Middlemarch

The political atmosphere in Middlemarch is unsettled: a Tory ministry passing Liberal measures, the old certainties dissolved. The Pioneer has been secretly bought by Mr. Brooke, and Mr. Hackbutt lets this slip in Mr. Hawley's office. Hawley is disgusted: Brooke is a cursed bad landlord, and the new editor Ladislaw is "some loose fish from London" — "an emissary... He'll begin with flourishing about the Rights of Man and end with murdering a wench." Brooke is delighted by Will's company and tells Casaubon that Will is "a kind of Shelley" — not as to anything objectionable, laxities or atheism, you know, but in his enthusiasm for liberty. Casaubon listens in silence, hoping "the right tack" might mean a great distance from Lowick. Will, on his side, has grown increasingly impatient of not being alone with Dorothea. He contrives a pretext: he will sketch at Lowick while Mr. Brooke drives on. The rain defeats the plan, forcing Will inside — where he learns that Casaubon is out at the Archdeacon's, and Dorothea is in the library alone. They meet with her sweet unconstrained smile. The conversation is the richest they have had since Rome: she has been learning Latin and a little Greek to help her husband; she feels that scholars are worn out on the way to great thoughts and can never enjoy them because they are too tired. Will gives an irrepressible "pinch" — if a man has a capacity for great thoughts he is likely to overtake them before he is decrepit — then repairs it immediately. Dorothea talks about always having wanted to help someone who did great works, "so that his burden might be lighter." Will hears this as the light it throws on her marriage, and thinks irritably of "beautiful lips kissing holy skulls." Will mentions that his grandmother was disinherited for marrying a poor Polish refugee who taught for his bread. "My grandfather was a patriot — a bright fellow — could speak many languages — musical." His father died early; one day remains with Will from that time — "when he was lying ill, and I was very hungry, and had only a little bit of bread." Dorothea listens with clasped hands: "Ah, what a different life from mine!" Will tells her about Mr. Brooke's newspaper offer and asks whether she would like him to accept it — if not, he will give it up. She says immediately: "I should like you to stay very much." Then, remembering her husband, she colors and adds that Will should be guided by Mr. Casaubon. Will departs quickly, striking across Halsell Common in the rain. Casaubon returns, cheerful with praise from Dr. Spanning on his tractate. Dorothea tells him about Brooke's newspaper proposal. Casaubon blinks and closes his eyes, then asks with knife-edged quietness whether Ladislaw came on purpose to ask his opinion. The next morning, without Dorothea's knowledge, Casaubon writes a letter to "Dear Mr. Ladislaw" (he had always before written "Will"), forbidding him to accept the position as it would be "highly offensive" and would exclude him from further reception at Lowick. Dorothea, meanwhile, sits in her boudoir thinking of Aunt Julia and arrives at a clear conviction: Casaubon has a debt to the Ladislaws — a real, rightful debt that has only been paid in charity, not in justice. She lies awake in the dark, and when Casaubon wakes she asks instead of reading to him whether she might talk a little. She proposes that the will should be altered to provide Will with a proper share of the estate. Casaubon responds with biting emphasis: "Dorothea, my love, this is not the first occasion, but it were well that it should be the last, on which you have assumed a judgment on subjects beyond your scope." They both remain a long while sleepless without speaking again. Will's answering letter is polite, firm, and unapologetic: an obligation cannot fairly fetter him as Casaubon expects; a benefactor's veto might impose "such a negation on a man's life that the consequent blank might be more cruel than the benefaction was generous." Casaubon is left with proud bitterness, certain Will means to defy him and sow Dorothea's mind with disrespect — but unable to act without betraying the jealousy he cannot admit.