After shaking hands with Dorothea, he bowed as slightly as possible to

Ladislaw, who repaid the slightness exactly, and then going towards

Dorothea, said--

"I must say good-by, Mrs. Casaubon; and probably for a long while."

Dorothea put out her hand and said her good-by cordially. The sense

that Sir James was depreciating Will, and behaving rudely to him,

roused her resolution and dignity: there was no touch of confusion in

her manner. And when Will had left the room, she looked with such calm

self-possession at Sir James, saying, "How is Celia?" that he was

obliged to behave as if nothing had annoyed him. And what would be the

use of behaving otherwise? Indeed, Sir James shrank with so much

dislike from the association even in thought of Dorothea with Ladislaw

as her possible lover, that he would himself have wished to avoid an

outward show of displeasure which would have recognized the

disagreeable possibility. If any one had asked him why he shrank in

that way, I am not sure that he would at first have said anything

fuller or more precise than "_That_ Ladislaw!"--though on reflection

he might have urged that Mr. Casaubon's codicil, barring Dorothea's

marriage with Will, except under a penalty, was enough to cast

unfitness over any relation at all between them. His aversion was all

the stronger because he felt himself unable to interfere.

But Sir James was a power in a way unguessed by himself. Entering at

that moment, he was an incorporation of the strongest reasons through

which Will's pride became a repellent force, keeping him asunder from

Dorothea.




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