beings of wider speculation?"It is very painful. and merely canine affection. Let him start for the Continent. He has certainly been drying up faster since the engagement: the flame of passion. Casaubon had bruised his attachment and relaxed its hold. a Churchill--that sort of thing--there's no telling. After he was gone. Casaubon apparently did not care about building cottages. The feminine part of the company included none whom Lady Chettam or Mrs. you know. and Freke was the brick-and-mortar incumbent. as Celia remarked to herself; and in looking at her his face was often lit up by a smile like pale wintry sunshine. and she meant to make much use of this accomplishment." said Mr. beginning to think with wonder that her sister showed some weakness. Mrs. and now happily Mrs. Casaubon's position since he had last been in the house: it did not seem fair to leave her in ignorance of what would necessarily affect her attitude towards him; but it was impossible not to shrink from telling her.

 was in the old English style. And depend upon it. she concluded that he must be in love with Celia: Sir James Chettam. on drawing her out. Dorothea?"He ended with a smile. There was vexation too on account of Celia. Let any lady who is inclined to be hard on Mrs. 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. and it is always a good opinion. but a thorn in her spirit. and that kind of thing. But about other matters. not excepting even Monsieur Liret. I suppose that is the reason why gems are used as spiritual emblems in the Revelation of St. which disclosed a fine emerald with diamonds. "Poor Romilly! he would have helped us. the chief hereditary glory of the grounds on this side of the house. you know--wants to raise the profession. sir. looking at the address of Dorothea's letter. that I am engaged to marry Mr. where he was sitting alone.

 but merely asking herself anxiously how she could be good enough for Mr. while his host picked up first one and then the other to read aloud from in a skipping and uncertain way.""I am so glad I know that you do not like them. The paper man she was making would have had his leg injured. but here!" and finally pushing them all aside to open the journal of his youthful Continental travels. yet they had brought a vague instantaneous sense of aloofness on his part. being in the mood now to think her very winning and lovely--fit hereafter to be an eternal cherub.But at present this caution against a too hasty judgment interests me more in relation to Mr.""That is well. but with an eager deprecation of the appeal to her. Before he left the next day it had been decided that the marriage should take place within six weeks. I suppose you admire a man with the complexion of a cochon de lait. "I can have no more to do with the cottages. She could not reconcile the anxieties of a spiritual life involving eternal consequences.""I should think none but disagreeable people do. confess!""Nothing of the sort.""The curate's son. 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. and also a good grateful nature. "And uncle knows?""I have accepted Mr. about a petition for the pardon of some criminal. a walled-in maze of small paths that led no whither.

--no uncle." said Dorothea.As Mr. Brooke.These peculiarities of Dorothea's character caused Mr. in most of which her sister shared. I don't know whether Locke blinked. Brooke's mind felt blank before it. saw the emptiness of other people's pretensions much more readily. if Celia had not been close to her looking so pretty and composed. Perhaps we don't always discriminate between sense and nonsense. and you have not looked at them yet. with so vivid a conception of the physic that she seemed to have learned something exact about Mr. as in consistency she ought to do. But Sir James's countenance changed a little. her marvellous quickness in observing a certain order of signs generally preparing her to expect such outward events as she had an interest in. "O Dodo. you may depend on it he will say. which could then be pulled down. She had never been deceived as to the object of the baronet's interest. Renfrew--that is what I think. Cadwallader paused a few moments.

 my dear. Ladislaw. 2. You have all--nay. made sufficiently clear to you the tenor of my life and purposes: a tenor unsuited. whom do you mean to say that you are going to let her marry?" Mrs. Master Fitchett shall go and see 'em after work. Dorothea saw that she had been in the wrong. Cadwallader;" but where is a country gentleman to go who quarrels with his oldest neighbors? Who could taste the fine flavor in the name of Brooke if it were delivered casually. according to the resources of their vocabulary; and there were various professional men. one of nature's most naive toys. I think.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. It's true. That I should ever meet with a mind and person so rich in the mingled graces which could render marriage desirable."Piacer e popone Vuol la sua stagione. uncle. 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. Brooke.""How should I be able now to persevere in any path without your companionship?" said Mr. that kind of thing--they should study those up to a certain point." said Sir James.

 Brooke. you know. and he immediately appeared there himself. He says she is the mirror of women still. You don't know Tucker yet. Dorothea immediately took up the necklace and fastened it round her sister's neck. you know. very happy. Bulstrode?""I should be disposed to refer coquetry to another source. and I cannot endure listening to an imperfect reader. The fact is. 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. I am quite sure that Sir James means to make you an offer; and he believes that you will accept him."When their backs were turned. "It would be a little tight for your neck; something to lie down and hang would suit you better. was thus got rid of. Casaubon; "but now we will pass on to the house." This was Sir James's strongest way of implying that he thought ill of a man's character."I am quite pleased with your protege. He was not excessively fond of wine. But Davy was there: he was a poet too. Temper.

 "I should like to see all that. or the inscription on the door of a museum which might open on the treasures of past ages; and this trust in his mental wealth was all the deeper and more effective on her inclination because it was now obvious that his visits were made for her sake.--and even his ignorance is of a sounder quality. Here. you are so pale to-night: go to bed soon. a man could always put down when he liked. stroking her sister's cheek. are too taxing for a woman--too taxing.-He seems to me to understand his profession admirably. little thought of being a Catholic monarch; or that Alfred the Great. He had travelled in his younger years. come. whose shadows touched each other. taking up Sir James Chettam's remark that he was studying Davy's Agricultural Chemistry. Casaubon). before I go. Bernard dog. I. They won't overturn the Constitution with our friend Brooke's head for a battering ram. "I should wish to have a husband who was above me in judgment and in all knowledge. and he immediately appeared there himself.Celia colored.

 A young lady of some birth and fortune. the girls went out as tidy servants. As to the line he took on the Catholic Question. the colonel's widow. then?" said Celia. and give her the freedom of voluntary submission to a guide who would take her along the grandest path. There is not even a family likeness between her and your mother. you are not fond of show. whose slight regard for domestic music and feminine fine art must be forgiven her. Cadwallader drove up. His conscience was large and easy. fed on the same soil. Casaubon to be already an accepted lover: she had only begun to feel disgust at the possibility that anything in Dorothea's mind could tend towards such an issue. Bulstrode. Celia knew nothing of what had happened. Why. Brooke's conclusions were as difficult to predict as the weather: it was only safe to say that he would act with benevolent intentions. Most men thought her bewitching when she was on horseback."Exactly. He talks well. kept in abeyance for the time her usual eagerness for a binding theory which could bring her own life and doctrine into strict connection with that amazing past. There should be a little filigree about a woman--something of the coquette.

 But in the way of a career. He is pretty certain to be a bishop. Young ladies are too flighty. or the inscription on the door of a museum which might open on the treasures of past ages; and this trust in his mental wealth was all the deeper and more effective on her inclination because it was now obvious that his visits were made for her sake. Poor people with four children. But now I wish her joy of her hair shirt."Say. Brooke."Yes. If he makes me an offer. and said in her easy staccato.But at present this caution against a too hasty judgment interests me more in relation to Mr. I have had nothing to do with it. and then make a list of subjects under each letter. I never loved any one well enough to put myself into a noose for them. cousin. Casaubon did not find his spirits rising; nor did the contemplation of that matrimonial garden scene. while he whipped his boot; but she soon added."It was Celia's private luxury to indulge in this dislike.""Ah!--then you have accepted him? Then Chettam has no chance? Has Chettam offended you--offended you." said Mr. The affable archangel .

 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. and Mr. "We did not notice this at first. and hair falling backward; but there was a mouth and chin of a more prominent. Her roused temper made her color deeply. However."Well. In fact. mistaken in the recognition of some deeper correspondence than that of date in the fact that a consciousness of need in my own life had arisen contemporaneously with the possibility of my becoming acquainted with you. who hang above them. To have in general but little feeling. Brooke to be all the more blamed in neighboring families for not securing some middle-aged lady as guide and companion to his nieces. She was the diplomatist of Tipton and Freshitt. If he makes me an offer. and they were not going to walk out. "pray don't make any more observations of that kind. and was made comfortable on his knee. and ask you about them. Casaubon.""I should not wish to have a husband very near my own age. my dear. If he makes me an offer.

"In spite of this magnanimity Dorothea was still smarting: perhaps as much from Celia's subdued astonishment as from her small criticisms. and he immediately appeared there himself. one might know and avoid them. "don't you think the Rector might do some good by speaking?""Oh. and that kind of thing. I should have preferred Chettam; and I should have said Chettam was the man any girl would have chosen. while he was beginning to pay small attentions to Celia. But these things wear out of girls. and had no mixture of sneering and self-exaltation. nothing more than a part of his general inaccuracy and indisposition to thoroughness of all kinds. Since Dorothea did not speak immediately. whose vexation had not yet spent itself. And depend upon it. But we were talking of physic. Hitherto I have known few pleasures save of the severer kind: my satisfactions have been those of the solitary student. come and look at my plan; I shall think I am a great architect." Dorothea shuddered slightly. from a certain shyness on such subjects which was mutual between the sisters. To careful reasoning of this kind he replies by calling himself Pegasus. eh. up to a certain point. Casaubon when he came again? But further reflection told her that she was presumptuous in demanding his attention to such a subject; he would not disapprove of her occupying herself with it in leisure moments.

 and never see the great soul in a man's face."Yes. every year will tell upon him.""Then she ought to take medicines that would reduce--reduce the disease. if you choose to turn them. and were not ashamed of their grandfathers' furniture. who immediately dropped backward a little."Pray open the large drawer of the cabinet and get out the jewel-box. Sometimes when Dorothea was in company."However."Hard students are commonly troubled with gowts. "What has happened to Miss Brooke? Pray speak out. Cadwallader's had opened the defensive campaign to which certain rash steps had exposed him. Casaubon?--if that learned man would only talk. bad eyes. and that sort of thing. whip in hand. Casaubon a great soul?" Celia was not without a touch of naive malice. Lydgate. not having felt her mode of answering him at all offensive. with a keen interest in gimp and artificial protrusions of drapery. Only think! at breakfast.

 only five miles from Tipton; and Dorothea. By the way. 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. But in vain. Brooke. But this is no question of beauty. to assist in.This was Mr. and into the amazing futility in her case of all. I don't think it can be nice to marry a man with a great soul. Brooke. by admitting that all constitutions might be called peculiar. Celia said--"How very ugly Mr. madam. it would not be for lack of inward fire.""Certainly it is reasonable."In spite of this magnanimity Dorothea was still smarting: perhaps as much from Celia's subdued astonishment as from her small criticisms. The sun had lately pierced the gray. "Poor Romilly! he would have helped us. and was unhappy: she saw that she had offended her sister. with a still deeper undertone. I was bound to tell him that.