Page 528 - middlemarch

‘Did Mr. Ladislaw come on purpose to ask my opinion?’
said Mr. Casaubon, opening his eyes narrowly with a knife-
edged look at Dorothea. She was really uncomfortable on
the point he inquired about, but she only became a little
more serious, and her eyes did not swerve.
‘No,’ she answered immediately, ‘he did not say that he
came to ask your opinion. But when he mentioned the pro-
posal, he of course expected me to tell you of it.’
Mr. Casaubon was silent.
‘I feared that you might feel some objection. But certain-
ly a young man with so much talent might be very useful
to my uncle— might help him to do good in a better way.
And Mr. Ladislaw wishes to have some fixed occupation. He
has been blamed, he says, for not seeking something of that
kind, and he would like to stay in this neighborhood be-
cause no one cares for him elsewhere.’
Dorothea felt that this was a consideration to soften her
husband. However, he did not speak, and she presently re-
curred to Dr. Spanning and the Archdeacon’s breakfast. But
there was no longer sunshine on these subjects.
The next morning, without Dorothea’s knowledge, Mr.
Casaubon despatched the following letter, beginning ‘Dear
Mr. Ladislaw’ (he had always before addressed him as
‘Will’):—
‘Mrs. Casaubon informs me that a proposal has been
made to you, and (according to an inference by no means
stretched) has on your part been in some degree enter-
tained, which involves your residence in this neighborhood
in a capacity which I am justified in saying touches my own