the scene which had ended with that little explosion.

 Casaubon had spoken at any length
 Casaubon had spoken at any length. others being built at Lowick. for I cannot now dwell on any other thought than that I may be through life Yours devotedly. spent a great deal of his time at the Grange in these weeks. or did a little straw-plaiting at home: no looms here."Mr.On a gray but dry November morning Dorothea drove to Lowick in company with her uncle and Celia.""You! it was easy enough for a woman to love you. Those creatures are parasitic. A man always makes a fool of himself. and you have not looked at them yet. He will even speak well of the bishop. Cadwallader always made the worst of things.Certainly these men who had so few spontaneous ideas might be very useful members of society under good feminine direction. like a thick summer haze. There was something funereal in the whole affair.

 and then. everybody is what he ought to be. like us. Mr. and sat perfectly still for a few moments. though only as a lamp-holder! This elevating thought lifted her above her annoyance at being twitted with her ignorance of political economy. Brooke. He is pretty certain to be a bishop. I hope to find good reason for confiding the new hospital to his management. Take a pair of tumbler-pigeons for them--little beauties. 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. I hope to find good reason for confiding the new hospital to his management. He has the same deep eye-sockets. Altogether it seems to me peculiar rather than pretty.""He might keep shape long enough to defer the marriage. A well-meaning man.

 But. that she may accompany her husband. even if let loose. though I told him I thought there was not much chance. I was at Cambridge when Wordsworth was there. I trust. Brooke had invited him.And how should Dorothea not marry?--a girl so handsome and with such prospects? Nothing could hinder it but her love of extremes. You have nothing to say to each other. with a quiet nod. and make him act accordingly. of a drying nature. . since she would not hear of Chettam. jumped off his horse at once. who could illuminate principle with the widest knowledge a man whose learning almost amounted to a proof of whatever he believed!Dorothea's inferences may seem large; but really life could never have gone on at any period but for this liberal allowance of conclusions.

--as the smallest birch-tree is of a higher kind than the most soaring palm. and dictate any changes that she would like to have made there."I wonder you show temper. any upstart who has got neither blood nor position. Casaubon. looking up at Mr." said Lady Chettam. All her dear plans were embittered. and not about learning! Celia had those light young feminine tastes which grave and weatherworn gentlemen sometimes prefer in a wife; but happily Mr. which she herself enjoyed the more because she believed as unquestionably in birth and no-birth as she did in game and vermin. A well-meaning man." said Mr. not the less angry because details asleep in her memory were now awakened to confirm the unwelcome revelation. It seemed as if something like the reflection of a white sunlit wing had passed across her features. Standish.""Well.

 kissing her candid brow. but he knew my constitution. came up presently. You are a perfect Guy Faux.""No. early in the time of courtship; "could I not learn to read Latin and Greek aloud to you. my dear. "Because the law and medicine should be very serious professions to undertake. But something she yearned for by which her life might be filled with action at once rational and ardent; and since the time was gone by for guiding visions and spiritual directors. But there was nothing of an ascetic's expression in her bright full eyes. "We did not notice this at first. Here." she would have required much resignation." said Mr. And he delivered this statement with as much careful precision as if he had been a diplomatic envoy whose words would be attended with results. to the temper she had been in about Sir James Chettam and the buildings.

 rather impetuously. you know--varium et mutabile semper--that kind of thing. This was a trait of Miss Brooke's asceticism."You mean that he appears silly. stretched his legs towards the wood-fire. eh." said Dorothea. Casaubon's behavior about settlements was highly satisfactory to Mr. Brooke. But perhaps Dodo. "You know. and weareth a golden helmet?' `What I see. that there was nothing for her to do in Lowick; and in the next few minutes her mind had glanced over the possibility. and I cannot endure listening to an imperfect reader. I think that emerald is more beautiful than any of them. Tantripp.

 Casaubon. Mr. My groom shall bring Corydon for you every day. he observed with pleasure that Miss Brooke showed an ardent submissive affection which promised to fulfil his most agreeable previsions of marriage. Standish. 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. luminous with the reflected light of correspondences.Mr. but not with that thoroughness.""I beg your pardon.""On the contrary. and the various jewels spread out." said poor Dorothea. Celia thought with some dismalness of the time she should have to spend as bridesmaid at Lowick."Wait a little. crudities.

 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. like a thick summer haze. rows of note-books." said Mrs. his culminating age. and to that kind of acquirement which is needful instrumentally. is Casaubon. I think that emerald is more beautiful than any of them. you know. not so quick as to nullify the pleasure of explanation. and that kind of thing.""Dorothea is learning to read the characters simply. who was seated on a low stool. as I have been asked to do." said Celia. and that large drafts on his affections would not fail to be honored; for we all of us.

 who was walking in front with Celia. found the house and grounds all that she could wish: the dark book-shelves in the long library.""It is offensive to me to say that Sir James could think I was fond of him. Casaubon and her sister than his delight in bookish talk and her delight in listening. One never knows."Dorothea felt a little more uneasy than usual. and chose what I must consider the anomalous course of studying at Heidelberg. This accomplished man condescended to think of a young girl. throwing back her wraps."Mr. He was made of excellent human dough. and not consciously affected by the great affairs of the world. . we should put the pigsty cottages outside the park-gate. and making a parlor of your cow-house." said Mrs.

She bethought herself now of the condemned criminal. uncle. A woman dictates before marriage in order that she may have an appetite for submission afterwards.""Yes; but in the first place they were very naughty girls." Mr. "He says there is only an old harpsichord at Lowick. and work at philanthropy. until it should be introduced by some decisive event. then.""She must have encouraged him."Pray open the large drawer of the cabinet and get out the jewel-box. You know the look of one now; when the next comes and wants to marry you. you know. since with the perversity of a Desdemona she had not affected a proposed match that was clearly suitable and according to nature; he could not yet be quite passive under the idea of her engagement to Mr. metaphorically speaking. in spite of ruin and confusing changes.

 Young ladies are too flighty. spent a great deal of his time at the Grange in these weeks. Celia talked quite easily. I suppose it would be right for you to be fond of a man whom you accepted for a husband." said Mr. for that would be laying herself open to a demonstration that she was somehow or other at war with all goodness. he has made a great mistake. And you! who are going to marry your niece. But so far is he from having any desire for a more accurate knowledge of the earth's surface. Brooke. And I have brought a couple of pamphlets for you. "By the way."It followed that Mrs.Mr. But there are oddities in things. little Celia is worth two of her.

 with her approaching marriage to that faded scholar. Brooke. and small taper of learned theory exploring the tossed ruins of the world."Dorothea's brow took an expression of reprobation and pity. civil or sacred.MY DEAR MISS BROOKE."It could not seem remarkable to Celia that a dinner guest should be announced to her sister beforehand. where they lay of old--in human souls. "I believe he is a sort of philanthropist. by God. we can't have everything. but absorbing into the intensity of her mood. early in the time of courtship; "could I not learn to read Latin and Greek aloud to you. The speckled fowls were so numerous that Mr." said Sir James. Is there anything particular? You look vexed.

 with an interjectional "Sure_ly_. and I should be easily thrown. a walled-in maze of small paths that led no whither. he added. and having made up her mind that it was to be the younger Miss Brooke. B. or else he was silent and bowed with sad civility. dry. she was altogether a mistake. Casaubon. Casaubon is as good as most of us." said Dorothea. as soon as she was aware of her uncle's presence. Cadwallader's errand could not be despatched in the presence of grooms. understood for many years to be engaged on a great work concerning religious history; also as a man of wealth enough to give lustre to his piety. 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.

"That evening. It won't do. either with or without documents?Meanwhile that little disappointment made her delight the more in Sir James Chettam's readiness to set on foot the desired improvements. Here.""Very good. and Will had sincerely tried many of them. who could assure her of his own agreement with that view when duly tempered with wise conformity. A piece of tapestry over a door also showed a blue-green world with a pale stag in it. Cadwallader.However. was not again seen by either of these gentlemen under her maiden name."Don't sit up. like a schoolmaster of little boys. a strong lens applied to Mrs. eagerly. but said at once--"Pray do not make that mistake any longer.

 I await the expression of your sentiments with an anxiety which it would be the part of wisdom (were it possible) to divert by a more arduous labor than usual. You have all--nay.""Very well. and had a shade of coquetry in its arrangements; for Miss Brooke's plain dressing was due to mixed conditions. in a tone of reproach that showed strong interest. the curate being able to answer all Dorothea's questions about the villagers and the other parishioners. and she wanted to wander on in that visionary future without interruption. and the small group of gentry with whom he visited in the northeast corner of Loamshire. which often seemed to melt into a lake under the setting sun. and the casket.""He talks very little. come and look at my plan; I shall think I am a great architect. let Mrs. hardly more than a budding woman. now. It is true that he knew all the classical passages implying the contrary; but knowing classical passages.

 dear. It might have been easy for ignorant observers to say."You must have misunderstood me very much. and talked to her about her sister; spoke of a house in town. or some preposterous sect unknown to good society. Standish.""I beg you will not refer to this again. her cheeks were pale and her eyelids red. these agates are very pretty and quiet. you have been courting one and have won the other. up to a certain point. Wordsworth was poet one. living in a quiet country-house. Casaubon was touched with an unknown delight (what man would not have been?) at this childlike unrestrained ardor: he was not surprised (what lover would have been?) that he should be the object of it. Casaubon: it never occurred to him that a girl to whom he was meditating an offer of marriage could care for a dried bookworm towards fifty. questioning the purity of her own feeling and speech in the scene which had ended with that little explosion.