“Then you will be happy, if you have
a plan, Dodo?” said Celia. “Perhaps
little Arthur will like plans when he grows up, and
then he can help you.”
Sir James was informed that same night that Dorothea
was really quite set against marrying anybody at all,
and was going to take to “all sorts of plans,”
just like what she used to have. Sir James made
no remark. To his secret feeling there was something
repulsive in a woman’s second marriage, and no
match would prevent him from feeling it a sort of
desecration for Dorothea. He was aware that
the world would regard such a sentiment as preposterous,
especially in relation to a woman of one-and-twenty;
the practice of “the world” being to treat
of a young widow’s second marriage as certain
and probably near, and to smile with meaning if the
widow acts accordingly. But if Dorothea did
choose to espouse her solitude, he felt that the resolution
would well become her.
“How happy is he born and
taught
That serveth not another’s will;
Whose armor is his honest thought,
And simple truth his only skill!
. . . . . . .
This man is freed from servile bands
Of hope to rise or fear to fall;
Lord of himself though not of lands;
And having nothing yet hath all.”
—SIR HENRY
WOTTON.
Dorothea’s confidence in Caleb Garth’s
knowledge, which had begun on her hearing that he
approved of her cottages, had grown fast during her
stay at Freshitt, Sir James having induced her to take
rides over the two estates in company with himself
and Caleb, who quite returned her admiration, and
told his wife that Mrs. Casaubon had a head for business
most uncommon in a woman. It must be remembered
that by “business” Caleb never meant money
transactions, but the skilful application of labor.
“Most uncommon!” repeated Caleb.
“She said a thing I often used to think myself
when I was a lad:—`Mr. Garth, I should like
to feel, if I lived to be old, that I had improved
a great piece of land and built a great many good
cottages, because the work is of a healthy kind while
it is being done, and after it is done, men are the
better for it.’ Those were the very words:
she sees into things in that way.”
“But womanly, I hope,” said Mrs. Garth,
half suspecting that Mrs. Casaubon might not hold
the true principle of subordination.
“Oh, you can’t think!” said Caleb,
shaking his head. “You would like to hear
her speak, Susan. She speaks in such plain words,
and a voice like music. Bless me! it reminds
me of bits in the `Messiah’—`and
straightway there appeared a multitude of the heavenly
host, praising God and saying;’ it has a tone
with it that satisfies your ear.”
Caleb was very fond of music, and when he could afford
it went to hear an oratorio that came within his reach,
returning from it with a profound reverence for this
mighty structure of tones, which made him sit meditatively,
looking on the floor and throwing much unutterable
language into his outstretched hands.
