"She is a good creature--that fine girl--but a little too earnest," he

thought. "It is troublesome to talk to such women. They are always

wanting reasons, yet they are too ignorant to understand the merits of

any question, and usually fall back on their moral sense to settle

things after their own taste."

Evidently Miss Brooke was not Mr. Lydgate's style of woman any more

than Mr. Chichely's. Considered, indeed, in relation to the latter,

whose mind was matured, she was altogether a mistake, and calculated to

shock his trust in final causes, including the adaptation of fine young

women to purplefaced bachelors. But Lydgate was less ripe, and might

possibly have experience before him which would modify his opinion as

to the most excellent things in woman.

Miss Brooke, however, was not again seen by either of these gentlemen

under her maiden name. Not long after that dinner-party she had become

Mrs. Casaubon, and was on her way to Rome.




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