Chapter IV
1st Gent. Our deeds are fetters that we forge ourselves.
2d Gent. Ay, truly: but I think it is the world
That brings the iron.
"Sir James seems determined to do everything you wish,"
said Celia, as they were driving home from an inspection of
the new building-site.
"He is a good creature, and more sensible than any one
would imagine," said Dorothea, inconsiderately.
"You mean that he appears silly."
"No, no," said Dorothea, recollecting herself, and
laying her hand on her sister's a moment, "but he does not
talk equally well on all subjects."
"I should think none but disagreeable people do," said
Celia, in her usual purring way. "They must be very
dreadful to live with. Only think! at breakfast, and
always."
Dorothea laughed. "O Kitty, you are a wonderful creature!"
She pinched Celia's chin, being in the mood now to
think her very winning and lovely — fit hereafter to be an
eternal cherub, and if it were not doctrinally wrong to say
so, hardly more in need of salvation than a squirrel. "Of
course
people need not be always talking well. Only one
tells the quality of their minds when they try to talk
well."
"You mean that Sir James tries and fails."
"I was speaking generally. Why do you catechise me
about Sir James? It is not the object of his life to please
me."
"Now, Dodo, can you really believe that?"
"Certainly. He thinks of me as a future sister — that is
all." Dorothea had never hinted this before, waiting, from
a certain shyness on such subjects which was mutual between
the sisters, until it should be introduced by some decisive
event. Celia blushed, but said at once —
"Pray do not make that mistake any longer, Dodo. When
Tantripp was brushing my hair the other day, she said that
Sir James's man knew from Mrs. Cadwallader's maid that Sir
James was to marry the eldest Miss Brooke."
"How can you let Tantripp talk such gossip to you,
Celia?" said Dorothea, indignantly, not the less angry
because details asleep in her memory were now awakened to
confirm the unwelcome revelation. "You must have asked her
questions. It is degrading."
"I see no harm at all in Tantripp's talking to me. It
is better to hear what people say. You see what mistakes
you make by taking up notions. I am quite sure that Sir
James means to make you an offer; and he believes that you
will accept him, especially since you have been so pleased
with him about the plans. And uncle too — I know he expects
it. Every one can see that Sir James is very much in love
with you."
The revulsion was so strong and painful in Dorothea's
mind that the tears welled up and flowed abundantly. All
her dear plans were embittered, and she thought with disgust
of Sir James's conceiving that she recognized him as her
lover. There was vexation too on account of Celia.
"How could he expect it?" she burst forth in her most
impetuous manner. "I have never agreed with him about
anything but the cottages: I was barely polite to him before."
"But you have been so pleased with him since then; he
has begun to feel quite sure that you are fond of him."
"Fond of him, Celia! How can you choose such odious
expressions?" said Dorothea, passionately.
"Dear me, Dorothea, I suppose it would be right for you
to be fond of a man whom you accepted for a husband."
"It is offensive to me to say that Sir James could think
I was fond of him. Besides, it is not the right word for
the feeling I must have towards the man I would accept as a
husband."
"Well, I am sorry for Sir James. I thought it right to
tell you, because you went on as you always do, never
looking just where you are, and treading in the wrong place.
You always see what nobody else sees; it is impossible to
satisfy you; yet you never see what is quite plain. That's
your way, Dodo." Something certainly gave Celia unusual
courage; and she was not sparing the sister of whom she was
occasionally in awe. Who can tell what just criticisms Murr
the Cat may be passing on us beings of wider speculation?
"It is very painful," said Dorothea, feeling scourged.
"I can have no more to do with the cottages. I must be
uncivil to him. I must tell him I will have nothing to do
with them. It is very painful." Her eyes filled again with
tears.
"Wait a little. Think about it. You know he is going
away for a day or two to see his sister. There will be
nobody besides Lovegood." Celia could not help relenting.
"Poor Dodo," she went on, in an amiable staccato. "It is
very hard: it is your favorite fad to draw plans."
"Fad to draw plans! Do you think I only care about
my fellow-creatures' houses in that childish way? I may
well make mistakes. How can one ever do anything nobly
Christian, living among people with such petty thoughts?"
No more was said; Dorothea was too much jarred to
recover her temper and behave so as to show that she
admitted any error in herself. 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 a thorn in her spirit, a
pink-and-white nullifidian, worse than any discouraging
presence in the "Pilgrim's Progress." The fad of
drawing plans! What was life worth — what great
faith
was possible when the whole effect of one's actions could be
withered up into such parched rubbish as that? When she got
out of the carriage, her cheeks were pale and her eyelids
red. She was an image of sorrow, and her uncle who met her
in the hall would have been alarmed, if Celia had not been
close to her looking so pretty and composed, that he at once
concluded Dorothea's tears to have their origin in her
excessive religiousness. He had returned, during their
absence, from a journey to the county town, about a petition
for the pardon of some criminal.
"Well, my dears," he said, kindly, as they went up to
kiss him, " I hope nothing disagreeable has happened while I
have been away."
"No, uncle," said Celia, "we have been to Freshitt to
look at the cottages. We thought you would have been at
home to lunch."
"I came by Lowick to lunch — you didn't know I came by
Lowick. And I have brought a couple of pamphlets for you,
Dorothea — in the library, you know; they lie on the table in
the library."
It seemed as if an electric stream went through
Dorothea, thrilling her from despair into expectation. They
were pamphlets about the early Church. The oppression of
Celia, Tantripp, and Sir James was shaken off, and she
walked straight to the library. Celia went up-stairs. Mr.
Brooke was detained by a message, but when he re-entered the
library, he found Dorothea seated and already deep in one of
the pamphlets which had some marginal manuscript of Mr.
Casaubon's, — taking it in as eagerly as she might have taken
in the scent of a fresh bouquet after a dry, hot, dreary
walk.
She was getting away from Tipton and Freshitt, and her
own sad liability to tread in the wrong places on her way to
the New Jerusalem.
Mr. Brooke sat down in his arm-chair, stretched his legs
towards the wood-fire, which had fallen into a wondrous mass
of glowing dice between the dogs, and rubbed his hands
gently, looking very mildly towards Dorothea, but with a
neutral leisurely air, as if he had nothing particular to
say. Dorothea
closed her pamphlet, as soon as she was
aware of her uncle's presence, and rose as if to go.
Usually she would have been interested about her uncle's
merciful errand on behalf of the criminal, but her late
agitation had made her absent-minded.
"I came back by Lowick, you know," said Mr. Brooke, not
as if with any intention to arrest her departure, but
apparently from his usual tendency to say what he had said
before. This fundamental principle of human speech was
markedly exhibited in Mr. Brooke. "I lunched there and saw
Casaubon's library, and that kind of thing. There's a sharp
air, driving. Won't you sit down, my dear? You look cold."
Dorothea felt quite inclined to accept the invitation.
Some times, when her uncle's easy way of taking things did
not happen to be exasperating, it was rather soothing. She
threw off her mantle and bonnet, and sat down opposite to
him, enjoying the glow, but lifting up her beautiful hands
for a screen. They were not thin hands, or small hands; but
powerful, feminine, maternal hands. She seemed to be
holding them up in propitiation for her passionate desire to
know and to think, which in the unfriendly mediums of Tipton
and Freshitt had issued in crying and red eyelids.
She bethought herself now of the condemned criminal.
"What news have you brought about the sheep-stealer, uncle?"
"What, poor Bunch? — well, it seems we can't get him
off — he is to be hanged."
Dorothea's brow took an expression of reprobation and
pity.
"Hanged, you know," said Mr. Brooke, with a quiet nod.
"Poor Romilly! he would have helped us. I knew Romilly.
Casaubon didn't know Romilly. He is a little buried in
books, you know, Casaubon is."
"When a man has great studies and is writing a great
work, he must of course give up seeing much of the world.
How can he go about making acquaintances?"
"That's true. But a man mopes, you know. I have always
been a bachelor too, but I have that sort of disposition
that I never moped; it was my way to go about everywhere and
take in everything. I never moped: but I can see that
Casaubon
does, you know. He wants a companion — a
companion, you know."
"It would be a great honor to any one to be his
companion," said Dorothea, energetically.
"You like him, eh?" said Mr. Brooke, without showing any
surprise, or other emotion. "Well, now, I've known Casaubon
ten years, ever since he came to Lowick. But I never got
anything out of him — any ideas, you know. However, he is a
tiptop man and may be a bishop — that kind of thing, you
know, if Peel stays in. And he has a very high opinion of
you, my dear."
Dorothea could not speak.
"The fact is, he has a very high opinion indeed of you.
And he speaks uncommonly well — does Casaubon. He has
deferred to me, you not being of age. In short, I have
promised to speak to you, though I told him I thought there
was not much chance. I was bound to tell him that. I said,
my niece is very young, and that kind of thing. But I
didn't think it necessary to go into everything. However,
the long and the short of it is, that he has asked my
permission to make you an offer of marriage — of marriage,
you know," said Mr. Brooke, with his explanatory nod. "I
thought it better to tell you, my dear."
No one could have detected any anxiety in Mr. Brooke's
manner, but he did really wish to know something of his
niece's mind, that, if there were any need for advice, he
might give it in time. What feeling he, as a magistrate who
had taken in so many ideas, could make room for, was
unmixedly kind. Since Dorothea did not speak immediately,
he repeated, "I thought it better to tell you, my dear."
"Thank you, uncle," said Dorothea, in a clear unwavering
tone. "I am very grateful to Mr. Casaubon. If he makes me
an offer, I shall accept him. I admire and honor him more
than any man I ever saw."
Mr. Brooke paused a little, and then said in a lingering
low tone, " Ah? . . . Well! He is a good match in some
respects. But now, Chettam is a good match. And our land
lies together. I shall never interfere against your wishes,
my dear.
People should have their own way in marriage,
and that sort of thing — up to a certain point, you know. I
have always said that, up to a certain point. I wish you to
marry well; and I have good reason to believe that Chettam
wishes to marry you. I mention it, you know."
"It is impossible that I should ever marry Sir James
Chettam," said Dorothea. "If he thinks of marrying me, he
has made a great mistake."
"That is it, you see. One never knows. I should have
thought Chettam was just the sort of man a woman would like,
now."
"Pray do not mention him in that light again, uncle,"
said Dorothea, feeling some of her late irritation revive.
Mr. Brooke wondered, and felt that women were an
inexhaustible subject of study, since even he at his age was not
in a perfect state of scientific prediction about them.
Here was a fellow like Chettam with no chance at all.
"Well, but Casaubon, now. There is no hurry — I mean for
you. It's true, every year will tell upon him. He is over
five-and-forty, you know. I should say a good seven-and-twenty years older than you. To be sure, — if you like
learning and standing, and that sort of thing, we can't have
everything. And his income is good — he has a handsome
property independent of the Church — his income is good.
Still he is not young, and I must not conceal from you, my
dear, that I think his health is not over-strong. I know
nothing else against him."
"I should not wish to have a husband very near my own
age," said Dorothea, with grave decision. "I should wish to
have a husband who was above me in judgment and in all
knowledge."
Mr. Brooke repeated his subdued, "Ah? — I thought you had
more of your own opinion than most girls. I thought you
liked your own opinion — liked it, you know."
"I cannot imagine myself living without some opinions,
but I should wish to have good reasons for them, and a wise
man could help me to see which opinions had the best
foundation, and would help me to live according to them."
"Very true. You couldn't put the thing better — couldn't
put it better, beforehand, you know. But there are oddities
in things," continued Mr. Brooke, whose conscience was
really roused to do the best he could for his niece on this
occasion. "Life isn't cast in a mould — not cut out by rule
and line, and that sort of thing. I never married myself,
and it will be the better for you and yours. The fact is, I
never loved any one well enough to put myself into a noose
for them. It is a noose, you know. Temper, now. There
is temper. And a husband likes to be master."
"I know that I must expect trials, uncle. Marriage is a
state of higher duties. I never thought of it as mere
personal ease," said poor Dorothea.
"Well, you are not fond of show, a great establishment,
balls, dinners, that kind of thing. I can see that
Casaubon's ways might suit you better than Chettam's. And
you shall do as you like, my dear. I would not hinder
Casaubon; I said so at once; for there is no knowing how
anything may turn out. You have not the same tastes as
every young lady; and a clergyman and scholar — who may be a
bishop — that kind of thing — may suit you better than
Chettam. Chettam is a good fellow, a good sound-hearted
fellow, you know; but he doesn't go much into ideas. I did,
when I was his age. But Casaubon's eyes, now. I think he
has hurt them a little with too much reading."
"I should be all the happier, uncle, the more room there
was for me to help him," said Dorothea, ardently.
"You have quite made up your mind, I see. Well, my
dear, the fact is, I have a letter for you in my pocket."
Mr. Brooke handed the letter to Dorothea, but as she rose to
go away, he added, "There is not too much hurry, my dear.
Think about it, you know."
When Dorothea had left him, he reflected that he had
certainly spoken strongly: he had put the risks of marriage
before her in a striking manner. It was his duty to do so.
But as to pretending to be wise for young people, — no uncle,
however much he had travelled in his youth, absorbed the new
ideas, and dined with celebrities now deceased, could
pretend
to judge what sort of marriage would turn out
well for a young girl who preferred Casaubon to Chettam. In
short, woman was a problem which, since Mr. Brooke's mind
felt blank before it, could be hardly less complicated than
the revolutions of an irregular solid.