Chapter LIX
"They said of old the Soul had human shape,
But smaller, subtler than the fleshly self,
So wandered forth for airing when it pleased.
And see! beside her cherub-face there floats
A pale-lipped form aerial whispering
Its promptings in that little shell her ear."
News is often dispersed as thoughtlessly and effectively
as that pollen which the bees carry off (having no idea how
powdery they are) when they are buzzing in search of their
particular nectar. This fine comparison has reference to
Fred Vincy, who on that evening at Lowick Parsonage heard a
lively discussion among the ladies on the news which their
old servant had got from Tantripp concerning Mr. Casaubon's
strange mention of Mr. Ladislaw in a codicil to his will
made not long before his death. Miss Winifred was astounded
to find that her brother had known the fact before, and
observed that Camden was the most wonderful man for knowing
things and not telling them; whereupon Mary Garth said that
the codicil had perhaps got mixed up with the habits of
spiders, which Miss Winifred never would listen to. Mrs.
Farebrother considered that the news had something to do
with their having only once seen Mr. Ladislaw at Lowick, and
Miss Noble made many small compassionate mewings.
Fred knew little and eared less about Ladislaw and the
Casaubons, and his mind never recurred to that discussion
till one day calling on Rosamond at his mother's request to
deliver a message as he passed, he happened to see Ladislaw
going away. Fred and Rosamond had little to say to
each other now that marriage had removed her from collision
with the unpleasantness of brothers, and especially now that
he had taken what she held the stupid and even reprehensible
step of giving up the Church to take to such a business as
Mr. Garth's. Hence Fred talked by preference of what he
considered indifferent news, and
"a propos of that young
Ladislaw " mentioned what he had heard at Lowick Parsonage.
Now Lydgate, like Mr. Farebrother, knew a great deal
more than he told, and when he had once been set thinking
about the relation between Will and Dorothea his conjectures
had gone beyond the fact. He imagined that there was a
passionate attachment on both sides, and this struck him as
much too serious to gossip about. He remembered Will's
irritability when he had mentioned Mrs. Casaubon, and was
the more circumspect. On the whole his surmises, in
addition to what he knew of the fact, increased his
friendliness and tolerance towards Ladislaw, and made him
understand the vacillation which kept him at Middlemarch
after he had said that he should go away. It was
significant of the separateness be tween Lydgate's mind and
Rosamond's that he had no impulse to speak to her on the
subject; indeed, he did not quite trust her reticence
towards Will. And he was right there; though he had no
vision of the way in which her mind would act in urging her
to speak.
When she repeated Fred's news to Lydgate, he said, "Take
care you don't drop the faintest hint to Ladislaw, Rosy. He
is likely to fly out as if you insulted him. Of course it
is a painful affair."
Rosamond turned her neck and patted her l air, looking
the image of placid indifference. But the next time Will
came when Lydgate was away, she spoke archly about his not
going to London as he had threatened.
"I know all about it. I have a confidential little
bird," said she, showing very pretty airs of her head over
the bit of work held high between her active fingers. "
There is a powerful magnet in this neighborhood."
"To be sure there is. Nobody knows that better than
you,"
said Will, with light gallantry, but inwardly
prepared to be angry.
"It is really the most charming romance: Mr. Casaubon
jealous, and foreseeing that there was no one else whom Mrs.
Casaubon would so much like to marry, and no one who would
so much like to marry her as a certain gentleman; and then
laying a plan to spoil all by making her forfeit her
property if she did marry that gentleman — and then — and
then — and then — oh, I have no doubt the end will be
thoroughly romantic."
"Great God! what do you mean? " said Will, flushing over
face and ears, his features seeming to change as if he had
had a violent shake. "Don't joke; tell me what you mean."
"You don't really know?" said Rosamond, no longer
playful, and desiring nothing better than to tell in order
that she might evoke effects.
"No!" he returned, impatiently.
"Don't know that Mr. Casaubon has left it in his will
that if Mrs. Casaubon marries you she is to forfeit all her
property?"
"How do you know that it is true?" said Will, eagerly.
"My brother Fred heard it from the Farebrothers."
Will started up from his chair and reached his hat.
"I dare say she likes you better than the property,"
said Rosamond, looking at him from a distance.
"Pray don't say any more about it," said Will, in a
hoarse undertone extremely unlike his usual light voice. "
It is a foul insult to her and to me." Then he sat down
absently, looking before him, but seeing nothing.
"Now you are angry with me," said Rosamond. "It is
too bad to bear me malice. You ought to be obliged to
me for telling you."
"So I am," said Will, abruptly, speaking with that kind
of double soul which belongs to dreamers who answer
questions.
"I expect to hear of the marriage," said Rosamond, play.
fully.
"Never! You will never hear of the marriage!"
With those words uttered impetuously, Will rose, put out
his hand to Rosamond, still with the air of a somnambulist,
and went away.
When he was gone, Rosamond left her chair and walked to
the other end of the room, leaning when she got there
against a chiffonniere, and looking out of the window
wearily. She was oppressed by ennui, and by that
dissatisfaction which in women's minds is continually
turning into a trivial jealousy, referring to no real
claims, springing from no deeper passion than the vague
exactingness of egoism, and yet capable of impelling action
as well as speech. "There really is nothing to care for
much," said poor Rosamond inwardly, thinking of the family
at Quallingham, who did not write to her; and that perhaps
Tertius when he came home would tease her about expenses.
She had already secretly disobeyed him by asking her father
to help them, and he had ended decisively by saying, " I am
more likely to want help myself."