Middlemarch

The novel opens its second strand. Lydgate has already been fascinated — though he does not admit to himself that he has lost his balance — by Rosamond Vincy, who strikes him as "grace itself." She is precisely what he has decided a woman ought to be: not someone who thinks, but someone who "produces the effect of exquisite music." Miss Brooke, he had decided after a single conversation, did not look at things from the proper feminine angle. "The society of such women was about as relaxing as going from your work to teach the second form, instead of reclining in a paradise with sweet laughs for bird-notes." Eliot pauses here to observe that destiny stands sarcastic with our dramatis personae folded in her hand. The scene shifts to the Vincy household breakfast table — a room thick with domestic comedy. Rosamond objects to Fred's late arrival and his demand for a grilled bone. Fred retorts: disagreeable is a word that describes her feelings, not his actions. Their mother Mrs. Vincy beams at both of them impartially. The exchange about language is entirely characteristic: Fred argues that "correct English is the slang of prigs who write history and essays," and "the strongest slang of all is the slang of poets." Rosamond insists on correct forms in everything. Their mother asks after Lydgate: Fred reports him as tallish, dark, clever, "rather a prig — a fellow who wants to show that he has opinions." Rosamond receives this with careful interest and says, for the first time aloud, "I shall not marry any Middlemarch young man." She has refused the best available; she is waiting. The family's social position is outlined: Mr. Vincy has married beneath him (an innkeeper's daughter) and risen commercially. Mrs. Vincy's sister was second wife to old Mr. Featherstone of Stone Court, which links the Vincys to the great inheritance question. Rosamond knows that Mary Garth is already at Stone Court and dislikes the comparison. She silently wishes her father would invite Lydgate to dinner. He is in no hurry — but an alderman about to be mayor must eventually enlarge his dinner-parties. The chapter ends with Rosamond negotiating a ride to Stone Court out of Fred by agreeing to sit through his flute practice.