Page 69 (1/2)

She was naturally the subject of , for

the dinner-party was large and rather more miscellaneous as to the e since Mr Brooke's

nieces had resided with hi was done in duos and

trios more or less inharmonious There was the newly elected mayor of

Middlemarch, who happened to be a manufacturer; the philanthropic

banker his brother-in-laho predominated so much in the town that

so to the

resources of their vocabulary; and there were various professional inning to treat the

Middlemarchers, and that she preferred the farmers at the tithe-dinner,

who drank her health unpretentiously, and were not asharandfathers' furniture For in that part of the country, before

refor the political

consciousness, there was a clearer distinction of ranks and a dimmer

distinction of parties; so that Mr Brooke's eneral laxity which ca too much in the for-room, opportunity was

found for some interjectional "asides"

"A fine woman, Miss Brooke! an uncommonly fine woman, by God!" said Mr

Standish, the old lawyer, who had been so long concerned with the

landed gentry that he had become landed himself, and used that oath in

a deep- the

speech of a ood position