0 Middlemarchthink he is not half fond enough of Dorothea; and he ought
to be, for I am sure no one else would have had him— do
you think they would?’
‘I always thought it a horrible sacrifice of your sister,’ said
Sir James.
‘Yes. But poor Dodo never did do what other people do,
and I think she never will.’
‘She is a noble creature,’ said the loyal-hearted Sir James.
He had just had a fresh impression of this kind, as he had
seen Dorothea stretching her tender arm under her hus-
band’s neck and looking at him with unspeakable sorrow.
He did not know how much penitence there was in the sor-
row.
‘Yes,’ said Celia, thinking it was very well for Sir James to
say so, but HE would not have been comfortable with Dodo.
‘Shall I go to her? Could I help her, do you think?’
‘I think it would be well for you just to go and see her be-
fore Lydgate comes,’ said Sir James, magnanimously. ‘Only
don’t stay long.’
While Celia was gone he walked up and down remember-
ing what he had originally felt about Dorothea’s engagement,
and feeling a revival of his disgust at Mr. Brooke’s indiffer-
ence. If Cadwallader— if every one else had regarded the
affair as he, Sir James, had done, the marriage might have
been hindered. It was wicked to let a young girl blindly de-
cide her fate in that way, without any effort to save her. Sir
James had long ceased to have any regrets on his own ac-
count: his heart was satisfied with his engagement to Celia.
But he had a chivalrous nature (was not the disinterested