CodalSearch this book — or all of Codal…⌘K
nydus/MiddlemarchPublic
Page 22 of 1169
Table of Contents

I. Miss Brooke

“Then you will think it wicked in me to wear it,” said Celia, uneasily.

“No, dear, no,” said Dorothea, stroking her sister’s cheek. “Souls have complexions too: what will suit one will not suit another.”

“But you might like to keep it for mamma’s sake.”

“No, I have other things of mamma’s⁠—her sandalwood box which I am so fond of⁠—plenty of things. In fact, they are all yours, dear. We need discuss them no longer. There⁠—take away your property.”

Celia felt a little hurt. There was a strong assumption of superiority in this Puritanic toleration, hardly less trying to the blond flesh of an unenthusiastic sister than a Puritanic persecution.

“But how can I wear ornaments if you, who are the elder sister, will never wear them?”

“Nay, Celia, that is too much to ask, that I should wear trinkets to keep you in countenance. If I were to put on such a necklace as that, I should feel as if I had been

22