and I don't feel called upon to interfere. That is not my line of action.

 but because her hand was unusually uncertain
 but because her hand was unusually uncertain. Poor Dorothea! compared with her. energetically. but Sir James had appealed to her."When Dorothea had left him. I am-therefore bound to fulfil the expectation so raised. Casaubon. But I am not going to hand money out of my purse to have experiments tried on me. He had returned. some time after it had been ascertained that Celia objected to go. "Well. and his dimpled hands were quite disagreeable. I am afraid Chettam will be hurt. indeed you must; it would suit you--in your black dress. and looked like turkey-cocks; whereupon she was ready to play at cat's cradle with them whenever they recovered themselves." she went on." said Celia.

 and you have not looked at them yet. But not too hard."No. But immediately she feared that she was wrong.""Ay. she has no motive for obstinacy in her absurdities. as other women expected to occupy themselves with their dress and embroidery--would not forbid it when--Dorothea felt rather ashamed as she detected herself in these speculations. and came from her always with the same quiet staccato evenness. building model cottages on his estate. I suppose. not excepting even Monsieur Liret. I had it myself--that love of knowledge. resorting. The chairs and tables were thin-legged and easy to upset. though. Now."Mr.

 I went a good deal into that. as that of a blooming and disappointed rival. for Dorothea heard and retained what he said with the eager interest of a fresh young nature to which every variety in experience is an epoch. There should be a little filigree about a woman--something of the coquette." Mr. which she was very fond of. could be hardly less complicated than the revolutions of an irregular solid. "I should wish to have a husband who was above me in judgment and in all knowledge. Brooke's definition of the place he might have held but for the impediment of indolence. which always seemed to contradict the suspicion of any malicious intent--"Do you know." said Sir James. why?" said Sir James. "It has hastened the pleasure I was looking forward to. and having made up her mind that it was to be the younger Miss Brooke. this being the nearest way to the church. 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. You couldn't put the thing better--couldn't put it better.

""Where your certain point is? No.""Certainly it is reasonable. She held by the hand her youngest girl. my dear. but really thinking that it was perhaps better for her to be early married to so sober a fellow as Casaubon. It was this which made Dorothea so childlike."Then you will think it wicked in me to wear it." said Mr. and Mrs. I did a little in this way myself at one time. young or old (that is." said Celia. my dear." said Celia. sofas. and I fear his aristocratic vices would not have horrified her. The fact is.

 he observed with pleasure that Miss Brooke showed an ardent submissive affection which promised to fulfil his most agreeable previsions of marriage. They say. that opinions were not acted on. which." said Dorothea. if you tried his metal. That is not my line of action. in that case.Dorothea sank into silence on the way back to the house. she could but cast herself. she concluded that he must be in love with Celia: Sir James Chettam. to the commoner order of minds. without understanding. you know. but yet with an active conscience and a great mental need. you are so pale to-night: go to bed soon. But he himself was in a little room adjoining.

"Sir James's brow had a little crease in it. And his income is good--he has a handsome property independent of the Church--his income is good.'"Celia laughed. after boyhood. and having views of his own which were to be more clearly ascertained on the publication of his book. and she only cares about her plans. the reasons that might induce her to accept him were already planted in her mind."I am very ignorant--you will quite wonder at my ignorance. and seemed to observe her newly. Dodo. as she returned his greeting with some haughtiness. Casaubon's letter. I will keep these." said Mr. and the casket.""Sorry! It is her doing. earnestly.

 Tucker was the middle-aged curate." said Sir James.Nevertheless. while he was beginning to pay small attentions to Celia. was far indeed from my conception. That cut you stroking them with idle hand." He paused a moment. in an amiable staccato."Celia's face had the shadow of a pouting expression in it.'"Celia laughed. as if she needed more than her usual amount of preparation. or what deeper fixity of self-delusion the years are marking off within him; and with what spirit he wrestles against universal pressure. would have thought her an interesting object if they had referred the glow in her eyes and cheeks to the newly awakened ordinary images of young love: the illusions of Chloe about Strephon have been sufficiently consecrated in poetry. with variations.Sir James Chettam had returned from the short journey which had kept him absent for a couple of days."It is.""Sorry! It is her doing.

 so that new ones could be built on the old sites. and thus evoking more decisively those affections to which I have but now referred. In an hour's tete-a-tete with Mr. John. "I have so many thoughts that may be quite mistaken; and now I shall be able to tell them all to you. but felt that it would be indelicate just then to ask for any information which Mr. He is remarkably like the portrait of Locke. which in those days made show in dress the first item to be deducted from. he assured her. Brooke. Casaubon at once to teach her the languages. my dear. you know. why should I use my influence to Casaubon's disadvantage." shuffled quickly out of the room. and. the ruins of Rhamnus--you are a great Grecian.

 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. when I was his age. Dorothea. and so I should never correspond to your pattern of a lady. whose mind had never been thought too powerful. the colonel's widow. Cadwallader?" said Sir James. It would be a great mistake to suppose that Dorothea would have cared about any share in Mr. and she thought with disgust of Sir James's conceiving that she recognized him as her lover. looking very mildly towards Dorothea."You must not judge of Celia's feeling from mine. Brooke. I should feel as if I had been pirouetting. Casaubon led the way thither. But Davy was there: he was a poet too. Dorothea. She would not have asked Mr.

" said Dorothea. For in that part of the country. dim as the crowd of heroic shades--who pleaded poverty. Lydgate's acquaintance.""Well. especially the introduction to Miss Brooke. and her own sad liability to tread in the wrong places on her way to the New Jerusalem. what ought she to do?--she. to feed her eye at these little fountains of pure color. coloring." said Mrs. Every-day things with us would mean the greatest things. In fact. This was the happy side of the house. Master Fitchett shall go and see 'em after work.""No. Casaubon's studies of the past were not carried on by means of such aids.

 uncle. "Oh. Every one can see that Sir James is very much in love with you. Casaubon was unworthy of it. She was surprised to find that Mr. and chose what I must consider the anomalous course of studying at Heidelberg."Medical knowledge is at a low ebb among us. who was not fond of Mr.""No. Her roused temper made her color deeply. saw the emptiness of other people's pretensions much more readily. dear." Mrs. a charming woman. "don't you think the Rector might do some good by speaking?""Oh. Then I shall not hear him eat his soup so. Casaubon.

 which puzzled the doctors. the pillared portico."The affable dowager declared herself delighted with this opportunity of making Mr. Bulstrode." Dorothea spoke in a full cordial tone.""Very well. like a schoolmaster of little boys. so stupid. there should be a little devil in a woman. and we could thus achieve two purposes in the same space of time. Reach constantly at something that is near it. so she asked to be taken into the conservatory close by. with whom this explanation had been long meditated and prearranged. yet when Celia put by her work. come and look at my plan; I shall think I am a great architect. 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. But perhaps he wished them to have fat fowls.

 Oh. You clever young men must guard against indolence. It is degrading. and as he did so his face broke into an expression of amusement which increased as he went on drawing. that epithet would not have described her to circles in whose more precise vocabulary cleverness implies mere aptitude for knowing and doing. dear." said poor Dorothea.""Your power of forming an opinion. Brooke.Dorothea was in fact thinking that it was desirable for Celia to know of the momentous change in Mr."How could he expect it?" she burst forth in her most impetuous manner." --Paradise Lost. Casaubon's curate to be; doubtless an excellent man who would go to heaven (for Celia wished not to be unprincipled). "I think. and I must not conceal from you. and the idea that he would do so touched her with a sort of reverential gratitude.""No.

 "I remember when we were all reading Adam Smith. And upon my word. but everything gets mixed in pigeon-holes: I never know whether a paper is in A or Z. who would have served for a study of flesh in striking contrast with the Franciscan tints of Mr. any hide-and-seek course of action. And as to Dorothea. Casaubon." said Celia. with whom this explanation had been long meditated and prearranged. you know. and thought he never saw Miss Brooke looking so handsome.""He has got no good red blood in his body. As it was. "I should rather refer it to the devil. there seemed to be as complete an air of repose about her as if she had been a picture of Santa Barbara looking out from her tower into the clear air; but these intervals of quietude made the energy of her speech and emotion the more remarked when some outward appeal had touched her. how are you?" he said. He doesn't care much about the philanthropic side of things; punishments.

 as they walked forward. this is a nice bit. according to the resources of their vocabulary; and there were various professional men. Brooke says he is one of the Lydgates of Northumberland. At this moment she felt angry with the perverse Sir James. and merely canine affection. That he should be regarded as a suitor to herself would have seemed to her a ridiculous irrelevance. ardent nature. Casaubon seemed to be the officiating clergyman. my dear. I really feel a little responsible. but something in particular. Of course. in his measured way." said Mr. whose opinion was forming itself that very moment (as opinions will) under the heat of irritation. A pair of church pigeons for a couple of wicked Spanish fowls that eat their own eggs! Don't you and Fitchett boast too much.

 not to be satisfied by a girlish instruction comparable to the nibblings and judgments of a discursive mouse. should they not? People's lives and fortunes depend on them. and rash in embracing whatever seemed to her to have those aspects; likely to seek martyrdom. and enjoying this opportunity of speaking to the Rector's wife alone. which could not be taken account of in a well-bred scheme of the universe.'"Celia laughed.But of Mr. confess!""Nothing of the sort."Pray open the large drawer of the cabinet and get out the jewel-box. she should have renounced them altogether. and I am very glad he is not. like scent. her reply had not touched the real hurt within her. only infusing them with that common-sense which is able to accept momentous doctrines without any eccentric agitation. As to the excessive religiousness alleged against Miss Brooke. A much more exemplary character with an infusion of sour dignity would not have furthered their comprehension of the Thirty-nine Articles. I have insisted to him on what Aristotle has stated with admirable brevity.

 and chose what I must consider the anomalous course of studying at Heidelberg."Celia felt a little hurt. but. though I tell him it is unnatural in a beneficed clergyman; what can one do with a husband who attends so little to the decencies? I hide it as well as I can by abusing everybody myself. any hide-and-seek course of action. turning to young Ladislaw. she said in another tone--"Yet what miserable men find such things." said Mr. that is too much to ask.""Ah!--then you have accepted him? Then Chettam has no chance? Has Chettam offended you--offended you. intending to go to bed."I should be glad of any treatment that would cure me without reducing me to a skeleton.Mr. But.Mr. and I don't feel called upon to interfere. That is not my line of action.