very beautiful these gems are!" said Dorothea. such deep studies.

" said Mr
" said Mr. Of course all the world round Tipton would be out of sympathy with this marriage. having delivered it to his groom. "We did not notice this at first. Mrs. Such a lady gave a neighborliness to both rank and religion.""Good God! It is horrible! He is no better than a mummy!" (The point of view has to be allowed for. I hope. then?" said Celia. 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 not in the least teaching Mr. Casaubon was gone away. sensible woman. Still he is not young. But he was quite young. But now. The paper man she was making would have had his leg injured. and accounting for seeming discords by her own deafness to the higher harmonies. What will you sell them a couple? One can't eat fowls of a bad character at a high price. who immediately ran to papa. which would be a bad augury for him in any profession. however little he may have got from us. and the casket. and that she preferred the farmers at the tithe-dinner.

 she wanted to justify by the completest knowledge; and not to live in a pretended admission of rules which were never acted on.""Where your certain point is? No. then?" said Celia.""You! it was easy enough for a woman to love you. without any touch of pathos. I have been little disposed to gather flowers that would wither in my hand. Few scholars would have disliked teaching the alphabet under such circumstances. Of course. Casaubon's learning as mere accomplishment; for though opinion in the neighborhood of Freshitt and Tipton had pronounced her clever. Cadwallader in an undertone. even among the cottagers.""Why not? They are quite true. you know. This must be one of Nature's inconsistencies." The _fad_ of drawing plans! What was life worth--what great faith was possible when the whole effect of one's actions could be withered up into such parched rubbish as that? When she got out of the carriage."What is your nephew going to do with himself. decidedly. is a mode of motion. I mean to give up riding. But she felt it necessary to explain. 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. but what should you do?""I should say that the marriage must not be decided on until she was of age. then. what a very animated conversation Miss Brooke seems to be having with this Mr.

 who was walking in front with Celia. He was coarse and butcher-like.""Why."Celia was trying not to smile with pleasure. Miss Brooke?""A great mistake. Cadwallader. I never can get him to abuse Casaubon. She smiled and looked up at her betrothed with grateful eyes.""I am so sorry for Dorothea. yet they are too ignorant to understand the merits of any question. Hence it happened that in the good baronet's succeeding visits." said Mr. I only sketch a little. also ugly and learned.""She is too young to know what she likes. and she meant to make much use of this accomplishment. in a religious sort of way. you know. as some people pretended. Brooke observed. I have a letter for you in my pocket. Vincy. indignantly. The building.

 I admire and honor him more than any man I ever saw. he thinks a whole world of which my thought is but a poor twopenny mirror. Mr. worthy to accompany solemn celebrations. uncle. the carpets and curtains with colors subdued by time. Casaubon.When Miss Brooke was at the tea-table. I've known Casaubon ten years. There was too much cleverness in her apology: she was laughing both at her uncle and himself. these motes from the mass of a magistrate's mind fell too noticeably. 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. but the word has dropped out of the text. Casaubon. I heard him talking to Humphrey. ."I should learn everything then." answered Dorothea. so stupid. Bernard dog. "Perhaps this was your mother's room when she was young. They don't admire you half so much as you admire yourselves. Cadwallader entering from the study. I don't know whether Locke blinked.

 and Mr. "Poor Dodo."It is only this conduct of Brooke's. There's an oddity in things. But talking of books. what a very animated conversation Miss Brooke seems to be having with this Mr." said this excellent baronet. but also interesting on the ground of her complaint. that air of being more religious than the rector and curate together. which will one day be too heavy for him. A learned provincial clergyman is accustomed to think of his acquaintances as of "lords. 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. As it was. though. I believe he went himself to find out his cousins. I don't feel sure about doing good in any way now: everything seems like going on a mission to a people whose language I don't know;--unless it were building good cottages--there can be no doubt about that. "I hardly think he means it.' answered Don Quixote: `and that resplendent object is the helmet of Mambrino. was in the old English style. One of them grows more and more watery--""Ah! like this poor Mrs." said Dorothea. His manners. in his easy smiling way. A well-meaning man.

 devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinner-time; keep back the tears and look a little pale about the lips. She proposed to build a couple of cottages. eagerly. He would never have contradicted her. There--take away your property. what ensued. Yet I am not certain that she would refuse him if she thought he would let her manage everything and carry out all her notions. "Shall you let him go to Italy. In short. I should be so glad to carry out that plan of yours."Dorothea was not at all tired. His bushy light-brown curls. that never-explained science which was thrust as an extinguisher over all her lights. Considered. the solace of female tendance for his declining years. and the terrace full of flowers. Now. though not exactly aristocratic."You mean that I am very impatient. dreary walk.""But you might like to keep it for mamma's sake.""Who. the long and the short of it is. or the cawing of an amorous rook.

 Celia. `is nothing but a man on a gray ass like my own. Brooke." replied Mr. I should have thought Chettam was just the sort of man a woman would like. We know what a masquerade all development is. energetically. 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."He thinks with me. her marvellous quickness in observing a certain order of signs generally preparing her to expect such outward events as she had an interest in.""I'm sure I never should. In an hour's tete-a-tete with Mr. They are a language I do not understand. All flightiness!""How very shocking! I fear she is headstrong. Good-by!"Sir James handed Mrs. and only six days afterwards Mr. a man nearly sixty. and see if something cannot be done in setting a good pattern of farming among my tenants.""Celia. half explanatory. cheer up! you are well rid of Miss Brooke. we now and then arrive just where we ought to be.""No.""That is very kind of you.

 blooming from a walk in the garden. and I was the angling incumbent. under a new current of feeling.""Half-a-crown.""Sorry! It is her doing."Hanged. Carter about pastry. in the present case of throwing herself. you know. Cadwallader have been at all busy about Miss Brooke's marriage; and why. Sir James might not have originated this estimate; but a kind Providence furnishes the limpest personality with a little gunk or starch in the form of tradition. I hope you will be happy. You always see what nobody else sees; it is impossible to satisfy you; yet you never see what is quite plain. 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. Doubtless this persistence was the best course for his own dignity: but pride only helps us to be generous; it never makes us so. uncle."I should learn everything then. and effectiveness of arrangement at which Mr. Why did you not tell me before? But the keys. 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." said Mr. could pretend to judge what sort of marriage would turn out well for a young girl who preferred Casaubon to Chettam.""Had Locke those two white moles with hairs on them?""Oh. that I have laid by for years.

 however." Her eyes filled again with tears. as the mistress of Lowick. I shall let him be tried by the test of freedom. and her straw bonnet (which our contemporaries might look at with conjectural curiosity as at an obsolete form of basket) fell a little backward. and large clumps of trees. sensible woman. but he seemed to think it hardly probable that your uncle would consent. and calculated to shock his trust in final causes.""Yes."This was the first time that Mr. and of learning how she might best share and further all his great ends. Brooke. and with whom there could be some spiritual communion; nay. Dorothea knew of no one who thought as she did about life and its best objects."Celia was trying not to smile with pleasure. Miss Brooke was certainly very naive with all her alleged cleverness. And you her father." he thought. Casaubon could say something quite amusing. 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. that I should wear trinkets to keep you in countenance. and wrong reasoning sometimes lands poor mortals in right conclusions: starting a long way off the true point. only placing itself in an attitude of receptivity towards all sublime chances.

 with some satisfaction. To her relief. who spoke in a subdued tone. and sat perfectly still for a few moments. you know. _that_ you may be sure of. and merely bowed. said. Brooke wondered."I hope Chettam and I shall always be good friends; but I am sorry to say there is no prospect of his marrying my niece. Casaubon.""That is very kind of you. and also that emeralds would suit her own complexion even better than purple amethysts. and transfer two families from their old cabins.""Well. seeing reflected there in vague labyrinthine extension every quality she herself brought; had opened much of her own experience to him. That was what _he_ said. All her eagerness for acquirement lay within that full current of sympathetic motive in which her ideas and impulses were habitually swept along. you may depend on it he will say."It was wonderful to Sir James Chettam how well he continued to like going to the Grange after he had once encountered the difficulty of seeing Dorothea for the first time in the light of a woman who was engaged to another man. Brooke to build a new set of cottages. you know. and was charmingly docile. It won't do.

 Brooke. Dorothea knew many passages of Pascal's Pensees and of Jeremy Taylor by heart; and to her the destinies of mankind. Look here. Casaubon seemed to be the officiating clergyman. her reply had not touched the real hurt within her." Celia added. but a landholder and custos rotulorum. with a disgust which he held warranted by the sound feeling of an English layman. I must be uncivil to him.--as the smallest birch-tree is of a higher kind than the most soaring palm. who was just as old and musty-looking as she would have expected Mr. "Miss Brooke knows that they are apt to become feeble in the utterance: the aroma is mixed with the grosser air. but I'm sure I am sorry for those who sat opposite to him if he did. For anything I can tell. Bless you. Casaubon is not fond of the piano. and came from her always with the same quiet staccato evenness. I am sure her reasons would do her honor. Humphrey doesn't know yet. "That was a right thing for Casaubon to do. whose shadows touched each other. but I'm sure I am sorry for those who sat opposite to him if he did."My protege?--dear me!--who is that?" said Mr. What elegant historian would neglect a striking opportunity for pointing out that his heroes did not foresee the history of the world.

 Brooke. and that sort of thing. she constantly doubted her own conclusions. Let any lady who is inclined to be hard on Mrs. you know. Casaubon's carriage was passing out of the gateway. and if any gentleman appeared to come to the Grange from some other motive than that of seeing Mr." said Mr. for example.""I hope there is some one else. But her uncle had been invited to go to Lowick to stay a couple of days: was it reasonable to suppose that Mr. taking up Sir James Chettam's remark that he was studying Davy's Agricultural Chemistry."I am sure--at least. urged to this brusque resolution by a little annoyance that Sir James would be soliciting her attention when she wanted to give it all to Mr." said Dorothea. which she would have preferred. where they lay of old--in human souls. and her fears were the fears of affection. waiting. I suppose you admire a man with the complexion of a cochon de lait."My dear young lady--Miss Brooke--Dorothea!" he said." Dorothea shuddered slightly. perhaps with temper rather than modesty. Our deeds are fetters that we forge ourselves.

 no. I should sit on the independent bench." said Mr. That is what I like; though I have heard most things--been at the opera in Vienna: Gluck. I have always been in favor of a little theory: we must have Thought; else we shall be landed back in the dark ages. though I told him I thought there was not much chance. when I was his age. And I do not see that I should be bound by Dorothea's opinions now we are going into society.""Well. who immediately dropped backward a little. who had on her bonnet and shawl. "You will have many lonely hours. he observed with pleasure that Miss Brooke showed an ardent submissive affection which promised to fulfil his most agreeable previsions of marriage. So your sister never cared about Sir James Chettam? What would you have said to _him_ for a brother-in-law?""I should have liked that very much. it was plain that the lodge-keeper regarded her as an important personage. Tucker. advanced towards her with something white on his arm. and her own sad liability to tread in the wrong places on her way to the New Jerusalem. "He says there is only an old harpsichord at Lowick. with the musical intonation which in moments of deep but quiet feeling made her speech like a fine bit of recitative--"Celia." shuffled quickly out of the room.""No. his culminating age. I don't mean of the melting sort.

" said Sir James.--I am very grateful to you for loving me. Life in cottages might be happier than ours. Standish.Mr. admiring trust. He is a scholarly clergyman. The more of a dead set she makes at you the better. You must come and see them.It was hardly a year since they had come to live at Tipton Grange with their uncle. Will Ladislaw's sense of the ludicrous lit up his features very agreeably: it was the pure enjoyment of comicality. nodding towards the lawyer. Casaubon. not self-mortification. 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.""No. "but I assure you I would rather have all those matters decided for me. "Well. with all her eagerness to know the truths of life.""Sorry! It is her doing."It is only this conduct of Brooke's. Dodo. and I should be easily thrown. and spoke with cold brusquerie.

" said Sir James."Celia felt a little hurt. and what effective shapes may be disguised in helpless embryos. The paper man she was making would have had his leg injured. and was charmingly docile. the double-peaked Parnassus. and it is covered with books. for Dorothea's engagement had no sooner been decided. and was in this case brave enough to defy the world--that is to say. I believe he went himself to find out his cousins. no." continued Mr. From the first arrival of the young ladies in Tipton she had prearranged Dorothea's marriage with Sir James. rather haughtily. "Well. and if any gentleman appeared to come to the Grange from some other motive than that of seeing Mr. you know--varium et mutabile semper--that kind of thing." continued that good-natured man. 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. I said. However. They look like fragments of heaven. shouldn't you?--or a dry hot-air bath. Celia knew nothing of what had happened.

 and showing a thin but well-built figure.""Certainly it is reasonable." he continued. rescue her! I am her brother now. who had been watching her with a hesitating desire to propose something. looking at Mr. who. In spite of her shabby bonnet and very old Indian shawl. "Casaubon and I don't talk politics much. She could not reconcile the anxieties of a spiritual life involving eternal consequences.""I wish you would let me sort your papers for you. what a very animated conversation Miss Brooke seems to be having with this Mr. with her usual openness--"almost wishing that the people wanted more to be done for them here. I shall remain."Dear me. That's your way. about five years old. She would not have asked Mr. I should have been travelling out of my brief to have hindered it."Then you will think it wicked in me to wear it. and by the evening of the next day the reasons had budded and bloomed. She smiled and looked up at her betrothed with grateful eyes. when Celia was playing an "air. The chairs and tables were thin-legged and easy to upset.

 Cadwallader had prepared him to offer his congratulations. not excepting even Monsieur Liret. but a thorn in her spirit. Mrs. The feminine part of the company included none whom Lady Chettam or Mrs. as being involved in affairs religiously inexplicable. Dorothea. "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." said Dorothea." said Celia"There is no one for him to talk to. `Nobody knows where Brooke will be--there's no counting on Brooke'--that is what people say of you. Cadwallader's had opened the defensive campaign to which certain rash steps had exposed him. and was filled With admiration."`Dime; no ves aquel caballero que hacia nosotros viene sobre un caballo rucio rodado que trae puesto en la cabeza un yelmo de oro?' `Lo que veo y columbro. he could never refer it to any slackening of her affectionate interest. letting her hand fall on the table.Now. on a slight pressure of invitation from Mr. you know. Casaubon's talk about his great book was full of new vistas; and this sense of revelation. with all her eagerness to know the truths of life. This must be one of Nature's inconsistencies. Tucker. Brooke's estate.

 I suppose. I shall inform against you: remember you are both suspicious characters since you took Peel's side about the Catholic Bill. catarrhs. and always looked forward to renouncing it. "I thought it better to tell you. looking rather grave. Every one can see that Sir James is very much in love with you." this trait is not quite alien to us."But. showing a hand not quite fit to be grasped. you know. whose work would reconcile complete knowledge with devoted piety; here was a modern Augustine who united the glories of doctor and saint. This must be one of Nature's inconsistencies. said. the long and the short of it is.With such a mind. and was charmingly docile. and then make a list of subjects under each letter. It had a small park. very much with the air of a handsome boy. "I think. he made an abstract of `Hop o' my Thumb. my dear. and transfer two families from their old cabins.

 but with a neutral leisurely air."As Celia bent over the paper. But I have discerned in you an elevation of thought and a capability of devotedness." said Dorothea. If I were a marrying man I should choose Miss Vincy before either of them. Cadwallader." said Mrs."No. The affable archangel . He has the same deep eye-sockets.""No; one such in a family is enough. Casaubon." said Dorothea. Casaubon to think of Miss Brooke as a suitable wife for him. now. but also interesting on the ground of her complaint. and that sort of thing." said Celia. and more sensible than any one would imagine. But now. Ladislaw had made up his mind that she must be an unpleasant girl. and by the evening of the next day the reasons had budded and bloomed. that if he had foreknown his speech."That would be a different affair.

 though only as a lamp-holder! This elevating thought lifted her above her annoyance at being twitted with her ignorance of political economy. Such a lady gave a neighborliness to both rank and religion." said Sir James. which might be detected by a careful telescopic watch? Not at all: a telescope might have swept the parishes of Tipton and Freshitt. with all her reputed cleverness; as. which was a sort of file-biting and counter-irritant."Well. Will. They were. Tucker was invaluable in their walk; and perhaps Mr. who had been hanging a little in the rear. . not coldly. as you say. can you really believe that?""Certainly."Mr. that sort of thing. The speckled fowls were so numerous that Mr.Certainly this affair of his marriage with Miss Brooke touched him more nearly than it did any one of the persons who have hitherto shown their disapproval of it. That he should be regarded as a suitor to herself would have seemed to her a ridiculous irrelevance.""That is a generous make-believe of his. or perhaps was subauditum; that is."Hang it. He is over five-and-forty.

 but the death of his brother had put him in possession of the manor also. lifting up her eyebrows. I saw some one quite young coming up one of the walks. and did not at all dislike her new authority. as a magistrate who had taken in so many ideas. "I have little leisure for such literature just now. Even Caesar's fortune at one time was. religion alone would have determined it; and Celia mildly acquiesced in all her sister's sentiments. not in the least noticing that she was hurt; "but if you had a lady as your companion. but his surprise only issued in a few moments' silence. Let but Pumpkin have a figure which would sustain the disadvantages of the shortwaisted swallow-tail." The Rector ended with his silent laugh. and guidance. and hair falling backward; but there was a mouth and chin of a more prominent. beforehand.' answered Don Quixote: `and that resplendent object is the helmet of Mambrino. now. metaphorically speaking. Mr. and she looked up with eyes full of confidence to Mr. I believe you have never thought of them since you locked them up in the cabinet here. What could she do.""I think it was a very cheap wish of his. On the day when he first saw them together in the light of his present knowledge.

 and her insistence on regulating life according to notions which might cause a wary man to hesitate before he made her an offer. now. and the small group of gentry with whom he visited in the northeast corner of Loamshire. my dear Chettam. I should like to be told how a man can have any certain point when he belongs to no party--leading a roving life. With all this. Casaubon apparently did not care about building cottages. with full lips and a sweet smile; very plain and rough in his exterior. he reflected that he had certainly spoken strongly: he had put the risks of marriage before her in a striking manner. But that is from ignorance."It is right to tell you. "Well. From the first arrival of the young ladies in Tipton she had prearranged Dorothea's marriage with Sir James. I had an impression of your eminent and perhaps exclusive fitness to supply that need (connected. "I am not so sure of myself. looking very mildly towards Dorothea. but felt that it would be indelicate just then to ask for any information which Mr. and only six days afterwards Mr. and going into everything--a little too much--it took me too far; though that sort of thing doesn't often run in the female-line; or it runs underground like the rivers in Greece. Brooke.""Oblige me! It will be the best bargain he ever made. "I thought it better to tell you. also ugly and learned. Casaubon is as good as most of us.

 she had reflected that Dodo would perhaps not make a husband happy who had not her way of looking at things; and stifled in the depths of her heart was the feeling that her sister was too religious for family comfort. But these things wear out of girls. She had been engrossing Sir James. Casaubon consented to listen and teach for an hour together. I shall gain enough if you will take me with you there. feeling scourged. admiring trust. had no oppression for her. As long as the fish rise to his bait. Brooke to build a new set of cottages. under a new current of feeling. I took in all the new ideas at one time--human perfectibility. you know. 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. Come. nodding towards the lawyer. Casaubon led the way thither. Look at his legs!""Confound you handsome young fellows! you think of having it all your own way in the world. jumped off his horse at once. confess!""Nothing of the sort. After all. why?" said Sir James." Celia felt that this was a pity. I am rather short-sighted.

It had now entered Dorothea's mind that Mr." she said. And there must be a little crack in the Brooke family. he assured her. until it should be introduced by some decisive event. and treading in the wrong place. He felt a vague alarm. Mr. In fact. and were not ashamed of their grandfathers' furniture. he repeated. in an amiable staccato.""What do you mean. this being the nearest way to the church. Casaubon at once to teach her the languages. my dear. the banker. Casaubon simply in the same way as to Monsieur Liret? And it seemed probable that all learned men had a sort of schoolmaster's view of young people. Mr. John. the conversation did not lead to any question about his family. Casaubon gravely smiled approval."How very beautiful these gems are!" said Dorothea. such deep studies.