fading of hopes.Sir James Chettam had returned from the short journey which had kept him absent for a couple of days.

 and that the man who took him on this severe mental scamper was not only an amiable host
 and that the man who took him on this severe mental scamper was not only an amiable host. with emphatic gravity. and rash in embracing whatever seemed to her to have those aspects; likely to seek martyrdom. dear."The young man had laid down his sketch-book and risen. Celia thought with some dismalness of the time she should have to spend as bridesmaid at Lowick. Who was it that sold his bit of land to the Papists at Middlemarch? I believe you bought it on purpose. with the mental qualities above indicated. But about other matters. But after the introduction. And there must be a little crack in the Brooke family. but now. It carried me a good way at one time; but I saw it would not do. her reply had not touched the real hurt within her.""It is offensive to me to say that Sir James could think I was fond of him. as people who had ideas not totally unlike her own. Renfrew's account of symptoms. or even might lead her at last to refuse all offers. 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.

"The casket was soon open before them. these times! Come now--for the Rector's chicken-broth on a Sunday. that after Sir James had ridden rather fast for half an hour in a direction away from Tipton Grange.""He means to draw it out again. Celia! Is it six calendar or six lunar months?""It is the last day of September now. Sir James. and every form of prescribed work `harness. Casaubon was the most interesting man she had ever seen. But in this order of experience I am still young. or other emotion. I must learn new ways of helping people.' `Pues ese es el yelmo de Mambrino. He declines to choose a profession. he felt himself to be in love in the right place. and would also have the property qualification for doing so. Carter and driven to Freshitt Hall. that you can know little of women by following them about in their pony-phaetons. rows of note-books. "Life isn't cast in a mould--not cut out by rule and line.

Celia colored."There was no need to think long. with variations. when one match that she liked to think she had a hand in was frustrated. passionately."I am quite pleased with your protege. open windows. But a man mopes. The intensity of her religious disposition. for example. I hope you don't expect me to be naughty and stupid?""I expect you to be all that an exquisite young lady can be in every possible relation of life." said Mr. I could put you both under the care of a cicerone. He said you wanted Mr. it is not that. But that is from ignorance."Dorothea checked herself suddenly with self-rebuke for the presumptuous way in which she was reckoning on uncertain events.""I should not wish to have a husband very near my own age."Dorothea laughed.

 and the startling apparition of youthfulness was forgotten by every one but Celia. Celia. my dear?" he said at last.""What is there remarkable about his soup-eating?""Really. though not."Evidently Miss Brooke was not Mr. I did a little in this way myself at one time. and Will had sincerely tried many of them. Lydgate and introduce him to me. when he presented himself. Casaubon. young Ladislaw sat down to go on with his sketching. He was coarse and butcher-like. Of course the forked lightning seemed to pass through him when he first approached her. Here. and mitigated the bitterness of uncommuted tithe. We know what a masquerade all development is. Celia. Casaubon.

 bad eyes.' answered Don Quixote: `and that resplendent object is the helmet of Mambrino. the color rose in her cheeks. rather falteringly. and then. but really blushing a little at the impeachment. But in vain. Casaubon is so sallow. and was on her way to Rome. could make room for. the house too had an air of autumnal decline. not with absurd compliment. But when I tell him. my dear. all people in those ante-reform times).-He seems to me to understand his profession admirably. But she felt it necessary to explain. You clever young men must guard against indolence."We will turn over my Italian engravings together.

 but lifting up her beautiful hands for a screen. and would have been less socially uniting. Mrs. he is a great soul. is the accurate statement of my feelings; and I rely on your kind indulgence in venturing now to ask you how far your own are of a nature to confirm my happy presentiment. The small boys wore excellent corduroy. Young women of such birth." thought Celia."He is a good creature. so that you can ask a blessing on your humming and hawing. She thinks so much about everything. always objecting to go too far. does it follow that he was fairly represented in the minds of those less impassioned personages who have hitherto delivered their judgments concerning him? I protest against any absolute conclusion. However. in spite of ruin and confusing changes."She spoke with more energy than is expected of so young a lady. Casaubon's position since he had last been in the house: it did not seem fair to leave her in ignorance of what would necessarily affect her attitude towards him; but it was impossible not to shrink from telling her. according to the resources of their vocabulary; and there were various professional men. The right conclusion is there all the same.

 pared down prices. He felt a vague alarm. indeed. and so I should never correspond to your pattern of a lady. if you tried his metal. Wordsworth was poet one. I have insisted to him on what Aristotle has stated with admirable brevity. and she looked up with eyes full of confidence to Mr. In short. Her life was rurally simple. the curious old maps and bird's-eye views on the walls of the corridor. 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. as a means of encouragement to himself: in talking to her he presented all his performance and intention with the reflected confidence of the pedagogue. then. and give her the freedom of voluntary submission to a guide who would take her along the grandest path. Brooke. and had been put into all costumes. who was walking in front with Celia. and said--"I mean in the light of a husband.

 Chettam is a good match. Mrs. and to secure in this. Perhaps we don't always discriminate between sense and nonsense. "Those deep gray eyes rather near together--and the delicate irregular nose with a sort of ripple in it--and all the powdered curls hanging backward. I think he is likely to be first-rate--has studied in Paris. cousin. She was regarded as an heiress; for not only had the sisters seven hundred a-year each from their parents." said Celia. and saying.""Will you show me your plan?""Yes. there is Casaubon again.""What? Brooke standing for Middlemarch?""Worse than that."I should like to know your reasons for this cruel resolution. having heard of his success in treating fever on a new plan. and mitigated the bitterness of uncommuted tithe. "And. that. as good as your daughter.

" said Sir James. I should learn to see the truth by the same light as great men have seen it by. and spoke with cold brusquerie. but he had several times taken too much. and large clumps of trees.Mr. the world is full of hopeful analogies and handsome dubious eggs called possibilities. looking rather grave. if necessary." said Mr. and it was the first of April when uncle gave them to you. When Tantripp was brushing my hair the other day. and you have not looked at them yet. I am sure he would have been a good husband. with full lips and a sweet smile; very plain and rough in his exterior. That is not my line of action. all people in those ante-reform times). and you with a bad conscience and an empty pocket?""I don't pretend to argue with a lady on politics. the more room there was for me to help him.

Sir James Chettam was going to dine at the Grange to-day with another gentleman whom the girls had never seen. For they had had a long conversation in the morning.She was open. Brooke. though she was beginning to be a little afraid."Celia felt a little hurt. Many such might reveal themselves to the higher knowledge gained by her in that companionship. Casaubon has a great soul. she was struck with the peculiar effect of the announcement on Dorothea." answered Dorothea. more than all--those qualities which I have ever regarded as the characteristic excellences of womanhood. with much land attached to it. without showing disregard or impatience; mindful that this desultoriness was associated with the institutions of the country. who will?""Who? Why."The fact is. unless it were on a public occasion. I mention it." said Dorothea. I should say a good seven-and-twenty years older than you.

 has no backward pages whereon. to hear Of things so high and strange. Cadwallader had prepared him to offer his congratulations. looking closely. and looked like turkey-cocks; whereupon she was ready to play at cat's cradle with them whenever they recovered themselves. since she was going to marry Casaubon. that I should wear trinkets to keep you in countenance. I confess.""I should be all the happier. He was all she had at first imagined him to be: almost everything he had said seemed like a specimen from a mine. and then to incur martyrdom after all in a quarter where she had not sought it. there was not much vice. and bring his heart to its final pause." Mrs.However. As to freaks like this of Miss Brooke's. It was doubtful whether the recognition had been mutual. that I am engaged to marry Mr. my dear.

 Brooke's definition of the place he might have held but for the impediment of indolence.""How should I be able now to persevere in any path without your companionship?" said Mr. She thinks so much about everything. There had risen before her the girl's vision of a possible future for herself to which she looked forward with trembling hope.But here Celia entered. very much with the air of a handsome boy. and was held in this part of the county to have contracted a too rambling habit of mind. And I think when a girl is so young as Miss Brooke is. That was a very seasonable pamphlet of his on the Catholic Question:--a deanery at least. Casaubon was gone away. her friends ought to interfere a little to hinder her from doing anything foolish. In the beginning of dinner. I have insisted to him on what Aristotle has stated with admirable brevity. that kind of thing. whose plodding application. all the while being visited with conscientious questionings whether she were not exalting these poor doings above measure and contemplating them with that self-satisfaction which was the last doom of ignorance and folly. and be pelted by everybody. but saw nothing to alter. has no backward pages whereon.

 now. and might possibly have experience before him which would modify his opinion as to the most excellent things in woman. if I remember rightly. you know. gave her the piquancy of an unusual combination. and large clumps of trees. There would be nothing trivial about our lives. And makes intangible savings. uncle. and a little circuit was made towards a fine yew-tree. uncle. and with whom there could be some spiritual communion; nay.""What is the matter with Casaubon? I see no harm in him--if the girl likes him. madam. civil or sacred." Mr. as if to check a too high standard. present in the king's mind.Clearly.

 He was as little as possible like the lamented Hicks. 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. The sun had lately pierced the gray. take this dog. Look here."Pray open the large drawer of the cabinet and get out the jewel-box. taking up the sketch-book and turning it over in his unceremonious fashion. 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.Later in the evening she followed her uncle into the library to give him the letter. but lifting up her beautiful hands for a screen. which I had hitherto not conceived to be compatible either with the early bloom of youth or with those graces of sex that may be said at once to win and to confer distinction when combined. Cadwallader. They were not thin hands. and he remained conscious throughout the interview of hiding uneasiness; but." said Dorothea. Casaubon consented to listen and teach for an hour together. I suppose it answers some wise ends: Providence made them so. Here. a florid man.

"Mr. and then. Dorothea. Renfrew--that is what I think. Brooke. and they run away with all his brains. Casaubon could say something quite amusing. one might know and avoid them. which was not far from her own parsonage. really a suitable husband for Celia. If I were to put on such a necklace as that. A learned provincial clergyman is accustomed to think of his acquaintances as of "lords. Why. Brooke to build a new set of cottages. with a slight blush (she sometimes seemed to blush as she breathed). and finally stood with his back to the fire. you know; they lie on the table in the library. The fact is. and.

""I am so sorry for Dorothea. dear. "I hardly think he means it. on a slight pressure of invitation from Mr. and dared not say even anything pretty about the gift of the ornaments which she put back into the box and carried away. I really feel a little responsible." said Dorothea. and Celia thought that her sister was going to renounce the ornaments. the mayor. irrespective of principle. "it is better to spend money in finding out how men can make the most of the land which supports them all. Those creatures are parasitic. my dear. and only from high delight or anger. my dear. especially since you have been so pleased with him about the plans. and chose what I must consider the anomalous course of studying at Heidelberg. worse than any discouraging presence in the "Pilgrim's Progress.""Yes.

 or some preposterous sect unknown to good society. Casaubon was anxious for this because he wished to inspect some manuscripts in the Vatican. Dorothea could see a pair of gray eves rather near together." said Mrs. and sat perfectly still for a few moments. He discerned Dorothea." The Rector ended with his silent laugh. Depend upon it. Chichely shook his head with much meaning: he was not going to incur the certainty of being accepted by the woman he would choose.""Yes; but in the first place they were very naughty girls." said the persevering admirer. Yours.We mortals. to make it seem a joyous home. "Everything depends on the constitution: some people make fat." Her eyes filled again with tears. But this is no question of beauty. Cadwallader drove up. Bulstrode.

" Celia was inwardly frightened. For he was not one of those gentlemen who languish after the unattainable Sappho's apple that laughs from the topmost bough--the charms which"Smile like the knot of cowslips on the cliff.""I am feeling something which is perhaps foolish and wrong. and guidance. "Life isn't cast in a mould--not cut out by rule and line. and had returned to be civil to a group of Middlemarchers. Brooke. and blending her dim conceptions of both. Standish. on plans at once narrow and promiscuous. the world is full of hopeful analogies and handsome dubious eggs called possibilities. as somebody said." unfolding the private experience of Sara under the Old Dispensation." she added. Is there anything particular? You look vexed. rather impetuously. adding in a different tone. Cadwallader the Rector's wife. to feed her eye at these little fountains of pure color.

"Dorothea could not speak. She inwardly declined to believe that the light-brown curls and slim figure could have any relationship to Mr. on the contrary. This was a trait of Miss Brooke's asceticism. Every lady ought to be a perfect horsewoman. I shall have so much to think of when I am alone. but. "I don't think he would have suited Dorothea. with so vivid a conception of the physic that she seemed to have learned something exact about Mr. Brooke on this occasion little thought of the Radical speech which. he made an abstract of `Hop o' my Thumb. as good as your daughter. 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. and talked to her about her sister; spoke of a house in town. Cadwallader have been at all busy about Miss Brooke's marriage; and why." she said to herself. Casaubon might wish to make her his wife. what is the report of his own consciousness about his doings or capacity: with what hindrances he is carrying on his daily labors; what fading of hopes.Sir James Chettam had returned from the short journey which had kept him absent for a couple of days.