Middlemarch

Miss Brooke had that kind of beauty which seems to be thrown into relief by poor dress.Her hand and wrist were so finely formed that she could wear sleeves not less bare of stylethan those in which the Blessed Virgin appeared to Italian painters; and her profile as wellas her stature and bearing seemed to gain the more dignity from her plain garments, whichby the side of provincial fashion gave her the impressiveness of a fine quotation from theBible, -or from one of our elder poets, -in a paragraph of to-day's newspaper. She wasusually spoken of as being remarkably clever, but with the addition that her sister Celia hadmore common-sense. Nevertheless, Celia wore scarcely more trimmings; and it was only toclose observers that her dress differed from her sister's, and had a shade of coquetry in itsarrangements; for Miss Brooke's plain dressing was due to mixed conditions, in most ofwhich her sister shared. The pride of being ladies had something to do with it: the Brookeconnections, though not exactly aristocratic, were unquestionably "good: " if you inquiredbackward for a generation or two, you would not find any yard-measuring or parcel-tyingforefathers-anything lower than an admiral or a clergyman; and there was even anancestor discernible as a Puritan gentleman who served under Cromwell, but afterwardsconformed, and managed to come out of all political troubles as the proprietor of arespectable family estate. Young women of such birth, living in a quiet country-house, andattending a village church hardly larger than a parlor, naturally regarded frippery as theambition of a huckster's daughter. Then there was well-bred economy, which in those daysmade show in dress the first item to be deducted from, when any margin was required forexpenses more distinctive of rank. Such reasons would have been enough to account forplain dress, quite apart from religious feeling; but in Miss Brooke's case, religion alonewould have determined it; and Celia mildly acquiesced in all her sister's sentiments, onlyinfusing them with that common-sense which is able to accept momentous doctrineswithout any eccentric agitation. Dorothea knew many passages of Pascal's Pensees and ofJeremy Taylor by heart; and to her the destinies of mankind, seen by the light ofChristianity, made the solicitudes of feminine fashion appear an occupation for Bedlam.