MIDDLEMARCH (Completed)

Chapter 80

"Stern lawgiver! yet thou dost wear

The Godhead's most benignant grace;

Nor know we anything so fair

As is the smile upon thy face;

Flowers laugh before thee on their beds,

And fragrance in thy footing treads;

Thou dost preserve the Stars from wrong;

And the most ancient Heavens, through thee, are fresh and strong.

--WORDSWORTH: Ode to Duty.

When Dorothea had seen Mr. Farebrother in the morning, she had

promised to go and dine at the parsonage on her return from Freshitt.

There was a frequent interchange of visits between her and the

Farebrother family, which enabled her to say that she was not at

all lonely at the Manor, and to resist for the present the severe

prescription of a lady companion. When she reached home and remembered

her engagement, she was glad of it; and finding that she had still

an hour before she could dress for dinner, she walked straight

to the schoolhouse and entered into a conversation with the master

and mistress about the new bell, giving eager attention to their small

details and repetitions, and getting up a dramatic sense that her life

was very busy. She paused on her way back to talk to old Master

Bunney who was putting in some garden-seeds, and discoursed wisely

with that rural sage about the crops that would make the most return

on a perch of ground, and the result of sixty years' experience as

to soils--namely, that if your soil was pretty mellow it would do,

but if there came wet, wet, wet to make it all of a mummy, why then--

Finding that the social spirit had beguiled her into being rather late,

she dressed hastily and went over to the parsonage rather earlier

than was necessary. That house was never dull, Mr. Farebrother,

like another White of Selborne, having continually something new

to tell of his inarticulate guests and proteges, whom he was

teaching the boys not to torment; and he had just set up a pair

of beautiful goats to be pets of the village in general, and to

walk at large as sacred animals. The evening went by cheerfully

till after tea, Dorothea talking more than usual and dilating

with Mr. Farebrother on the possible histories of creatures that

converse compendiously with their antennae, and for aught we know

may hold reformed parliaments; when suddenly some inarticulate

little sounds were heard which called everybody's attention.

"Henrietta Noble," said Mrs. Farebrother, seeing her small sister