Page 514 - middlemarch

spring from the common jealousy of a winter-worn hus-
band: it was something deeper, bred by his lifelong claims
and discontents; but Dorothea, now that she was pres-
ent—Dorothea, as a young wife who herself had shown an
offensive capability of criticism, necessarily gave concentra-
tion to the uneasiness which had before been vague.
Will Ladislaw on his side felt that his dislike was flour-
ishing at the expense of his gratitude, and spent much
inward discourse in justifying the dislike. Casaubon hat-
ed him—he knew that very well; on his first entrance he
could discern a bitterness in the mouth and a venom in the
glance which would almost justify declaring war in spite
of past benefits. He was much obliged to Casaubon in the
past, but really the act of marrying this wife was a set-off
against the obligation It was a question whether gratitude
which refers to what is done for one’s self ought not to give
way to indignation at what is done against another. And
Casaubon had done a wrong to Dorothea in marrying her.
A man was bound to know himself better than that, and if
he chose to grow gray crunching bones in a cavern, he had
no business to be luring a girl into his companionship. ‘It
is the most horrible of virgin-sacrifices,’ said Will; and he
painted to himself what were Dorothea’s inward sorrows as
if he had been writing a choric wail. But he would never lose
sight of her: he would watch over her—if he gave up every-
thing else in life he would watch over her, and she should
know that she had one slave in the world, Will had—to use
Sir Thomas Browne’s phrase— a ‘passionate prodigality’ of
statement both to himself and others. The simple truth was

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