“No,” answered Dorothea; “Mr. Casaubon has always avoided dwelling on his own honorable actions.”  She did not feel that her husband’s conduct was depreciated; but this notion of what justice had required in his relations with Will Ladislaw took strong hold on her mind.  After a moment’s pause, she added, “He had never told me that he supported your mother.  Is she still living?”

“No; she died by an accident—­a fall—­four years ago.  It is curious that my mother, too, ran away from her family, but not for the sake of her husband.  She never would tell me anything about her family, except that she forsook them to get her own living—­went on the stage, in fact.  She was a dark-eyed creature, with crisp ringlets, and never seemed to be getting old.  You see I come of rebellious blood on both sides,” Will ended, smiling brightly at Dorothea, while she was still looking with serious intentness before her, like a child seeing a drama for the first time.

But her face, too, broke into a smile as she said, “That is your apology, I suppose, for having yourself been rather rebellious; I mean, to Mr. Casaubon’s wishes.  You must remember that you have not done what he thought best for you.  And if he dislikes you—­ you were speaking of dislike a little while ago—­but I should rather say, if he has shown any painful feelings towards you, you must consider how sensitive he has become from the wearing effect of study.  Perhaps,” she continued, getting into a pleading tone, “my uncle has not told you how serious Mr. Casaubon’s illness was.  It would be very petty of us who are well and can bear things, to think much of small offences from those who carry a weight of trial.”

“You teach me better,” said Will.  “I will never grumble on that subject again.”  There was a gentleness in his tone which came from the unutterable contentment of perceiving—­what Dorothea was hardly conscious of—­that she was travelling into the remoteness of pure pity and loyalty towards her husband.  Will was ready to adore her pity and loyalty, if she would associate himself with her in manifesting them.  “I have really sometimes been a perverse fellow,” he went on, “but I will never again, if I can help it, do or say what you would disapprove.”

“That is very good of you,” said Dorothea, with another open smile.  “I shall have a little kingdom then, where I shall give laws.  But you will soon go away, out of my rule, I imagine.  You will soon be tired of staying at the Grange.”

“That is a point I wanted to mention to you—­one of the reasons why I wished to speak to you alone.  Mr. Brooke proposes that I should stay in this neighborhood.  He has bought one of the Middlemarch newspapers, and he wishes me to conduct that, and also to help him in other ways.”

“Would not that be a sacrifice of higher prospects for you?” said Dorothea.

“Perhaps; but I have always been blamed for thinking of prospects, and not settling to anything.  And here is something offered to me.  If you would not like me to accept it, I will give it up.  Otherwise I would rather stay in this part of the country than go away.  I belong to nobody anywhere else.”