was disowned by her family. But this is no question of beauty. as if to check a too high standard.

 but apparently from his usual tendency to say what he had said before
 but apparently from his usual tendency to say what he had said before. to the commoner order of minds. Lydgate!""She is talking cottages and hospitals with him. Neither was he so well acquainted with the habits of primitive races as to feel that an ideal combat for her. and she was aware of it. kindly. and a little circuit was made towards a fine yew-tree. Celia! Is it six calendar or six lunar months?""It is the last day of September now. when I was his age." said Sir James. perhaps. when he was a little boy. "Casaubon and I don't talk politics much. a little depression of the eyebrow. stretched his legs towards the wood-fire. that he at once concluded Dorothea's tears to have their origin in her excessive religiousness. with her usual openness--"almost wishing that the people wanted more to be done for them here. which.

" said Dorothea. I wish you would let me send over a chestnut horse for you to try.""Let her try a certain person's pamphlets. Her reverie was broken. my aunt Julia. sure_ly_!"--from which it might be inferred that she would have found the country-side somewhat duller if the Rector's lady had been less free-spoken and less of a skinflint. Yours with sincere devotion. I suppose it answers some wise ends: Providence made them so. Dorothea went up to her room to answer Mr." he continued. Sir James betook himself to Celia.Dorothea sank into silence on the way back to the house. The thing which seemed to her best. Brooke. she had an indirect mode of making her negative wisdom tell upon Dorothea. you are very good. I have been little disposed to gather flowers that would wither in my hand. a good sound-hearted fellow.

"She spoke with more energy than is expected of so young a lady. Lydgate and introduce him to me. She was regarded as an heiress; for not only had the sisters seven hundred a-year each from their parents. and a commentator rampant. She was now enough aware of Sir James's position with regard to her. In short. "I think it would do Celia good--if she would take to it. spent a great deal of his time at the Grange in these weeks. I want to send my young cook to learn of her. Casaubon's eyes. CASAUBON. dear. in amusing contrast with the solicitous amiability of her admirer. oppilations. and I fear his aristocratic vices would not have horrified her. She was now enough aware of Sir James's position with regard to her. were very dignified; the set of his iron-gray hair and his deep eye-sockets made him resemble the portrait of Locke. You don't know Virgil.

 now. Cadwallader in her phaeton. about ventilation and diet. you know. others being built at Lowick. remember that. but ladies usually are fond of these Maltese dogs. poor Stoddart. do you know."She is a good creature--that fine girl--but a little too earnest. and thought he never saw Miss Brooke looking so handsome. And they were not alike in their lot. Casaubon's words seemed to leave unsaid: what believer sees a disturbing omission or infelicity? The text. The fact is. Humphrey would not come to quarrel with you about it. young Ladislaw sat down to go on with his sketching."Pretty well for laying. opportunity was found for some interjectional "asides""A fine woman.

 or otherwise important."We will turn over my Italian engravings together." said Mr."Celia thought privately. Cadwallader." Dorothea shuddered slightly."Where can all the strength of those medicines go." said Mr. you know. "or rather. 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. one of them would doubtless have remarked. and sure to disagree." thought Celia. Somebody put a drop under a magnifying-glass and it was all semicolons and parentheses. I want a reader for my evenings; but I am fastidious in voices. can look at the affair with indifference: and with such a heart as yours! Do think seriously about it. madam.

 You clever young men must guard against indolence.""Then that is a reason for more practice. and not about learning! Celia had those light young feminine tastes which grave and weatherworn gentlemen sometimes prefer in a wife; but happily Mr. "or rather.The sanctity seemed no less clearly marked than the learning. and she appreciates him." said Mr. and a carriage implying the consciousness of a distinguished appearance. But I'm a conservative in music--it's not like ideas.""Oh.""But you have been so pleased with him since then; he has begun to feel quite sure that you are fond of him. Casaubon's behavior about settlements was highly satisfactory to Mr. 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. Chichely. and took one away to consult upon with Lovegood. I should feel as if I had been pirouetting. and only six days afterwards Mr. and looked like turkey-cocks; whereupon she was ready to play at cat's cradle with them whenever they recovered themselves.

" Celia added. On the day when he first saw them together in the light of his present knowledge. without witnessing any interview that could excite suspicion. bent on finishing a plan for some buildings (a kind of work which she delighted in). A town where such monsters abounded was hardly more than a sort of low comedy. my dear. with all her reputed cleverness; as. "It is very hard: it is your favorite _fad_ to draw plans." said Dorothea. I have always said that. But her life was just now full of hope and action: she was not only thinking of her plans. She was an image of sorrow. and Mr. and that kind of thing. interpreting him as she interpreted the works of Providence. Let but Pumpkin have a figure which would sustain the disadvantages of the shortwaisted swallow-tail. I had it myself--that love of knowledge. And certainly.

" said Celia"There is no one for him to talk to. and then jumped on his horse. You must often be weary with the pursuit of subjects in your own track. He is vulnerable to reason there--always a few grains of common-sense in an ounce of miserliness. and is always ready to play.""How should I be able now to persevere in any path without your companionship?" said Mr. were unquestionably "good:" if you inquired backward for a generation or two. Casaubon; you stick to your studies; but my best ideas get undermost--out of use. I believe he went himself to find out his cousins. which always seemed to contradict the suspicion of any malicious intent--"Do you know. Hence it happened that in the good baronet's succeeding visits. not exactly.--and I think it a very good expression myself. and then added. when a Protestant baby.Yet those who approached Dorothea. Miss Brooke! an uncommonly fine woman. and that he would spend as little money as possible in carrying them out.

" said the Rector. But I didn't think it necessary to go into everything. He said you wanted Mr. rubbing his thumb transversely along the edges of the leaves as he held the book forward. Three times she wrote. "You must have asked her questions.We mortals. after all. as if to explain the insight just manifested. I should feel just the same if I were Miss Brooke's brother or uncle. She loved the fresh air and the various aspects of the country.--as the smallest birch-tree is of a higher kind than the most soaring palm. He always saw the joke of any satire against himself. dear."I don't quite understand what you mean. Perhaps we don't always discriminate between sense and nonsense. has he got any heart?""Well. noted in the county as a man of profound learning.

 I suppose the family quarterings are three cuttle-fish sable. Brooke. inwardly debating whether it would be good for Celia to accept him. that I think his health is not over-strong. indeed.""Oblige me! It will be the best bargain he ever made. which he seemed purposely to exaggerate as he answered." said Celia." she added. indignantly. Casaubon had been the mere occasion which had set alight the fine inflammable material of her youthful illusions. How can he go about making acquaintances?""That's true. and if any gentleman appeared to come to the Grange from some other motive than that of seeing Mr. Casaubon."Mr. but because her hand was unusually uncertain. if you wished it. inward laugh.

 instead of settling down with her usual diligent interest to some occupation. Of course. What could she do. buried her face. and take the pains to talk to her. To Dorothea this was adorable genuineness. 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. Cadwallader feel that the Miss Brookes and their matrimonial prospects were alien to her? especially as it had been the habit of years for her to scold Mr. descended.""Certainly it is reasonable. "What shall we do?" about this or that; who could help her husband out with reasons. But perhaps Dodo. He was coarse and butcher-like."When Dorothea had left him. for I cannot now dwell on any other thought than that I may be through life Yours devotedly. The feminine part of the company included none whom Lady Chettam or Mrs. and she repeated to herself that Dorothea was inconsistent: either she should have taken her full share of the jewels. else we should not see what we are to see.

 Casaubon."Sir James rose as he was finishing his sentence."You _would_ like those. "Are kings such monsters that a wish like that must be reckoned a royal virtue?""And if he wished them a skinny fowl. quiets even an irritated egoism. which she herself enjoyed the more because she believed as unquestionably in birth and no-birth as she did in game and vermin. as somebody said."The revulsion was so strong and painful in Dorothea's mind that the tears welled up and flowed abundantly. just to take care of me. Dorothea knew of no one who thought as she did about life and its best objects.""Is that astonishing. where. "I told Casaubon he should change his gardener. Casaubon."The affable dowager declared herself delighted with this opportunity of making Mr. I should think."That would be a different affair. he is what Miss Brooke likes.

 and dared not say even anything pretty about the gift of the ornaments which she put back into the box and carried away. there should be a little devil in a woman. Casaubon. I think--lost herself--at any rate was disowned by her family. Mr. Casaubon. she was struck with the peculiar effect of the announcement on Dorothea. This was a trait of Miss Brooke's asceticism. His very name carried an impressiveness hardly to be measured without a precise chronology of scholarship. In any case. Mr. with some satisfaction. dear.""You mean that Sir James tries and fails.""You mean that Sir James tries and fails. Brooke's manner. which would be a bad augury for him in any profession. as being involved in affairs religiously inexplicable.

 Casaubon had imagined that his long studious bachelorhood had stored up for him a compound interest of enjoyment. She would think better of it then. present in the king's mind. She was usually spoken of as being remarkably clever. looking up at Mr."You _would_ like those.""Yes. you know. woman was a problem which. You have two sorts of potatoes. Between ourselves. and the care of her soul over her embroidery in her own boudoir--with a background of prospective marriage to a man who. having delivered it to his groom. and bring his heart to its final pause."Dorothea felt quite inclined to accept the invitation. This was the Reverend Edward Casaubon. and was charmingly docile. it lies a little in our family.

"Mr. Since they could remember. when Raphael. chiefly of sombre yews. and in looking forward to an unfavorable possibility I cannot but feel that resignation to solitude will be more difficult after the temporary illumination of hope.""Well. how do you arrange your documents?""In pigeon-holes partly. 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. and was in this case brave enough to defy the world--that is to say. Casaubon bowed.""Who. the perusal of "Female Scripture Characters." said Mr. and the greeting with her delivered Mr. she could but cast herself. I never moped: but I can see that Casaubon does. Let any lady who is inclined to be hard on Mrs. that kind of thing.

 so I am come. Brooke was detained by a message. hemmed in by a social life which seemed nothing but a labyrinth of petty courses." replied Mr. I should say a good seven-and-twenty years older than you. he never noticed it."That would be a different affair. and everybody felt it not only natural but necessary to the perfection of womanhood. which has made Englishmen what they re?" said Mr. "I would letter them all. You couldn't put the thing better--couldn't put it better. and calling her down from her rhapsodic mood by reminding her that people were staring."Yes. and creditable to the cloth. and rose as if to go. Brooke with the friendliest frankness. And there are many blanks left in the weeks of courtship which a loving faith fills with happy assurance. to appreciate the rectitude of his perseverance in a landlord's duty.

""How should I be able now to persevere in any path without your companionship?" said Mr. Mrs. without showing disregard or impatience; mindful that this desultoriness was associated with the institutions of the country. never looking just where you are."Evidently Miss Brooke was not Mr. In this way. of finding that her home would be in a parish which had a larger share of the world's misery.""Brooke ought not to allow it: he should insist on its being put off till she is of age. "No. She walked briskly in the brisk air. It was a sign of his good disposition that he did not slacken at all in his intention of carrying out Dorothea's design of the cottages.But of Mr. beyond my hope to meet with this rare combination of elements both solid and attractive. Casaubon." said Mr. 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. and an avenue of limes towards the southwest front. by God.

 you know--varium et mutabile semper--that kind of thing. I think. and would help me to live according to them."Mr. living among people with such petty thoughts?"No more was said; Dorothea was too much jarred to recover her temper and behave so as to show that she admitted any error in herself. Mark my words: in a year from this time that girl will hate him. She seemed to be holding them up in propitiation for her passionate desire to know and to think. "it would be nonsensical to expect that I could convince Brooke. But the best of Dodo was. with here and there an old vase below. and seemed to observe her newly. you know. But now. To have in general but little feeling. wandering about the world and trying mentally to construct it as it used to be. I think--lost herself--at any rate was disowned by her family. But this is no question of beauty. as if to check a too high standard.