BOOK I.
MISS BROOKE 0
.
CHAPTER I. " Since
I 1
can do no good because
a woman 2
, Reach constantly at something that is near it .
--
The Maid 3
's Tragedy :
BEAUMONT 4
AND
FLETCHER 5
.
Miss Brooke 0
had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress .
Her 0
hand and wrist were so finely formed that
she 0
could wear sleeves not less bare of style than those in which
the Blessed Virgin 6
appeared to
Italian painters 7
; and
her 0
profile as well as
her 0
stature and bearing seemed to gain the more dignity from
her 0
plain garments , which by the side of provincial fashion gave
her 0
the impressiveness of a fine quotation from the Bible , -- or from one of
, -- in a paragraph of to-day 's newspaper .
She 0
was usually spoken of as being remarkably clever , but with the addition that
Celia 10
had more common-sense .
Nevertheless ,
Celia 10
wore scarcely more trimmings ; and it was only to
close observers 11
that
her 10
dress differed from
's , and had a shade of coquetry in its arrangements ; for
Miss Brooke 0
's plain dressing was due to mixed conditions , in most of which
shared .
The pride of being
ladies 12
had something to do with it : the
Brooke 13
connections , though not exactly aristocratic , were unquestionably " good : " if
you 14
inquired backward for a generation or two ,
you 15
would not find any yard-measuring or parcel-tying
forefathers 16
-- anything lower than
an admiral 17
or a
clergyman 18
; and there was even
an ancestor 19
discernible as
a Puritan gentleman who served under
Cromwell 20
19 , but afterwards conformed , and managed to come out of all political troubles as
the proprietor of a respectable family estate 19
.
Young women of such birth 21
, living in
a quiet country-house 22
, and attending
a village church 23
hardly larger than
a parlor 24
, naturally regarded frippery as the ambition of
a huckster 25
's daughter
26 .
Then there was well-bred economy , which in those days made show in dress the first item to be deducted from , when any margin was required for expenses more distinctive of rank .
Such reasons would have been enough to account for plain dress , quite apart from religious feeling ; but in
Miss Brooke 0
's case , religion alone would have determined it ; and
Celia 10
mildly acquiesced in all
's sentiments , only infusing them with that common-sense which is able to accept momentous doctrines without any eccentric agitation .
Dorothea 0
knew many passages of
Pascal 27
's Pensees and of
Jeremy Taylor 28
by heart ; and to
her 0
the destinies of
mankind 29
, seen by the light of Christianity , made the solicitudes of feminine fashion appear an occupation for Bedlam .
She 0
could not reconcile the anxieties of a spiritual life involving eternal consequences , with a keen interest in gimp and artificial protrusions of drapery .
Her 0
mind was theoretic , and yearned by its nature after some lofty conception of
the world 30
which might frankly include
the parish of Tipton 31
and
her 0
own rule of conduct
there 31
;
she 0
was enamoured of intensity and greatness , and rash in embracing whatever seemed to
her 0
to have those aspects ; likely to seek martyrdom , to make retractations , and then to incur martyrdom after all in a quarter where
she 0
had not sought it .
Certainly such elements in the character of
a marriageable girl 32
tended to interfere with
her 0
lot , and hinder it from being decided according to custom , by good looks , vanity , and merely canine affection .
With all this ,
she 0
,
the elder of
the sisters 21
90 , was not yet twenty , and
they 21
had both been educated , since
they 21
were about twelve years old and had lost
, on plans at once narrow and promiscuous , first in
an English family 34
and afterwards in
a Swiss family at
Lausanne 36
35 ,
their 21
bachelor uncle and guardian
37 trying in this way to remedy the disadvantages of
their 21
orphaned condition .
It was hardly a year since
they 21
had come to live at
Tipton Grange 38
with
,
a man nearly sixty 84
, of acquiescent temper , miscellaneous opinions , and uncertain vote .
He 37
had travelled in
his 37
younger years , and was held in this part of
the county 39
to have contracted a too rambling habit of mind .
Mr. Brooke 37
's conclusions were as difficult to predict as the weather : it was only safe to say that
he 37
would act with benevolent intentions , and that
he 37
would spend as little money as possible in carrying them out .
For the most glutinously indefinite minds enclose some hard grains of habit ; and
a man 40
has been seen lax about all
his 40
own interests except the retention of
his 40
snuff-box , concerning which
he 40
was watchful , suspicious , and greedy of clutch .
In
Mr. Brooke 37
the hereditary strain of Puritan energy was clearly in abeyance ; but in
Dorothea 0
it glowed alike through faults and virtues , turning sometimes into impatience of
's talk or
his 37
way of " letting things be " on
his 37
estate , and making
her 0
long all the more for the time when
she 0
would be of age and have some command of money for generous schemes .
She 0
was regarded as
an heiress 85
; for not only had
the sisters 21
seven hundred a-year each from
, but if
Dorothea 0
married and had
a son 41
,
that son 41
would inherit
Mr. Brooke 37
's estate , presumably worth about three thousand a-year -- a rental which seemed wealth to
provincial families 42
, still discussing
Mr. Peel 43
's late conduct on the
Catholic 44
question , innocent of future gold-fields , and of that gorgeous plutocracy which has so nobly exalted the necessities of genteel life .
And how should
Dorothea 0
not marry ?
--
a girl so handsome and with such prospects 0
?
Nothing could hinder it but
her 0
love of extremes , and
her 0
insistence on regulating life according to notions which might cause
a wary man 45
to hesitate before
he 45
made
her 0
an offer , or even might lead
her 0
at last to refuse all offers .
A young lady of some birth and fortune 0
, who knelt suddenly down on a brick floor by the side of
a sick laborer 46
and prayed fervidly as if
she 0
thought
herself 0
living in the time of
the Apostles 47
-- who had strange whims of fasting like
a Papist 48
, and of sitting up at night to read old theological books !
Such a wife 49
might awaken
you 50
some fine morning with a new scheme for the application of
her 49
income which would interfere with political economy and the keeping of saddle-horses :
a man 51
would naturally think twice before
he 51
risked
himself 51
in such fellowship .
Women 52
were expected to have weak opinions ; but the great safeguard of society and of domestic life was , that opinions were not acted on .
Sane people 53
did what
did , so that if
any lunatics 55
were at large , one might know and avoid
them 55
.
The rural opinion about
the new young ladies 21
, even among
the cottagers 56
, was generally in favor of
Celia 10
, as being so amiable and innocent-looking , while
Miss Brooke 0
's large eyes seemed , like
her 0
religion , too unusual and striking .
Poor
Dorothea 0
!
compared with
her 0
,
the innocent-looking Celia 10
was knowing and worldly-wise ; so much subtler is a human mind than the outside tissues which make a sort of blazonry or clock-face for it .
Yet those who approached
Dorothea 0
, though prejudiced against
her 0
by this alarming hearsay , found that
she 0
had a charm unaccountably reconcilable with it .
Most men 57
thought
her 0
bewitching when
she 0
was on horseback .
She 0
loved the fresh air and the various aspects of
the country 58
, and when
her 0
eyes and cheeks glowed with mingled pleasure
she 0
looked very little like
a devotee 59
.
Riding was an indulgence which
she 0
allowed
herself 0
in spite of conscientious qualms ;
she 0
felt that
she 0
enjoyed it in a pagan sensuous way , and always looked forward to renouncing it .
She 0
was open , ardent , and not in the least self-admiring ; indeed , it was pretty to see how
her 0
imagination adorned
Celia 10
with attractions altogether superior to
her 0
own , and if
any gentleman 60
appeared to come to
the Grange 38
from some other motive than that of seeing
Mr. Brooke 37
,
she 0
concluded that
he 60
must be in love with
Celia 10
:
Sir James Chettam 61
, for example , whom
she 0
constantly considered from
Celia 10
's point of view , inwardly debating whether it would be good for
Celia 10
to accept
him 61
.
That
he 61
should be regarded as
would have seemed to
her 0
a ridiculous irrelevance .
Dorothea 0
, with all
her 0
eagerness to know the truths of life , retained very childlike ideas about marriage .
She 0
felt sure that
she 0
would have accepted
the judicious Hooker 63
, if
she 0
had been born in time to save
him 0
from that wretched mistake
he 0
made in matrimony ; or
John Milton 64
when
his 64
blindness had come on ; or
any of the other great men whose odd habits it would have been glorious piety to endure 83
; but
an amiable handsome baronet 65
, who said " Exactly " to
her 0
remarks even when
she 0
expressed uncertainty , -- how could
he 65
affect
her 0
as
a lover 86
?
The really delightful marriage must be that where
was a sort of
father 68
, and could teach
you 69
even Hebrew , if
you 70
wished it .
These peculiarities of
Dorothea 's character 0
caused
Mr. Brooke 37
to be all the more blamed in neighboring families for not securing
some middle-aged lady 71
as
guide and companion to
87 .
But
he 37
himself 37
dreaded so much the sort of
superior woman 72
likely to be available for such a position , that
he 37
allowed
himself 37
to be dissuaded by
Dorothea 0
's objections , and was in this case brave enough to defy
the world 30
-- that is to say ,
Mrs. Cadwallader 73
, and
the small group of gentry with whom
he 74
visited in
the northeast corner of Loamshire 76
75 .
So
Miss Brooke 0
presided in
's
household 22
, and did not at all dislike
her 0
new authority , with the homage that belonged to it .
Sir James Chettam 61
was going to dine at the Grange to-day with
another gentleman whom
the girls 21
had never seen
77 , and about whom
Dorothea 0
felt some venerating expectation .
This was the
Reverend Edward Casaubon 77
, noted in
the county 39
as
a man of profound learning 89
, 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 77
piety
91 , and having views of
his 77
own which were to be more clearly ascertained on the publication of
his 77
book .
His 77
very name carried an impressiveness hardly to be measured without a precise chronology of scholarship .
Early in the day
Dorothea 0
had returned from
the infant school 78
which
she 0
had set going in
the village 79
, and was taking
her 0
usual place in
the pretty sitting-room which divided
the bedrooms 81
of
the sisters 21
80 , bent on finishing a plan for
some buildings 82
( a kind of work which
she 0
delighted in ) , when
Celia 10
, who had been watching
her 0
with a hesitating desire to propose something , said --