Page:Eliot - Middlemarch, vol. II, 1872.djvu/197

Rh "No, I came to look after Casaubon—to see how he goes on, you know. And to bring a little news—a little news, my dear," said Mr Brooke, nodding at Dorothea as she came towards him. "I looked into the library, and I saw Casaubon over his books. I told him it wouldn't do: I said, 'This will never do, you know: think of your wife, Casaubon.' And he promised me to come up. I didn't tell him my news: I said, he must come up."

"Ah, now they are coming out of church," Mrs Cadwallader exclaimed. "Dear me, what a wonderfully mixed set! Mr Lydgate as doctor, I suppose. But that is really a good looking woman, and the fair young man must be her son. Who are they, Sir James, do you know?"

"I see Vincy, the Mayor of Middlemarch; they are probably his wife and son," said Sir James, looking interrogatively at Mr Brooke, who nodded and said—

"Yes, a very decent family—a very good fellow is Vincy; a credit to the manufacturing interest. You have seen him at my house, you know."

"Ah, yes: one of your secret committee," said Mrs Cadwallader, provokingly.

"A coursing fellow, though," said Sir James, with a fox-hunter's disgust.