Here was a
weighty subject which, if she could but lay hold of it, would certainly keep her
mind steady. Unhappily her mind slipped off it for a whole hour; and at the end
she found herself reading sentences twice over with an intense consciousness of
many things, but not of any one thing contained in the text. This was hopeless.
Should she order the carriage and drive to Tipton? No; for some reason or other
she preferred staying at Lowick. But her vagrant mind must be reduced to order:
there was an art in self-discipline; and she walked round and round the brown
library considering by what sort of manoeuvre she could arrest her wandering
thoughts. Perhaps a mere task was the best means - something to which she must
go doggedly. Was there not the geography of Asia Minor, in which her slackness
had often been rebuked by Mr. Casaubon? She went to the cabinet of maps and
unrolled one: this morning she might make herself finally sure that Paphlagonia
was not on the Levantine coast, and fix her total darkness about the Chalybes
firmly on the shores of the Euxine. A map was a fine thing to study when you
were disposed to think of something else, being made up of names that would turn
into a chime if you went back upon them. Dorothea set earnestly to work, bending
close to her map, and uttering the names in an audible, subdued tone, which
often got into a chime. She looked amusingly girlish after all her deep
experience - nodding her head and marking the names off on her fingers, with a
little pursing of her lip, and now and then breaking off to put her hands on
each side of her face and say, »Oh dear! oh dear!«
    There was no reason why this should end any more than a merry-go-round; but
it was at last interrupted by the opening of the door and the announcement of
Miss Noble.
    The little old lady, whose bonnet hardly reached Dorothea's shoulder, was
warmly welcomed, but while her hand was being pressed she made many of her
beaver-like noises, as if she had something difficult to say.
    »Do sit down,« said Dorothea, rolling a chair forward. »Am I wanted for
anything? I shall be so glad if I can do anything.«
    »I will not stay,« said Miss Noble, putting her hand into her small basket,
and holding some article inside it nervously; »I have left a friend in the
churchyard.« She lapsed into her inarticulate sounds, and unconsciously drew