MIDDLEMARCH (Completed)

Chapter 56

"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.

Dorothea's confidence in Caleb Garth's knowledge, which 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 often 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 a great piece

of land and built a great many good cottages, because the work

is of a healthy kind while it is being done, and after it is done,

men are the better for it.' Those were the very words: she sees

into things in that way."

"But womanly, I hope," said Mrs. Garth, half suspecting that

Mrs. Casaubon might not hold the true principle of subordination.

"Oh, you can't think!" said Caleb, shaking his head. "You would

like to hear her speak, Susan. She speaks in such plain words,

and a voice like music. Bless me! it reminds me of bits in the

'Messiah'--'and straightway there appeared a multitude of the

heavenly host, praising God and saying;' it has a tone with it

that satisfies your ear."

Caleb was very fond of music, and when he could afford it went

to hear an oratorio that came within his reach, returning from it

with a profound reverence for this mighty structure of tones,

which made him sit meditatively, looking on the floor and throwing

much unutterable language into his outstretched hands.

With this good understanding between them, it was natural that Dorothea

asked Mr. Garth to undertake any business connected with the three

farms and the numerous tenements attached to Lowick Manor; indeed,

his expectation of getting work for two was being fast fulfilled.

As he said, "Business breeds." And one form of business which was