Page 296 - middlemarch

genius for painting, would it not be right to take that as a
guide? Perhaps you might do better things than these—or
different, so that there might not be so many pictures al-
most all alike in the same place.’
There was no mistaking this simplicity, and Will was
won by it into frankness. ‘A man must have a very rare ge-
nius to make changes of that sort. I am afraid mine would
not carry me even to the pitch of doing well what has been
done already, at least not so well as to make it worth while.
And I should never succeed in anything by dint of drudgery.
If things don’t come easily to me I never get them.’
‘I have heard Mr. Casaubon say that he regrets your want
of patience,’ said Dorothea, gently. She was rather shocked
at this mode of taking all life as a holiday.
‘Yes, I know Mr. Casaubon’s opinion. He and I differ.’
The slight streak of contempt in this hasty reply offended
Dorothea. She was all the more susceptible about Mr. Casa-
ubon because of her morning’s trouble.
‘Certainly you differ,’ she said, rather proudly. ‘I did not
think of comparing you: such power of persevering devoted
labor as Mr. Casaubon’s is not common.’
Will saw that she was offended, but this only gave an ad-
ditional impulse to the new irritation of his latent dislike
towards Mr. Casaubon. It was too intolerable that Doro-
thea should be worshipping this husband: such weakness
in a woman is pleasant to no man but the husband in ques-
tion. Mortals are easily tempted to pinch the life out of their
neighbor’s buzzing glory, and think that such killing is no
murder.