Page 786 - middlemarch

CHAPTER LVI

‘How happy is he born and taught
That serveth not another’s will;
Whose armor is his honest thought,
And simple truth his only skill!
. . . . . . .
This man is freed from servile bands
Of hope to rise or fear to fall;
Lord of himself though not of lands;
And having nothing yet hath all.’
—SIR HENRY WOTTON.

orothea’s confidence in Caleb Garth’s knowledge,
Dwhich had begun on her hearing that he approved of
her cottages, had grown fast during her stay at Freshitt, Sir
James having induced her to take rides over the two estates
in company with himself and Caleb, who quite returned
her admiration, and told his wife that Mrs. Casaubon had a
head for business most uncommon in a woman. It must be
remembered that by ‘business’ Caleb never meant money
transactions, but the skilful application of labor.
‘Most uncommon!’ repeated Caleb. ‘She said a thing I of-
ten used to think myself when I was a lad:—‘Mr. Garth, I
should like to feel, if I lived to be old, that I had improved