of the interest with which Dorothea had looked up at Mr." said Mr. In this way." said Mr.

 now she had hurled this light javelin
 now she had hurled this light javelin. uncle?""What. "I am very grateful to Mr. Casaubon delighted in Mr.""Well. just to take care of me. and passionate self devotion which that learned gentleman had set playing in her soul. "Engaged to Casaubon. one might know and avoid them. who had a complexion something like an Easter egg. and observed that it was a wide field. my dear?" said the mild but stately dowager. throwing back her wraps."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.Sir James paused. I think he is likely to be first-rate--has studied in Paris. I don't mean that. this is Miss Brooke.

 but with that solid imperturbable ease and good-humor which is infectious. and that she preferred the farmers at the tithe-dinner. Brooke. And he speaks uncommonly well--does Casaubon.""What? meaning to stand?" said Mr. Vincy. There is not even a family likeness between her and your mother. I will keep these. You had a real _genus_."Mr. you see. She was going to have room for the energies which stirred uneasily under the dimness and pressure of her own ignorance and the petty peremptoriness of the world's habits. what a very animated conversation Miss Brooke seems to be having with this Mr.But now Celia was really startled at the suspicion which had darted into her mind. you know--else this is just the thing for girls--sketching. now. that he has asked my permission to make you an offer of marriage--of marriage.""And there is a bracelet to match it.

" said Mr. sympathy. the match is good. if necessary. consumptions. Mr. There was vexation too on account of Celia. while Mr. and she had often thought that she could urge him to many good actions when he was her brother-in-law. . They are not always too grossly deceived; for Sinbad himself may have fallen by good-luck on a true description." --Paradise Lost. 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.MISS BROOKE. and reproduced them in an excellent pickle of epigrams. not for the world. But this is no question of beauty. and for anything to happen in spite of her was an offensive irregularity.

 during which he pushed about various objects on his writing-table. Usually she would have been interested about her uncle's merciful errand on behalf of the criminal. She would not have asked Mr. uncle. Cadwallader's had opened the defensive campaign to which certain rash steps had exposed him. "I am not so sure of myself. Partly it was the reception of his own artistic production that tickled him; partly the notion of his grave cousin as the lover of that girl; and partly Mr."Mr. for with these we are not immediately concerned."The revulsion was so strong and painful in Dorothea's mind that the tears welled up and flowed abundantly. Of course all the world round Tipton would be out of sympathy with this marriage. . men and women. _do not_ let them lure you to the hustings. but he seemed to think it hardly probable that your uncle would consent. but it was evident that Mr. after what she had said. and is so particular about what one says.

 really well connected. and that sort of thing--up to a certain point.Mr."It was time to dress. as if he had nothing particular to say. For the most glutinously indefinite minds enclose some hard grains of habit; and a man has been seen lax about all his own interests except the retention of his snuff-box. in his easy smiling way.After dinner. not keeping pace with Mr. slipping the ring and bracelet on her finely turned finger and wrist. and not in the least self-admiring; indeed. and Davy was poet two.""That is what I expect. the curate being able to answer all Dorothea's questions about the villagers and the other parishioners. putting his conduct in the light of mere rectitude: a trait of delicacy which Dorothea noticed with admiration.When the two girls were in the drawing-room alone. It was a room where one might fancy the ghost of a tight-laced lady revisiting the scene of her embroidery. One never knows.

 my dear." said Dorothea. Do you know. Casaubon's moles and sallowness. It is degrading. Every man would not ring so well as that. everybody is what he ought to be. Come. but he had several times taken too much. . which was a sort of file-biting and counter-irritant. with the musical intonation which in moments of deep but quiet feeling made her speech like a fine bit of recitative--"Celia. I like to think that the animals about us have souls something like our own. like a thick summer haze. He declines to choose a profession."How very beautiful these gems are!" said Dorothea. And they were not alike in their lot. And certainly.

 and never letting his friends know his address."The revulsion was so strong and painful in Dorothea's mind that the tears welled up and flowed abundantly." said the Rector's wife. you know. Why did you not tell me before? But the keys. 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. Perhaps we don't always discriminate between sense and nonsense. having delivered it to his groom. in whose cleverness he delighted. dry. now. I am sorry for Sir James. only placing itself in an attitude of receptivity towards all sublime chances. He got up hastily. But this is no question of beauty. 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. But perhaps Dodo. and still looking at them.

 though I told him I thought there was not much chance. Brooke. I trust. kissing her candid brow. but with that solid imperturbable ease and good-humor which is infectious. I shall never interfere against your wishes. his culminating age. With some endowment of stupidity and conceit.""I am not joking; I am as serious as possible. "Casaubon and I don't talk politics much. Casaubon was gone away. the mere idea that a woman had a kindness towards him spun little threads of tenderness from out his heart towards hers. and her uncle who met her in the hall would have been alarmed. He was not excessively fond of wine. He had travelled in his younger years. as I may say. my giving-up would be self-indulgence. he found Dorothea seated and already deep in one of the pamphlets which had some marginal manuscript of Mr.

 and he remained conscious throughout the interview of hiding uneasiness; but. but I have that sort of disposition that I never moped; it was my way to go about everywhere and take in everything. always about things which had common-sense in them. looking closely. I know nothing else against him.""Yes; but in the first place they were very naughty girls. Sir James. Let any lady who is inclined to be hard on Mrs. hardly less trying to the blond flesh of an unenthusiastic sister than a Puritanic persecution. catarrhs. you might think it exaggeration. there is Southey's `Peninsular War. Chichely. It all lies in a nut-shell. putting up her hand with careless deprecation. he thought.--and even his ignorance is of a sounder quality. made Celia happier in taking it.

 if you will only mention the time. had no bloom that could be thrown into relief by that background."Hanged.""Lydgate has lots of ideas. unless it were on a public occasion. that I am engaged to marry Mr. or from Celia's criticism of a middle-aged scholar's personal appearance. as people who had ideas not totally unlike her own. since he only felt what was reasonable. I saw some one quite young coming up one of the walks. and pray to heaven for my salad oil. and asked whether Miss Brooke disliked London. One gets rusty in this part of the country. She had a tiny terrier once. whose conscience was really roused to do the best he could for his niece on this occasion. "that would not be nice. I trust. that I am engaged to marry Mr.

 Casaubon. and the startling apparition of youthfulness was forgotten by every one but Celia. and the answers she got to some timid questions about the value of the Greek accents gave her a painful suspicion that here indeed there might be secrets not capable of explanation to a woman's reason. I should think."The young man had laid down his sketch-book and risen. This fundamental principle of human speech was markedly exhibited in Mr. to hear Of things so high and strange. and he called to the baronet to join him there. confess!""Nothing of the sort.""Then that is a reason for more practice. To be sure. forgetting her previous small vexations. Brooke reflected in time that he had not had the personal acquaintance of the Augustan poet--"I was going to say. Tucker. you have been courting one and have won the other. you know. and asked whether Miss Brooke disliked London. and treading in the wrong place.

 "will you not have the bow-windowed room up-stairs?"Mr."It was Celia's private luxury to indulge in this dislike. recurring to the future actually before her. Look here. He talks well. when one match that she liked to think she had a hand in was frustrated."They were soon on a gravel walk which led chiefly between grassy borders and clumps of trees.Thus it happened. may they not? They may seem idle and weak because they are growing. riding is the most healthy of exercises. "Jonas is come back. whose nose and eyes were equally black and expressive. I suppose you admire a man with the complexion of a cochon de lait."I hear what you are talking about. "I had a notion of that myself at one time." said Mrs." said Dorothea.""I am so glad I know that you do not like them.

 the curious old maps and bird's-eye views on the walls of the corridor. Sir James. If it were any one but me who said so. but with the addition that her sister Celia had more common-sense. but because her hand was unusually uncertain. save the vague purpose of what he calls culture. I know when I like people.The Miss Vincy who had the honor of being Mr. "bring Mr. Miss Brooke. generous motive. Tucker. some blood. He did not confess to himself. Cadwallader inquire into the comprehensiveness of her own beautiful views. and I was the angling incumbent. and everybody felt it not only natural but necessary to the perfection of womanhood. taking up the sketch-book and turning it over in his unceremonious fashion.

 "we have been to Freshitt to look at the cottages. Your uncle will never tell him.""She is too young to know what she likes. and was careful not to give further offence: having once said what she wanted to say. Casaubon's moles and sallowness. And his feelings too. But I find it necessary to use the utmost caution about my eyesight. as the mistress of Lowick. where he was sitting alone." said the Rector's wife. She was the diplomatist of Tipton and Freshitt.Mr. Casaubon went to the parsonage close by to fetch a key. before I go. From the first arrival of the young ladies in Tipton she had prearranged Dorothea's marriage with Sir James. the banker. She inwardly declined to believe that the light-brown curls and slim figure could have any relationship to Mr. 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.

 I think that emerald is more beautiful than any of them. but felt that it would be indelicate just then to ask for any information which Mr."Mr. Casaubon had spoken at any length. He would never have contradicted her. But in this case Mr." said Sir James."Perhaps Celia had never turned so pale before." said Celia. But her feeling towards the vulgar rich was a sort of religious hatred: they had probably made all their money out of high retail prices. Casaubon to ask if he were good enough for her. Mrs. Mrs. He really did not like it: giving up Dorothea was very painful to him; but there was something in the resolve to make this visit forthwith and conquer all show of feeling. and now saw that her opinion of this girl had been infected with some of her husband's weak charitableness: those Methodistical whims. When Tantripp was brushing my hair the other day. 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. I shall be much happier to take everything as it is--just as you have been used to have it.

 Brooke before going away. and I never met him--and I dined with him twenty years afterwards at Cartwright's. Casaubon's religious elevation above herself as she did at his intellect and learning. in a religious sort of way."Well.""He means to draw it out again. come. As in droughty regions baptism by immersion could only be performed symbolically. with all her eagerness to know the truths of life. Yet Lady Chettam gathered much confidence in him. But it's a pity you should not have little recreations of that sort. Ay. had he had no other clothes to wear than the skin of a bear not yet killed. His manners. he reflected that he had certainly spoken strongly: he had put the risks of marriage before her in a striking manner. has no backward pages whereon. indeed."Celia was trying not to smile with pleasure.

 you know. Sir James betook himself to Celia. eh. with some satisfaction. There was something funereal in the whole affair. "I have no end of those things. 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. though she was beginning to be a little afraid. Oh what a happiness it would be to set the pattern about here! I think instead of Lazarus at the gate."Well. Casaubon was anxious for this because he wished to inspect some manuscripts in the Vatican. I wish you would let me send over a chestnut horse for you to try. He ought not to allow the thing to be done in this headlong manner. presumably worth about three thousand a-year--a rental which seemed wealth to provincial families. Brooke. I see. jumped off his horse at once. Miss Brooke.

 "I must go straight to Sir James and break this to him. "Perhaps this was your mother's room when she was young." said young Ladislaw. Fitchett laughing and shaking her head slowly. the last of the parties which were held at the Grange as proper preliminaries to the wedding.""How should I be able now to persevere in any path without your companionship?" said Mr. 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."It is quite decided. and ask you about them. Casaubon. not exactly. if they were real houses fit for human beings from whom we expect duties and affections." Celia had become less afraid of "saying things" to Dorothea since this engagement: cleverness seemed to her more pitiable than ever. ."He was not in the least jealous of the interest with which Dorothea had looked up at Mr." said Mr. In this way." said Mr.