 CHAPTER 84 THOUGH IT BE SONG OF OLD AND YOUNG THAT I SHOULD BE INFANTINE BUDDHA WAS SHELTERED by his sacred umbrella with handsome silk and fringe. The ladies also talked politics, though more fitfully. Mrs. Cadwallader was strong on the intended creation of peers. She had it for certain from her cousin that Trouberry had gone over to the other side entirely at the instigation of his wife, who had scented peerages in the air from the very first introduction of the reform question, and would sign her soul away to take precedence of her younger sister, who had married a baronet. Lady Chetam thought that such conduct was very reprehensible, and remembered that Mrs. Trouberry's mother was a Miss Walshingham of Melspring. Celia confessed it was nicer to be lady than Mrs., and that Doudoe never minded about precedence if she could have her own way. Mrs. Cadwallader held that it was a poor satisfaction to take precedence when everybody about you knew that you had not a drop of good blood in your veins, and Celia, again, stopping to look at Arthur, said, It should be very nice, though, if he were a vicant, and his lordship's little tooth coming through, he might have been if James had been an earl. My dear Celia, said the Dowager, James' title is worth far more than any new earldom. I never wished his father to be anything else than Sir James. Oh, I only meant about Arthur's little tooth, said Celia, comfortably, but see, here's my uncle coming. She tripped off to meet her uncle, whilst her James and Mr. Cadwallader came forward to make one group with the ladies. Celia had slipped her arm through her uncles, and he patted her hand with a rather melancholy. Well, my dear, as they approached, it was evident that Mr. Brook was looking, dejected, and this was fully accounted for by the state of politics, and as he was shaking hands all round without more greeting than a, well, you're all here, you know. And the rector said, laughingly, Don't take the throwing out of the bill so much to heart, Brook. You've got all the riffraff of the country on your side. The bill, eh? Ah! said Mr. Brook, with a mild distractedness of manner. Throw it out, you know, eh? The lords are going too far, though. They'll have to pull up. Sad news, you know. I mean, here at home, sad news. But you must not blame me to them. What is the matter? said Sir James. Not another gamekeeper, short, I hope. It's what I should expect when a fellow like Trapping Bass is let off so easily. Gamekeeper? And no, let us go in. I can tell you all in the house, you know. Said Mr. Brook, gnarling at the cad-waladers, to show that he included them in his confidence. As to poachers, like Trapping Bass, you know, Chetam. He continued as they were entering. When you were a mad straight, you'll not find it so easy to commit. Severity is all very well. But it's a great deal easier when you've got somebody to do it for you. You have a soft place in your heart yourself, you know. You're not a draco, a Jeffries, that sort of thing. Mr. Brook was evidently in a state of nervous perturbation. When he had something painful to tell, it was usually his way to introduce it among a number of disjointed particulars, as if it were a medicine that would get a milder flavour by mixing. He continued his chat with Sir James about the poachers until they were all seated. And Mrs. Cadwalader, impatient of this dribbling, said, I'm dying to know the sad news. The gamekeeper is not short that he's settled. What is it then? Well, it's a very trying thing, you know, said Mr. Brook. I'm glad you and the Rector are here. It's a family matter. But you will help us all to bear it, Cadwalader. I've got to break it to you, my dear. Here, Mr. Brook looked at Celia. You've no notion what it is, you know, and Chetam it will annoy you uncommonly. But, you see, you have not been able to hinder it any more than I have. There's something singular in things. They come round, you know. It must be about Dodo, said Celia, who had been used to think of her sister as the dangerous part of the family machinery. She had seated herself on a low stool against her husband's knee. For God's sake, let us hear what it is! said Sir James. Well, you know, Chetam, I couldn't help Casabon's will. It was a sort of will to make things worse. Exactly, said Sir James. But what is worse? Dorothy is going to be married again, you know, said Mr. Brook nodding toward Celia, who immediately looked up at her husband for the frightened glance, and put her hand on his knee. Sir James was almost white with anger, but he did not speak. Massive of heaven! said Mrs. Cadwalader, not too young lad as law. Brook nodded, saying, Yes, too lad as law, and then fell into a prudential silence. You see, Humphrey, said Mrs. Cadwalader, waving her arm towards her husband. Another time you'll admit that I have some foresight. I'd rather you will contradict me and be just as blind as ever. You suppose that the young gentleman has gone out of the country? So he might be, and yet come back, said the rector quietly. When did you learn this? said Sir James, not lucky to hear any one else speak, though finding it difficult to speak himself. Yesterday, said Mr. Brook meekly, I went to Loick, Dorothea's centre-meet, you know. It had come about quite suddenly. Neither of them had any idea two days ago, not any idea, you know. There's something singular in things, but Dorothea's quite determined. It is no use opposing. I put it strongly to her. I did my duty to judge him, but she can act as she likes, you know. It would have been better if I had called him out and shot him a year ago, said Sir James, not from a bloody mindedness, but because he needed something strong to say. Really, James, that would have been very disagreeable. Said Celia. Be reasonable to them. Look at the affair more quietly, said Mr. Cadwalador. Sorry to see his good-natured friends so overmastered by anger. That is not so very easy for a man of any dignity, with any sense of right, when the affair happens to be in his own family. Said Sir James, still in his white indignation. It is perfectly scandalous. If Ladislaw had had a spark of honour, he would have gone out of the country at once and never shown his face in it again. However, I am not surprised. The day after the Casabon's funeral, I said what ought to be done, but I was not listened to. You wanted what was impossible, you know, Chetam. Said Mr. Rook, you wanted him shipped off. I don't do that as that was not to be done as we liked with. He has his ideas. He was a remarkable fellow. I always said he was a remarkable fellow. Yes, said Sir James, unable to repress a retort. It is rather a pity you formed that high opinion of him. We are indebted to that for his being lodged in his neighbourhood. We are indebted to that for seeing a woman like Dorothea degrading herself by marrying him. So James made a little stoppage between his clauses. The word is not coming easily. A man so marked by her husband's will that delicacy ought to have forbidden her from seeing him again. O, takes her out of a proper rank. Into poverty has the madness to accept such a sacrifice, has always had the objectionable position, a bad origin, and, I believe, is a man of little principle and light character. That is my opinion. So James ended emphatically, turning aside and crossing his leg. I pointed everything out to her, said Mr. Rook apologetically. I mean the poverty in abandoning her position. I said, my dear, you don't know what it is to live on seven hundred a year and have no character in that kind of thing, and go amongst people who don't know who you are. I put it strongly to her. But I advise you to talk to Dorothea yourself. The fact is, she has a dislike to Casablan's property. You will hear what she says, you know. No, excuse me, I shall not. Said Sir James with more coolness. I cannot bear to see her again. It is too painful. It hurts me too much that a woman like Dorothea should have done what is wrong. Be just, Chateau, said the easy, large-lipped rector, who objected to all this unnecessary discomfort. Mrs. Casablan may be acting imprudently. She is giving up a fortune for the sake of a man, and we men have so poor an opinion of each other that we can hardly call the woman wise who does that. But I think you should not condemn it as a wrong action in the strict sense of the word. Yes, I do. Answered Sir James. I think that Dorothea commits a wrong action in marrying Ladislaw. My dear fellow, we are rather apt to consider an act wrong because it is unpleasant to us, said the rector quietly. Like many men who take life easily, he had the knack of saying a home-truth occasionally to those who felt themselves virtuously out of temper. So James took out his handkerchief and began to bite the corner. It is very dreadful of Dorothea, though, said Celia, wishing to justify her husband. She said she never would marry again, not anybody at all. I heard her say the same thing myself, said Lady Chateau majestically, as if this were royal evidence. Oh! there is usually a silent exception in such cases, said Mrs. Catt-Volleter. The only wonder to me is that any of you are surprised. You did nothing to hinder it. If you would have had Lord Trilton down here to woo her with his philanthropy, he might have carried her off before the year was over. There was no safety in anything else. Mr. Casabon had prepared all this as beautifully as possible. He made himself discreable, or it pleased God to make him so, and then he dared her to contradict him. It is the way to make any trumpery tempting to take it at a high price in that way. I don't know what you mean by wrong, Catt-Volleter, said Sir James, still feeling a little stung and turning round in his chair towards the rector. He's not a man we can take into the family. At least I must speak for myself. He continued carefully keeping his eyes off Mr. Brook. I suppose others will find his society too pleasant to care about the propriety of the thing. Well, you know, Chateau, said Mr. Brook, but humanly, noticing his leg. I can't turn my back on Dorothea. I must be a father to her, up to a certain point. I said, my dear, I won't refuse to give you away. I had spoken strongly before, but I can cut off the entail, you know. It will cost money and be troublesome, but I can do it, you know." Mr. Brook nodded at Sir James, and felt that he was both showing his own force of resolution and propitiating what was just in the baronet's vexation. He had hit on a more ingenious mode of parrying than he was aware of. He had touched a motive for which Sir James was ashamed. The mass of his feeling about Dorothea's marriage to Ladisla was due partly to excusable prejudice, or even justifiable opinion, partly to a jealous repugnance hardly less in Ladisla's case than in Casabots. He was convinced that the marriage was a fatal one for Dorothea, but amid that mass ran a vein of which he was too good and honorable a man to lack the avowal even to himself. It was undeniable that the union of the two estates, Tipton and Freshett, lying charmingly within a ring fence, was a prospect that flattered him for his son and heir. Hence, when Mr. Brook noddingly appealed to that motive, Sir James felt a sudden embarrassment. There was a stoppage in his throat. He even blushed. He had found more words than usual in the first jet of his anger, but Mr. Brook's propitiation was more clogging to his tongue than Mr. Cowdewilder's caustic hint. But Celia was glad to have room for speech after her uncle's suggestion of the marriage ceremony, and she said, though with a little eagerness of manner, as if the question had turned on an invitation to dinner, do you mean that Dorothea is going to be married directly, uncle? In three weeks, you know, said Mr. Brook helplessly. I can do nothing to hinder it, Cadwallader, he added, turning for a little countenance toward the rector, who said, I should not make any fuss about it. If she likes to be poor, that is her affair. Nobody would have said anything if she had married the young fellow because he was rich. Plenty of benefits to clergy are poorer than they will be. Here is Eleanor, continued the provoking husband. She vexed her friends by me. I had hardly a thousand a year. I was a little out. Nobody could see anything in me. My shoes were not the right cut. All the men wondered how a woman would like me. On my word, I must take that as last part until I hear a more harm of him. I am free. That is all sophistry, and you know it, said his wife. Everything is all one. That is the beginning and the end with you, as if you had not been a Cadwallader. Does anyone suppose that I would have taken such a monster as you by any other name? I declared you men, too, observed Lady Chetam with approbation. Eleanor cannot be said to have descended below her rank. It is difficult to say what Mr. Ladislaw is, eh, James? So James gave a small grunt, which was less respectful than his usual mode of answering his mother, seeing he looked up at him like a thought for kitten. It must be admitted that his blood is a frightful mixture, said Mrs. Cadwallader, the Casabon cuttlefish to begin with, and then a rebellious Polish fiddler or dancing-master, what was it, and then an old clock nonsense, Eleanor, said the rector rising. It is time for us to go. After all, he is a pretty sprig, said Mrs. Cadwallader, rising, too, and wishing to make amends. He is like the final quickly portraits before the idiots came in. I'll go with you, said Mr. Brook, starting up at the Lactree. You must all come and dine with me to-morrow, you know, eh, Celia, my dear? You will, James, won't you? said Celia, taking her husband's hand. Oh, of course, if you like, said Sir James, pulling down his waistcoat, but unable yet to adjust his face good humbly. That is to say, if it is not to meet anybody else. No, no, no, said Mr. Brook, understanding the condition, Dorthier will not come, you know, unless you had been to see her. When Sir James and Celia were alone, she said, Do you mind about my having the carriage to go to Loewek, James? What? Now, directly? He answered with some surprise. Yes, it is very important, said Celia. Remember, Celia, I cannot see her, said Sir James. Not as she gave up marrying. What is the use of saying that? However, I am going to the stables, I'll tell Briggs to bring the carriage round. Celia thought it was of great use, if not to say that, at least to take a journey to Loewek in order to influence Dorthier's mind. All through their girlhood, she had felt that she could act on her sister by a word judiciously placed, by opening a little window for the daylight of her own understanding to enter among the strange coloured lamps by which Dodo habitually saw, and Celia, the matron, naturally felt more able to advise her childless sister. How could anyone understand Dodo so well as Celia did, or love her so tenderly? Dorthier, busy in her boudoir, felt a glow of pleasure at the sight of her sister so soon after the revelation of her intended marriage. She had prefigured to herself, even with exaggeration, the disgust of her friends, and she had even feared that Celia might be kept aloof from her. Oh, kitty, I am delighted to see you, said Dorthier, putting her hands on Celia's shoulders and beaming on her. I almost thought she would not come to me. I have not brought Arthur, because I was in a hurry, said Celia, and they sat down on two small chairs opposite each other, with their knees touching. You know, Dodo, it is very bad, said Celia in her placid gattrel, looking as prettily free from humours as possible. You have disappointed us all so, and I can't think that it ever will be. You never can go and live in that way, and then there are all your plans. You never can have thought of that. James would have taken any trouble for you, and you might have gone all your life doing what you liked. On the contrary, dear, said Dorthier, I never could do anything that I liked. I have never carried out any plan yet, because you always wanted things that wouldn't do, but other plans would have come. And how can you marry Mr. Ladderslaw, that we none of us ever thought you could marry? It shocks James so dreadfully, and then it is all so different from what you have always been. You would have, Mr. Casabon, because he had such a great soul, and was so dismal and learned, and now to think of marrying Mr. Ladderslaw, who has got no estate or anything. I suppose it is because you must be making yourself uncomfortable in some way or other. Dorthier laughed. Well, it is very serious, Dodo, said Celia, becoming more impressive. How will you live? And you will go away among queer people, and I shall never see you, and you won't mind about little Arthur, and I always thought you would—' Celia's rare tears had gotten to her eyes, and the corners of her mouth were agitated. Dear Celia, said Dorthier, with tender gravity, if you don't ever see me, it will not be my fault. Yes, it will! said Celia, with the same touching distortion of her small features. How can I come to you, or have you with me when James can't bear it? That is because he thinks it is not right. He thinks you are so wrong, Dodo. But you always were wrong, only I can't have loving you, and nobody can think where you will live, where can you go? I am going to London, said Dorthier. And how can you always live in a street, and you will be so poor? I could give you half my things. Only how can I when I never see you? Bless you, kitty! said Dorthier, with gentle warmth. Take comfort. Perhaps James will forgive me some time. But it would be much better if you would not be married. said Celia, drawing her eyes and returning to her argument. Then there would be nothing uncomfortable, and you would not do what nobody thought you could do. James always said you ought to be a queen. But this is not at all being like a queen. You know what mistakes you have always been making, Dodo, and this is another. Nobody thinks Mr. Ladislaw proper husband for you, and you said you would never be married again. It is quite true that I might be a wiser person, Celia, said Dorthier, and I said I might have done something better if I had been better, but this is what I am going to do. I have promised to marry Mr. Ladislaw, and I am going to marry him. The tone in which Dorthier said this was a note that Celia had long known to recognise. She was silenced a few moments and then said, as if she had dismissed all contest, is he very fond of you, Dodo? I hope so. I am very fond of him. Well, that is nice, said Celia comfortably, and they are rather you had such a sort of husband as James is, with a place very near that I could drive to. Dorthier smiled, and Celia looked rather meditative. Presently she said, I cannot think how to talk him about. Celia thought it would be pleasant to hear the story. I dare say not, said Dorthier, pinching her sister's chin. If you knew how it came about, it would not seem wonderful to you. Can't you tell me? said Celia, settling her arms cosily. No, dear, you would have to feel with me, as you would never know. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Middle March by George Elliott Chapter 85 Then went the jury out, whose names were Mr. Blind Man, Mr. No Good, Mr. Malice, Mr. Lovelust, Mr. Liv Loose, Mr. Heady, Mr. High Mind, Mr. Enmity, Mr. Liar, Mr. Cruelty, Mr. Hate Light, Mr. Implacable, who every one gave in his private verdict against him among themselves, and afterwards unanimously concluded to bring him in guilty before the judge. And first among themselves, Mr. Blind Man, the foreman, said, I see clearly that this man is a heretic. Then said Mr. No Good, away with such a fellow from the earth. I, said Mr. Malice, for I hate the very look of him. Then said Mr. Lovelust, I could never endure him. Nor I, said Mr. Liv Loose, for he would be always condemning my way. Hang him, hang him, said Mr. Heady. A sorry scrub, said Mr. High Mind. My heart riseth against him, said Mr. Enmity. He is a rogue, said Mr. Liar. Hanging is too good for him, said Mr. Cruelty. Let us dispatch him out of the way, said Mr. Hate Light. Then said Mr. Implacable. Might I have all the world given me? I could not be reconciled to him. Therefore, let us forthwith bring him in guilty of death. Pilgrim's Progress When a mortal Banyan makes his picture of the persecuting passions bringing in their verdict of guilty, who pities faithful? That is a rare and blessed lot which some greatest men have not attained, to know ourselves guiltless before a condemning crowd, to be sure that what we aren't denounced for is solely the good in us. The pitiable lot is that of the man who could not call himself a martyr, even though he were to persuade himself that the men who stoned him were but ugly passions incarnate, who knows that he is stoned not for professing to be right, but for not being the man he professed to be. This was the consciousness that Bulstrode was withering under while he made his preparations for departing from Middlemarch and going to end his stricken life in that sad refuge, the indifference of new faces. The deutious, merciful constancy of his wife had delivered him from one dread, but it could not hinder her presence from being still a tribunal before which he shrank from confession and desired advocacy. His equivocations with himself about the death of Raffles had sustained the conception of an omniscient whom he prayed to, yet he had a terror upon him which would not let him expose them to judgment by a full confession to his wife, the acts which he had washed and diluted with inward argument and motive, and for which it seemed comparatively easy to win invisible pardon what name would she call them by? That she should ever silently call his acts murder was what he could not bear. He felt shrouded by her doubt. He got strength to face her from the sense that she could not yet feel warranted in pronouncing that worst condemnation on him. Sometime, perhaps, when he was dying, he would tell her all, in the deep shadow of that time, when she held his hand in the gathering darkness, she might listen without recoiling from his touch. Perhaps. But concealment had been the habit of his life, and the impulse to confession had no power against the dread of a deeper humiliation. He was full of timid care for his wife, not only because he depreciated any harshness of judgment from her, but because he felt a deep distress at the sight of her suffering. She had sent her daughters away to board at a school on the coast, that this crisis might be hidden from them as far as possible. Set free by their absence from the intolerable necessity of accounting for her grief, or of beholding their frightened wonder, she could live unconstrainedly in the sorrow that was every day streaking her hair with whiteness and making her eyelids languid. Tell me anything that you would like to have me do, Harriet. Bolstered had said to her, I mean with regard to arrangements of property. It is my intention not to sell the land I possess in this neighbourhood, but to leave it to you, as a safe provision, if you have any wish on such subjects, do not conceal it from me. A few days afterwards, when she had returned from a visit to her brothers, she began to speak to her husband on a subject which had for some time been in her mind. I should like to do something for my brother's family, Nicholas, and I think we are bound to make some amends to Rosamond and her husband. Walter says Mr. Lidgate must leave the town, and his practice is almost good for nothing, and they have very little left to settle anywhere with. I would rather do without something for ourselves, to make some amends to my poor brother's family. Mrs. Bolstered did not wish to go nearer to the facts than, in the phrase, make some amends, knowing that her husband must understand her. He had a particular reason which she was not aware of for wincing under her suggestion. He hesitated before he said, It is not possible to carry out your wish in a way you propose, my dear. Mr. Lidgate has virtually rejected any further service from me. He has returned the thousand pounds I lent him. Mrs. Casabon advanced him the sum for that purpose. Here is his letter. The letter seemed to cut Mrs. Bolstered severely. The mention of Mrs. Casabon's loan seemed a reflection of that public feeling which held it a matter of course that everyone would avoid a connection with her husband. She was silent for some time, and the tears fell one after the other, her chin trembling as she wiped them away. Bolstered, sitting opposite to her, ached at the sight of that grief-worn face, which two months before had been bright and blooming, it had aged to keep sad company with his own withered features. Urged into some effort at comforting her, he said, There is another means, Harriet, by which I might do a service to a brother's family, if you like to act on it, and it would, I think, be beneficial to you. It would be an advantageous way of managing the land which I mean to be yours. She looked attentive. Garth once thought of undertaking the management of Stone Court in order to place your nephew Fred there. The stock was to remain as it is, and they were to pay a certain share of the profits instead of an ordinary rent. That would be a desirable beginning for the young man, in conjunction with his employment under Garth. Would it be a satisfaction to you? Yes, it would, said Mrs. Bolstered, with some return of energy. Poor Walter is so cast down, I would try anything in my power to do him good before I go away. We have always been brother and sister. You must make the proposal to Garth yourself, Harriet, said Mr. Bolstered, not liking what he had to say, but desiring the end he had in view, for other reasons, besides the consolation of his wife. You must state to him that the land is virtually yours, and that he need have no transactions with me. Communication can be made through Standish. I mention this because Garth gave up being my agent. I can put into your hands a paper which he himself drew up, stating conditions, and you can propose his renewed acceptance of them. I think it is not unlikely that he will accept when you propose the thing for the sake of your nephew. Chapter 86 and finale of Middle March This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or how to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Middle March by George Elliott, Chapter 86 and finale. Chapter 86 Le cours c'est s'attre d'amour comme d'une celle qui la conserve de la incorruptible, adhérence de qu'est-ce que c'est, c'est un mince des slaves de la vie et de la fracher, des veillées et morts prolonge. Il existe une embellement de l'amour c'est du dafness et de chloé qui s'en fait filiment et balsy. Cette vieille, elle est resemblance de soi avec la wall. Victor Hugo, la home qui gris. Mrs. Garth, hearing Caleb enter the passage about tea time, opened the parlor door and said, There you are, Caleb. Have you had your dinner? Mr. Garth's meals were much subordinated to business. Oh yes, a good dinner. Cold mutton and I don't know what. Where's Mary? In the garden with Letty, I think. Fred has not come yet? No. Are you going out again without taking tea, Caleb? said Mrs. Garth, seeing that her absent minded husband was putting on again the hat which he had just taken off. No, no. I'm going to Mary for a minute. Mary was in a grassy corner of the garden where there was a swing loftily hung between two pear trees. She had a pink kerch of tide over her head making a little poke to shade her eyes from the level sunbeams while she was giving a glorious swing to Letty who laughed and screamed wildly. Seeing her father, Mary left the swing and went to meet him, pushing back the pink kerchief and smiling afar off at him with the involuntary smile of loving pleasure. I came to look for you, Mary, said Mr. Garth. Let us walk about a bit. Mary knew quite well that her father had something particular to say. His eyebrows made their pathetic angle and there was a tender gravity in his voice. These things had been signs to her when she was Letty's age. She put her arm within his and they turned by the row of nut trees. It will be a sad while before you can be married, Mary, said her father, not looking at her, but at the end of a stick which he held in his other hand. Not a sad while, Father, I mean to be Mary, said Mary, laughingly. I have been single and Mary for four and twenty years and more. I suppose it will not be quite as long again as that. Then after a little pause, she said more gravely, bending her face before her father's. If you are contented with Fred, Caleb screwed up his mouth and turned his head aside wisely. Now, Father, you did praise him last Wednesday. You said he had an uncommon notion of stock and a good eye for things. Did I? said Caleb, rather slyly. Yes, I put it all down and the date. And oh, Domini, and everything, said Mary, you like things to be neatly booked. And then his behavior to you, Father, is really good. He has a deep respect for you, and it is impossible to have a better temper than Fred has. Aye, aye, you want to coax me into thinking him a fine match. No, indeed, Father, I don't love him because he is a fine match. What for then? Oh, dear, because I have always loved him. I should never like scolding anyone else so well, and that is a point to be thought of in a husband. Your mind is quite subtle than Mary, said Caleb, returning to his first tone. There is no other wish come into it since things have gone on as they have been of late. Caleb meant a great deal in that vague phrase, because better late than never. A woman must not force her heart. She'll do a man no good by that. My feelings have not changed, Father, said Mary calmly. I shall be constant to Fred as long as he is constant to me. I don't think either of us could spare the other, or like anyone else better, however much we might admire them. It would make too great a difference to us, like seeing all the old places altered and changing the name for everything. We must wait for each other a long while, but Fred knows that. Instead of speaking immediately, Caleb stood still, and screwed his stick on the grassy walk. Then he said, with emotion in his voice, well, I've got a bit of news. What do you think of Fred going to live at Stone Court and managing the land there? How can that ever be, Father, said Mary, wonderingly. He would manage it for his aunt Bollstrode. The poor woman has been, to me, begging and praying. She wants to do the lad good, and it might be a fine thing for him. With saving, he might gradually buy the stock, and he has a turn for farming. Oh, Fred would be so happy. It is too good to believe. Ah, but mind you, said Caleb, turning his head warningly. I must take it on my shoulders, and be responsible, and see after everything, and that will grieve your mother a bit, though she may not say so. Fred had need, be careful. Perhaps it is too much, Father, said Mary, checked in her joy. There would be no happiness in bringing you any fresh trouble. Nay, nay, work as my delayed child, when it doesn't vex your mother, and then, if you and Fred get married, here Caleb's voice shook just perceptively, he'll be steady and saving, and you've got your mother's cleverness and mine too, in a woman's sort of way, and you'll keep him in order. He'll be coming by and by, so I wanted to tell you first, because I think you'd like to tell him by yourselves. After that, I could talk it well over with him, and we could go into business, and the nature of things. Oh, you dear good father, cried Mary, putting her hands around her father's neck, while he bent his head placidly, willing to be caressed. I wonder if any other girl thinks her father the best man in the world. Nonsense, child, you'll think your husband better. Impossible, said Mary, relapsing into her usual tone. Husbands are an inferior class of men who require keeping in order. When they were entering the house with Letty, who had run to join them, Mary saw Fred at the orchard gate and went to meet him. What fine clothes you wear, you extravagant youth, said Mary, as Fred stood still and raised his hat to her with playful formality. You are not learning economy. Now that is too bad, Mary, said Fred. Just look at the edges of these coat cuffs. It is only by dint of good brushing that I look respectable. I am saving up three suits, one for a wedding suit. How very droll you will look, like a gentleman in an old-fashioned book. Oh, no, they will keep two years. Two years, be reasonable, Fred, said Mary, turning to walk. Don't discourage flattering expectations. Why not? One lives on them better than on unflattering ones. If we can't be married in two years, the truth will be quite bad enough when it comes. I have heard a story of a young gentleman who once encouraged flattering expectations, and they did him harm. Mary, if you've got something discouraging to tell me, I shall bolt. I shall go into the house to Mr. Garth. I am out of spirits. My father is so cut up, home is not like itself. I can't bear any more bad news. Should you call it bad news to be told that you are to live at Stone Court and manage the farm and be remarkably prudent and save money every year till all the stock and furniture were your own, and you are a distinguished agricultural character, as Mr. Borthrop Trumbull says, rather stout I fear, and with the Greek and Latin sadly weatherworn. You don't mean anything except nonsense, Mary, said Fred, coloring slightly nevertheless. That is what my father has just told me of, as what may happen, and he never talks nonsense, said Mary, looking up at Fred now while he grasped her hand as they walked till it rather hurt her, but she would not complain. Oh, I could be a tremendously good fellow than Mary, and we could be Mary directly. Not so fast, sir. How do you know that I would not rather defer our marriage for some years? That would leave you time to misbehave, and then if I liked someone else better, I should have an excuse for jilting you. Pray, don't joke, Mary, said Fred, with strong feeling. Tell me seriously that all this is true, and that you are happy because of it, because you love me best. It is all true, Fred, and I am happy because of it, because I love you best, said Mary, in a tone of obedient recitation. They lingered on the doorstep under the steep, roofed porch, and Fred, almost in a whisper, said, When we were first engaged, with the umbrella ring, Mary, you used to—the spirit of joy began to laugh more decidedly in Mary's eyes, but the fatal bend came running to the door with brownie, yapping behind him, and bouncing against them, said, Fred and Mary, are you coming in, or may I eat your cake? Finale. Every limit is a beginning as well as an ending. Who can quit young lives after being long in company with them, and not desire to know what befell them in their after-years? For the fragment of a life, however typical, it is not the sample of an even web, promises may not be kept, and an ardent outset may be followed by declension, latent powers may find their long-waited opportunity, a past error may urge a grand retrieval. Marriage, which has been the born of so many narratives, is still a great beginning, as it was to Adam and Eve, who kept their honeymoon in Eden, but had their first little one among the thorns and thistles of the wilderness. It is still the beginning of the home epic, the gradual conquest, or irremediable loss of that complete union, which makes the advancing years a climax, and age the harvest of sweet memories in common. Some set out, like crusaders of old, with a glorious equipment of hope and enthusiasm, and get broken, by the way, wanting patience with each other and the world. All who have cared for Fred Vincy and Mary Garth will like to know that these two made no such failure, but achieved a solid mutual happiness. Fred surprised his neighbors in various ways. He became rather distinguished in his side of the county as a theoretic and practical farmer, and produced a work on the cultivation of green crops and the economy of cattle feeding, which won him high congratulations at agricultural meetings. In middle March, admiration was more reserved. Most persons there were inclined to believe that the merit of Fred's authorship was due to his wife, since they had never expected Fred Vincy to write on turnips and mangle-wurzel. But when Mary wrote a little book for her boys called Stories of Great Men, taken from Plutarch, and had printed and published by Grippen company Middlemarch, everyone in the town was willing to give the credit of this work to Fred, observing that he had been to the university, where the ancients were studied, and might have been a clergyman if he had chosen. In this way, it was made clear that Middlemarch had never been deceived, and that there was no need to praise anybody for writing a book since it was always done by somebody else. Moreover, Fred remained unswervingly steady. Some years after his marriage, he told Mary that his happiness was half owing to Fairbrother, who gave him a strong pull-up at the right moment. I cannot say that he was never again misled by his hopefulness the yield of crops or the profits of a cattle sale usually fell below his estimate, and he was always prone to believe that he could make money by the purchase of a horse, which turned out badly, though this, Mary observed, was of course the fault of the horse, not of Fred's judgment. He kept his love of horsemanship, but he rarely allowed himself a day's hunting, and when he did so, it was remarkable that he submitted to be laughed at for cowardliness at the fences seeming to see Mary and the boys sitting on the five-barred gate or showing their curly heads between hedge and ditch. There were three boys. Mary was not discontented that she brought forth men's children only, and when Fred wished to have a girl like her, she said laughingly, that would be too great a trial to your mother. Mrs. Vincy, in her declining years, and in the diminished luster of her housekeeping, was much comforted by her perception that two, at least, of Fred's boys were real Vincies and did not feature the Garthes. But Mary secretly rejoiced that the youngest of the three was very much what her father must have been when he wore a round jacket and showed a marvelous nicety of aim in playing at marbles or in throwing stones to bring down the mellow pairs. Ben and Letty Garth, who were uncle and aunt, before they were well in their teens, disputed much as to whether nephews or nieces were more desirable. Ben contending that it was clear girls were good for less than boys, else they would not be always in petticoats, which showed how little they were meant for, whereupon Letty, who argued much from books, got angry in replying that God made coats of skin for both Adam and Eve alike. Also, it occurred to her that at the east the men too wore petticoats. But this latter argument, obscuring the majesty of the former, was one too many for Ben answered contemptuously. The more Spoonies they, and immediately appealed to his mother, whether boys were not better than girls. Mrs. Garth pronounced that both were like naughty, but that boys were undoubtedly stronger, could run faster and throw with more precision to a greater distance. With this oracular sentence, Ben was well satisfied, not minding the naughtiness, but Letty took it ill, her feeling of superiority being stronger than her muscles. Fred never became rich. His hopefulness had not led him to expect that, but he gradually saved enough to become owner of the stock and furniture at Stonecourt. And the work, which Mr. Garth put into his hands, carried him in plenty through those bad times, which are always present with farmers. Mary in her matronly days became as solid in figure as her mother, but unlike her gave the boys little formal teaching, so that Mrs. Garth was alarmed, lest they should never be well grounded in grammar and geography. Nevertheless, they were found quite forward enough when they went to school, perhaps, because they had liked nothing so well as being with their mother. When Fred was riding home on winter evenings, he had a pleasant vision beforehand of the bright hearth in the Wayne Scottet parlor and was sorry for other men who could not have Mary for their wife, especially for Mr. Fairbrother. He was ten times worthier of you than I was, friend could now say to her magnanimously. To be sure he was, Mary answered, and for that reason he could do better without me, but you I shudder to think what you would have been a curate in debt for horse hire and cambrick pocket handkerchiefs. On inquiry it might possibly be found that Fred and Mary still inhabit Stonecourt, that the creeping plants still cast the foam of their blossoms over the fine stone wall into the field, where the walnut trees stand in stately row, and that on sunny days the two lovers who were first engaged with the umbrella ring may be seen in white-haired placidity at the open window from which Mary Garth in the days of old Peter Featherstone had often been ordered to look out for Mr. Lidgate. Lidgate's hair never became white. He died when he was only fifty, leaving his wife and children provided for by a heavy insurance on his life. He had gained an excellent practice alternating according to the season between London and a continental bathing place, having written a treatise on gout, a disease which has a good deal of wealth on its side. His skill was relied on by many paying patients, but he always regarded himself as a failure. He had not done what he once meant to do. His acquaintances thought him enviable to have so charming a wife and nothing happened to shake their opinion. Rosamund never committed a second compromising in discretion. She simply continued to be mild in her temper, inflexible in her judgment, disposed to admonish her husband and able to frustrate him by stratagem. As the years went on, he opposed her less and less, once Rosamund concluded that he had learned the value of her opinion. On the other hand, she had a more thorough conviction of his talents now that he had gained a good income, and instead of the threatened cage in Bride Street provided one all flowers and gilding fit for the bird of paradise that she resembled. In brief, Lidgate was what is called a successful man, but he died prematurely of diphtheria and Rosamund afterwards married an elderly and wealthy physician who took kindly to her four children. She made a very pretty show, with her daughters driving out in her carriage and often spoke of her happiness as a reward she did not say for what, but probably she meant that it was a reward for her patience with Tertius, whose temper never became faultless and to the last occasionally let slip a bitter speech, which was more memorable than the signs he made of his repentance. He once called her his basil plant, and when she asked for an explanation, said that basil was a plant which had flourished wonderfully on a murdered man's brains. Rosamund had a placid but strong answer to such speeches. Why then had he chosen her? It was a pity he had not had Mrs. Ladislaw, whom he was always praising and placing above her, and thus the conversation ended with the advantage on Rosamund's side. But it would be unjust not to tell that she never uttered a word in depreciation of Dorothea, keeping in religious remembrance the generosity which had come to her aid in the sharpest crisis of her life. Dorothea herself had no dreams of being praised above other women, feeling that there was always something better which she might have done if she had only been better and known better. Still she never repented that she had given a position and fortune to Mary will Ladislaw, and he would have held it the greatest shame as well as sorrow to him if she had repented. They were bound to each other by a love stronger than any impulses which could have marred it. No life would have been possible to Dorothea which was not filled with emotion, and she had now a life filled also with a beneficent activity which she had not the doubtful pains of discovering and marking out for herself. Will became an ardent public man working well in those times when reforms were begun with a young hopefulness of immediate good which has been much checked in our days and getting at last returned to parliament by a constituency who paid his expenses. Dorothea could have liked nothing better since wrongs existed than that her husband should be in the thick of a struggle against them and that she should give him wifely help. Many who knew her thought it a pity that so substantive and rare a creature should have been absorbed into the life of another and be only known in a certain circle as a wife and mother. But no one stated exactly what else that was in her power she ought rather to have done not even Sir James Chetum who went no further than the negative prescription that she ought not to have married Will Ladislaw. But this opinion of his did not cause a lasting alienation and the way in which the family was made whole again was characteristic of all concerned. Mr. Brook could not resist the pleasure of corresponding with Will and Dorothea and one morning when his pen had been remarkably fluent on the prospects of municipal reform it ran off into an invitation to the Grange which once written could not be done away with at less cost than the sacrifice hardly to be conceived of the whole valuable letter. During the months of this correspondence Mr. Brook had continually in his talk with Sir James Chetum been presupposing or hinting that the intention of cutting off the entail was still maintained and the day on which his pen gave the daring invitation he went to fresh it expressly to intimate that he had a stronger sense than ever of the reasons for taking that energetic step as a precaution against any mixture of low blood in the air of the Brooks's. But that morning something exciting had happened at the hall a letter had come to Celia which made her cry silently as she read it and when Sir James unused to see her in tears asked anxiously what was the matter she burst out in a whale such as he had never heard from her before. Dorothea has a little boy and you will not let me go and see her and I'm sure she wants to see me and she will not know what to do with the baby. She will do wrong things with it and they thought she would die it is dreadful. Suppose it had been me and little Arthur and Dorothea had been hindered from coming to see me I wish you would be less unkind James. Good heaven Celia said Sir James, much wrought upon what do you wish I will do anything you like I will take you to town tomorrow if you wish it and Celia did wish it. It was after this that Mr. Brooke came and meeting the baronet in the grounds began to chat with him in ignorance of the news which Sir James for some reason did not care to tell him immediately. But when the entail was touched on in the usual way he said my dear sir it is not for me to dictate to you but for my part I would let that alone I would let things remain as they are. Mr. Brooke felt so much surprise that he did not at once find out how much he was relieved by the sense that he was not expected to do anything in particular. Such being the bent of Celia's heart it was inevitable that Sir James should consent to a reconciliation with Dorothea and her husband. Where women love each other men learn to smother their mutual dislike. Sir James never liked Ladislaw and will always preferred to have Sir James's company mixed with another kind. They were on a footing of reciprocal tolerance which was made quite easy only when Dorothea and Celia were present. It became an understood thing that Mr. and Mrs. Ladislaw should pay at least two visits during the year to the Grange and there came gradually a small row of cousins at fresh it who enjoyed playing with the two cousins visiting Tipton as much as if the blood of these cousins had been less dubiously mixed. Mr. Brooke lived to a good old age and his estate was inherited by Dorothea's son who might have represented Middlemarch but declined thinking that his opinions had less chance of being stifled if he remained out of doors. Sir James never ceased to regard Dorothea's second marriage as a mistake and indeed this remained the tradition concerning it in Middlemarch where she was spoken of to a younger generation as a fine girl who married a sickly clergyman old enough to be her father and in little more than a year after his death gave up her estate to marry his cousin young enough to have been his son with no property and not well-born. Those who had not seen anything of Dorothea usually observed that she could not have been a nice woman else she would not have married either the one or the other. Certainly those determining acts of her life were not ideally beautiful. They were the mixed result of young and noble impulse struggling amidst the conditions of an imperfect social state in which great feelings will often take the aspect of error and great faith the aspect of illusion for there is no creature whose inward being is so strong that it is not greatly determined but what lies outside it. A new Teresa will hardly have the opportunity of reforming a conventional life any more than a new Antigone will spend her heroic piety in daring all for the sake of a brother's burial the medium in which their ardent deeds took shape is forever gone but we insignificant people with our daily words and acts are preparing the lives of many Dorotheas some of which may present a far satter sacrifice than that of the Dorothea whose story we know. Her finely touched spirit had still its fine issues though they were not widely visible. Her full nature like that river of which Cyrus broke the strength spent itself in channels which had no great name on the earth but the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life and rest in unvisited tombs. End of chapter 86 and finale recording by Aaron Elliott St. Louis Missouri end of middle march