said Dorothea, breaking in impetuously.
    »But if you married Mr. Ladislaw, not anybody else,« Celia went on with
persevering quietude. »Of course that is of no consequence in one way - you
never would marry Mr. Ladislaw; but that only makes it worse of Mr. Casaubon.«
    The blood rushed to Dorothea's face and neck painfully. But Celia was
administering what she thought a sobering dose of fact. It was taking up notions
that had done Dodo's health so much harm. So she went on in her neutral tone, as
if she had been remarking on baby's robes.
    »James says so. He says it is abominable, and not like a gentleman. And
there never was a better judge than James. It is as if Mr. Casaubon wanted to
make people believe that you would wish to marry Mr. Ladislaw - which is
ridiculous. Only James says it was to hinder Mr. Ladislaw from wanting to marry
you for your money - just as if he ever would think of making you an offer. Mrs.
Cadwallader said you might as well marry an Italian with white mice! But I must
just go and look at baby,« Celia added, without the least change of tone,
throwing a light shawl over her, and tripping away.
    Dorothea by this time had turned cold again, and now threw herself back
helplessly in her chair. She might have compared her experience at that moment
to the vague, alarmed consciousness that her life was taking on a new form, that
she was undergoing a metamorphosis in which memory would not adjust itself to
the stirring of new organs. Everything was changing its aspect: her husband's
conduct, her own duteous feeling towards him, every struggle between them - and
yet more, her whole relation to Will Ladislaw. Her world was in a state of
convulsive change; the only thing she could say distinctly to herself was, that
she must wait and think anew. One change terrified her as if it had been a sin;
it was a violent shock of repulsion from her departed husband, who had had
hidden thoughts, perhaps perverting everything she said and did. Then again she
was conscious of another change which also made her tremulous; it was a sudden
strange yearning of heart towards Will Ladislaw. It had never before entered her
mind that he could, under any circumstances, be her lover: conceive the effect
of the sudden revelation that another had thought of him in that light - that
perhaps he himself had been conscious of such a possibility, - and this with the
hurrying