sty cottages outside the
park-gate.«
    Dorothea was in the best temper now. Sir James, as brother-in-law, building
model cottages on his estate, and then, perhaps, others being built at Lowick,
and more and more elsewhere in imitation - it would be as if the spirit of
Oberlin had passed over the parishes to make the life of poverty beautiful!
    Sir James saw all the plans, and took one away to consult upon with
Lovegood. He also took away a complacent sense that he was making great progress
in Miss Brooke's good opinion. The Maltese puppy was not offered to Celia; an
omission which Dorothea afterwards thought of with surprise; but she blamed
herself for it. She had been engrossing Sir James. After all, it was a relief
that there was no puppy to tread upon.
    Celia was present while the plans were being examined, and observed Sir
James's illusion. »He thinks that Dodo cares about him, and she only cares about
her plans. Yet I am not certain that she would refuse him if she thought he
would let her manage everything and carry out all her notions. And how very
uncomfortable Sir James would be! I cannot bear notions.«
    It was Celia's private luxury to indulge in this dislike. She dared not
confess it to her sister in any direct statement, for that would be laying
herself open to a demonstration that she was somehow or other at war with all
goodness. But on safe opportunities, she had an indirect mode of making her
negative wisdom tell upon Dorothea, and calling her down from her rhapsodic mood
by reminding her that people were staring, not listening. Celia was not
impulsive: what she had to say could wait, and came from her always with the
same quiet, staccato evenness. When people talked with energy and emphasis she
watched their faces and features merely. She never could understand how
well-bred persons consented to sing and open their mouths in the ridiculous
manner requisite for that vocal exercise.
    It was not many days before Mr. Casaubon paid a morning visit, on which he
was invited again for the following week to dine and stay the night. Thus
Dorothea had three more conversations with him, and was convinced that her first
impressions had been just. He was all she had at first imagined him to be:
almost everything he had said seemed like a specimen from a mine, or the
inscription on the door of a museum which might open on the treasures of past
ages; and this trust in his mental wealth was all the deeper and more effective
