is she not?« he
continued, turning to Celia, who sat at his right hand.
    »I think she is,« said Celia, feeling afraid lest she should say something
that would not please her sister, and blushing as prettily as possible above her
necklace. »She likes giving up.«
    »If that were true, Celia, my giving-up would be self-indulgence, not
self-mortification. But there may be good reasons for choosing not to do what is
very agreeable,« said Dorothea.
    Mr. Brooke was speaking at the same time, but it was evident that Mr.
Casaubon was observing Dorothea, and she was aware of it.
    »Exactly,« said Sir James. »You give up from some high, generous motive.«
    »No, indeed, not exactly. I did not say that of myself,« answered Dorothea,
reddening. Unlike Celia, she rarely blushed, and only from high delight or
anger. At this moment she felt angry with the perverse Sir James. Why did he not
pay attention to Celia, and leave her to listen to Mr. Casaubon? - if that
learned man would only talk, instead of allowing himself to be talked to by Mr.
Brooke, who was just then informing him that the Reformation either meant
something or it did not, that he himself was a Protestant to the core, but that
Catholicism was a fact; and as to refusing an acre of your ground for a Romanist
chapel, all men needed the bridle of religion, which, properly speaking, was the
dread of a Hereafter.
    »I made a great study of theology at one time,« said Mr. Brooke, as if to
explain the insight just manifested. »I know something of all schools. I knew
Wilberforce in his best days. Do you know Wilberforce?«
    Mr. Casaubon said, »No.«
    »Well, Wilberforce was perhaps not enough of a thinker; but if I went into
Parliament, as I have been asked to do, I should sit on the independent bench,
as Wilberforce did, and work at philanthropy.«
    Mr. Casaubon bowed, and observed that it was a wide field.
    »Yes,« said Mr. Brooke, with an easy smile, »but I have documents. I began a
long while ago to collect documents. They want arranging, but when a question
has struck me, I have written to somebody and got an answer. I have documents at
my back. But now, how do you arrange your documents?«
    »In pigeon