Meanwhile that little disappointment made her delight the more in Sir

James Chettam's readiness to set on foot the desired improvements. He

came much oftener than Mr. Casaubon, and Dorothea ceased to find him

disagreeable since he showed himself so entirely in earnest; for he had

already entered with much practical ability into Lovegood's estimates,

and was charmingly docile. She proposed to build a couple of cottages,

and transfer two families from their old cabins, which could then be

pulled down, so that new ones could be built on the old sites. Sir

James said "Exactly," and she bore the word remarkably well.

Certainly these men who had so few spontaneous ideas might be very

useful members of society under good feminine direction, if they were

fortunate in choosing their sisters-in-law! It is difficult to say

whether there was or was not a little wilfulness in her continuing

blind to the possibility that another sort of choice was in question in

relation to her. But her life was just now full of hope and action:

she was not only thinking of her plans, but getting down learned books

from the library and reading many things hastily (that she might be a

little less ignorant in talking to Mr. Casaubon), all the while being

visited with conscientious questionings whether she were not exalting

these poor doings above measure and contemplating them with that

self-satisfaction which was the last doom of ignorance and folly.




readonlinefreebook.com Copyright 2016 - 2024