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Middlemarch
"
Since
I
can
do
no
good
because
a
woman
,
Reach
constantly
at
something
that
is
near
it
.
—
The
Maid
’
s
Tragedy
:
BEAUMONT
AND
FLETCHER
.
Miss
Brooke
had
that
kind
of
beauty
which
seems
to
be
thrown
into
relief
by
poor
dress
.
Her
hand
and
wrist
were
so
finely
formed
that
she
could
wear
sleeves
not
less
bare
of
style
than
those
in
which
the
Blessed
Virgin
appeared
to
Italian
painters
;
and
her
profile
as
well
as
her
stature
and
bearing
seemed
to
gain
the
more
dignity
from
her
plain
garments
,
which
by
the
side
of
provincial
fashion
gave
her
the
impressiveness
of
a
fine
quotation
from
the
Bible
—
or
from
one
of
our
elder
poets
—
in
a
paragraph
of
to
-
day
’
s
newspaper
.
She
was
usually
spoken
of
as
being
remarkably
clever
,
but
with
the
addition
that
her
sister
Celia
had
more
common
-
sense
.
Nevertheless
,
Celia
wore
scarcely
more
trimmings
;
and
it
was
only
to
close
observers
that
her
dress
differed
from
her
sister
’
s
,
and
had
a
shade
of
coquetry
in
its
arrangements
;
for
Miss
Brooke
’
s
plain
dressing
was
due
to
mixed
conditions
,
in
most
of
which
her
sister
shared
.
The
pride
of
being
ladies
had
something
to
do
with
it
:
the
Brooke
connections
,
though
not
exactly
aristocratic
,
were
unquestionably
"
good
:
"
if
you
inquired
backward
for
a
generation
or
two
,
you
would
not
find
any
yard
-
measuring
or
parcel
-
tying
forefathers
—
anything
lower
than
an
admiral
or
a
clergyman
;
and
there
was
even
an
ancestor
discernible
as
a
Puritan
gentleman
who
served
under
Cromwell
,
but
afterwards
conformed
,
and
managed
to
come
out
of
all
political
troubles
as
the
proprietor
of
a
respectable
family
estate
.
Young
women
of
such
birth
,
living
in
a
quiet
country
-
house
,
and
attending
a
village
church
hardly
larger
than
a
parlor
,
naturally
regarded
frippery
as
the
ambition
of
a
huckster
’
s
daughter
.
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
’
s
case
,
religion
alone
would
have
determined
it
;
and
Celia
mildly
acquiesced
in
all
her
sister
’
s
sentiments
,
only
infusing
them
with
that
common
-
sense
which
is
able
to
accept
momentous
doctrines
without
any
eccentric
agitation
.
Dorothea
knew
many
passages
of
Pascal
’
s
Pensees
and
of
Jeremy
Taylor
by
heart
;
and
to
her
the
destinies
of
mankind
,
seen
by
the
light
of
Christianity
,
made
the
solicitudes
of
feminine
fashion
appear
an
occupation
for
Bedlam
.
She
could
not
reconcile
the
anxieties
of
a
spiritual
life
involving
eternal
consequences
,
with
a
keen
interest
in
gimp
and
artificial
protrusions
of
drapery
.
Her
mind
was
theoretic
,
and
yearned
by
its
nature
after
some
lofty
conception
of
the
world
which
might
frankly
include
the
parish
of
Tipton
and
her
own
rule
of
conduct
there
;
she
was
enamoured
of
intensity
and
greatness
,
and
rash
in
embracing
whatever
seemed
to
her
to
have
those
aspects
;
likely
to
seek
martyrdom
,
to
make
retractations
,
and
then
to
incur
martyrdom
after
all
in
a
quarter
where
she
had
not
sought
it
.
Certainly
such
elements
in
the
character
of
a
marriageable
girl
tended
to
interfere
with
her
lot
,
and
hinder
it
from
being
decided
according
to
custom
,
by
good
looks
,
vanity
,
and
merely
canine
affection
.
With
all
this
,
she
,
the
elder
of
the
sisters
,
was
not
yet
twenty
,
and
they
had
both
been
educated
,
since
they
were
about
twelve
years
old
and
had
lost
their
parents
,
on
plans
at
once
narrow
and
promiscuous
,
first
in
an
English
family
and
afterwards
in
a
Swiss
family
at
Lausanne
,
their
bachelor
uncle
and
guardian
trying
in
this
way
to
remedy
the
disadvantages
of
their
orphaned
condition
.
It
was
hardly
a
year
since
they
had
come
to
live
at
Tipton
Grange
with
their
uncle
,
a
man
nearly
sixty
,
of
acquiescent
temper
,
miscellaneous
opinions
,
and
uncertain
vote
.
He
had
travelled
in
his
younger
years
,
and
was
held
in
this
part
of
the
county
to
have
contracted
a
too
rambling
habit
of
mind
.
Mr
.
Brooke
’
s
conclusions
were
as
difficult
to
predict
as
the
weather
:
it
was
only
safe
to
say
that
he
would
act
with
benevolent
intentions
,
and
that
he
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
has
been
seen
lax
about
all
his
own
interests
except
the
retention
of
his
snuff
-
box
,
concerning
which
he
was
watchful
,
suspicious
,
and
greedy
of
clutch
.
In
Mr
.
Brooke
the
hereditary
strain
of
Puritan
energy
was
clearly
in
abeyance
;
but
in
his
niece
Dorothea
it
glowed
alike
through
faults
and
virtues
,
turning
sometimes
into
impatience
of
her
uncle
’
s
talk
or
his
way
of
"
letting
things
be
"
on
his
estate
,
and
making
her
long
all
the
more
for
the
time
when
she
would
be
of
age
and
have
some
command
of
money
for
generous
schemes
.
She
was
regarded
as
an
heiress
;
for
not
only
had
the
sisters
seven
hundred
a
-
year
each
from
their
parents
,
but
if
Dorothea
married
and
had
a
son
,
that
son
would
inherit
Mr
.
Brooke
’
s
estate
,
presumably
worth
about
three
thousand
a
-
year
—
a
rental
which
seemed
wealth
to
provincial
families
,
still
discussing
Mr
.
Peel
’
s
late
conduct
on
the
Catholic
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
not
marry
?
—
a
girl
so
handsome
and
with
such
prospects
?
Nothing
could
hinder
it
but
her
love
of
extremes
,
and
her
insistence
on
regulating
life
according
to
notions
which
might
cause
a
wary
man
to
hesitate
before
he
made
her
an
offer
,
or
even
might
lead
her
at
last
to
refuse
all
offers
.
A
young
lady
of
some
birth
and
fortune
,
who
knelt
suddenly
down
on
a
brick
floor
by
the
side
of
a
sick
laborer
and
prayed
fervidly
as
if
she
thought
herself
living
in
the
time
of
the
Apostles
—
who
had
strange
whims
of
fasting
like
a
Papist
,
and
of
sitting
up
at
night
to
read
old
theological
books
!
Such
a
wife
might
awaken
you
some
fine
morning
with
a
new
scheme
for
the
application
of
her
income
which
would
interfere
with
political
economy
and
the
keeping
of
saddle
-
horses
:
a
man
would
naturally
think
twice
before
he
risked
himself
in
such
fellowship
.
Women
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
did
what
their
neighbors
did
,
so
that
if
any
lunatics
were
at
large
,
one
might
know
and
avoid
them
.
The
rural
opinion
about
the
new
young
ladies
,
even
among
the
cottagers
,
was
generally
in
favor
of
Celia
,
as
being
so
amiable
and
innocent
-
looking
,
while
Miss
Brooke
’
s
large
eyes
seemed
,
like
her
religion
,
too
unusual
and
striking
.
Poor
Dorothea
!
compared
with
her
,
the
innocent
-
looking
Celia
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
,
though
prejudiced
against
her
by
this
alarming
hearsay
,
found
that
she
had
a
charm
unaccountably
reconcilable
with
it
.
Most
men
thought
her
bewitching
when
she
was
on
horseback
.
She
loved
the
fresh
air
and
the
various
aspects
of
the
country
,
and
when
her
eyes
and
cheeks
glowed
with
mingled
pleasure
she
looked
very
little
like
a
devotee
.
Riding
was
an
indulgence
which
she
allowed
herself
in
spite
of
conscientious
qualms
;
she
felt
that
she
enjoyed
it
in
a
pagan
sensuous
way
,
and
always
looked
forward
to
renouncing
it
.
