 one is worse or better than the other.« The Rector ended
with his silent laugh. He always saw the joke of any satire against himself. His
conscience was large and easy, like the rest of him: it did only what it could
do without any trouble.
    Clearly, there would be no interference with Miss Brooke's marriage through
Mr. Cadwallader; and Sir James felt with some sadness that she was to have
perfect liberty of misjudgment. It was a sign of his good disposition that he
did not slacken at all in his intention of carrying out Dorothea's design of the
cottages. Doubtless this persistence was the best course for his own dignity:
but pride only helps us to be generous; it never makes us so, any more than
vanity makes us witty. She was now enough aware of Sir James's position with
regard to her, to appreciate the rectitude of his perseverance in a landlord's
duty, to which he had at first been urged by a lover's complaisance, and her
pleasure in it was great enough to count for something even in her present
happiness. Perhaps she gave to Sir James Chettam's cottages all the interest she
could spare from Mr. Casaubon, or rather from the symphony of hopeful dreams,
admiring trust, and passionate self-devotion which that learned gentleman had
set playing in her soul. Hence it happened that in the good baronet's succeeding
visits, while he was beginning to pay small attentions to Celia, he found
himself talking with more and more pleasure to Dorothea. She was perfectly
unconstrained and without irritation towards him now, and he was gradually
discovering the delight there is in frank kindness and companionship between a
man and a woman who have no passion to hide or confess.
 

                                   Chapter IX

 1st Gent: An ancient land in ancient oracles
 Is called »law-thirsty:« all the struggle there
 Was after order and a perfect rule.
 Pray, where lie such lands now?..
 2d Gent: Why, where they lay of
 old - in human souls.
 
Mr. Casaubon's behaviour about settlements was highly satisfactory to Mr.
Brooke, and the preliminaries of marriage rolled smoothly along, shortening the
weeks of courtship. The betrothed bride must see her future home, and dictate
any changes that she would like to have made there. A woman dictates before
marriage in order that she may have an appetite for submission afterwards. And
certainly, the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our
own way might fairly raise some wonder that we are so fond of it.
    On a grey
