“甜瓜与欢愉，
皆需应时节。”
——《意大利谚语》
不出所料，卡苏朋先生这几周里大部分时间都待在府邸，求爱过程对他那部鸿篇巨制——所有神话的钥匙——的进展造成了阻碍，这自然让他更加急切地期盼求爱的圆满结局。但他是有意承受这种阻碍的，因为他已经下定决心，现在是时候用女性伴侣的优雅来点缀他的生活，用女性幻想的游戏驱散疲劳笼罩在刻苦研究间隙的阴霾，并在他这个巅峰之年，为暮年确保女性照料的慰藉。因此，他决定顺遂情感的洪流，或许还惊讶地发现，那水流竟浅得可怜。如同干旱地区，浸洗礼只能象征性地进行，卡苏朋先生发现，他那条溪流能提供的，最多只是洒水，而非沉浸；于是他得出结论，诗人们大大夸张了男性激情的力量。不过，他欣慰地注意到，布鲁克小姐表现出一种热切而顺从的爱慕，这似乎预示着他最愉快的婚姻憧憬能够实现。有一两次他曾闪过念头，或许多萝西娅身上有些不足，才导致他如此节制；但他看不出任何不足，也想不出有哪个女人能让他更满意；因此，显然没有理由归咎于别的，只能归咎于人类传统的夸大。
“我现在能不能做点准备，以便将来更有用？”在求爱初期的一个早晨，多萝西娅对他说，“我能不能学读拉丁文和希腊文，然后读给您听，就像弥尔顿的女儿为她们的父亲朗读那样，尽管她们不懂读的内容？”
“恐怕那会让你厌烦，”卡苏朋先生微笑道，“而且，如果我没记错，你提到的那些年轻女子把这种阅读陌生语言的练习当作反抗诗人的理由。”
“是的，但首先，她们是非常顽劣的女孩，否则她们会以侍奉这样的父亲为荣；其次，她们本可以私下学习，自己理解所读的内容，那样就会有趣多了。我希望您不会指望我也顽劣又愚蠢吧？”
“我期望你无论处于何种人生关系中，都能尽显一位优雅小姐的本色。当然，如果你能抄写希腊文字，那将是一大优势，为此，从一点阅读开始会很有益。”
多萝西娅抓住这个宝贵的许可。她没有立刻请求卡苏朋先生教她语言，因为她最怕的是成为负担而不是帮手；但她想学拉丁文和希腊文，并不完全出于对未婚夫的奉献。在她看来，那些男性知识的领域是一片立足之地，可以更真实地看清一切真理。事实上，她一直怀疑自己的结论，因为她感到自己的无知：当熟知古典的人似乎为了上帝的荣耀而热心，却对茅屋的境况漠不关心时，她怎能确信单间茅屋不是为上帝的荣耀而设？或许连希伯来文也是必需的——至少是字母和一些词根——才能触及事物的核心，对基督徒的社会责任做出正确判断。她还没有达到那种弃绝的程度，满足于有一个智慧的丈夫；她渴望自己变得智慧，可怜的孩子。尽管人们公认她聪明，布鲁克小姐确实非常天真。西莉亚的头脑从未被认为过于强大，却更容易看穿他人虚张声势的空洞。一般而言，感情淡薄似乎是防止在特定场合感情过度的唯一保障。
然而，卡苏朋先生同意一起听讲和教导，每次一小时，像个教小孩的教师，或者更像一个情人，对他来说，情人的初步无知和困难具有一种动人的合宜性。在这样的情况下，很少有学者会不喜欢教字母。但多萝西娅自己却因愚蠢而有点震惊和气馁；当她怯生生地询问希腊语重音的价值时，得到的回答让她痛苦地怀疑，有些秘密确实无法用女人的理智来解释。
布鲁克先生对此深信不疑，一天他走进书房时，照例用他那种强硬的语气表达了自己的看法。
“嗯，不过，卡苏朋，这种深奥的学问，古典、数学之类的东西，对女人来说太费神了——太费神了，你知道。”
“多萝西娅只是在学习阅读字母，”卡苏朋先生避开了问题，“她非常体贴，想保护我的眼睛。”
“啊，好吧，不懂也没关系，也许还不算太糟。但女性心智有一种轻浮——蜻蜓点水般——音乐、艺术之类的东西——女人应该学到一定程度，但要用轻松的方式，你知道。一个女人应该能坐下来给你弹唱一首古老动听的英国曲子。我喜欢那样；虽然我听过不少——在维也纳歌剧院听过：格鲁克、莫扎特，所有那种东西。但我在音乐上是保守派——不像思想，你知道。我坚持古老的好曲子。”
“卡苏朋先生不喜欢钢琴，我很高兴他不喜欢，”多萝西娅说。她对家庭音乐和女性艺术的轻微轻视情有可原，因为那个黑暗时期这些东西主要是叮叮当当和涂抹罢了。她微笑着，用感激的眼神抬头看着未婚夫。如果他总是让她弹《夏日最后的玫瑰》，她会需要很大的忍耐力。“他说洛威克只有一架旧羽管键琴，上面堆满了书。”
“啊，你在这方面落后于西莉亚了，亲爱的。西莉亚弹得很优美，而且随时愿意弹。不过，既然卡苏朋不喜欢，那也就算了。但可惜你没有那种小小的消遣，卡苏朋：弓总是绷紧——那种情况，你知道——不行。”
“我从不认为用有节奏的噪音折磨耳朵是一种消遣，”卡苏朋先生说，“一首曲子反复演奏会产生可笑的效果，让我脑海中的字句像跳小步舞一样打拍子——我想，这种效果在童年之后几乎无法忍受。至于更宏大的音乐形式，适合伴随庄严的庆典，甚至像古代观念那样起教育作用，我就不说了，因为这与我们无直接关系。”
“不，但那种音乐我会喜欢，”多萝西娅说，“我们从洛桑回家时，叔叔带我们去弗莱堡听那架大管风琴，听得我抽泣起来。”
“那种事情不健康，亲爱的，”布鲁克先生说，“卡苏朋，现在她归你管了：你得教我的侄女更平静地看待事物，嗯，多萝西娅？”
他说完微微一笑，不想伤害侄女，但真心认为她早点和像卡苏朋这样稳重的家伙结婚或许更好，因为她不肯听切特姆的话。
“不过，真奇怪，”他一边拖着脚走出房间，一边自言自语，“她居然会喜欢他。但这也算好姻缘。我要是阻止，就超越职权了，随卡德瓦拉德太太怎么说吧。卡苏朋很可能当上主教。他关于天主教问题的小册子很及时——至少一个教长职位。他们欠他一个教长职位。”
在此，我必须为哲学反思的要求辩护，指出布鲁克先生当时完全没有想到，后来他会在主教收入问题上发表激进的演说。哪位优雅的历史学家会错过一个绝佳的机会，指出英雄们并未预见世界历史，甚至自己的行为？——例如，纳瓦拉的亨利，当他还是个新教徒婴儿时，从未想过会成为天主教君主；又如阿尔弗雷德大帝，当他用燃烧的蜡烛测量辛劳的夜晚时，绝没有想到未来的绅士们会用怀表测量闲散的白天。这里有一座真理的矿藏，无论怎样大力开采，都可能比我们的煤炭更持久。
至于布鲁克先生，我还要做一些可能不那么有先例的评论——即，即使他预知了自己的演说，也可能不会有什么大的不同。愉快地想到侄女的丈夫拥有丰厚的教会收入是一回事，发表自由派的演说又是另一回事；不能从不同角度看问题的心思是狭隘的。
“Piacer e popone
Vuol la sua stagione.”
—_Italian Proverb_.
Mr. Casaubon, as might be expected, spent a great deal of his time at
the Grange in these weeks, and the hindrance which courtship occasioned
to the progress of his great work—the Key to all Mythologies—naturally
made him look forward the more eagerly to the happy termination of
courtship. But he had deliberately incurred the hindrance, having made
up his mind that it was now time for him to adorn his life with the
graces of female companionship, to irradiate the gloom which fatigue
was apt to hang over the intervals of studious labor with the play of
female fancy, and to secure in this, his culminating age, the solace of
female tendance for his declining years. Hence he determined to abandon
himself to the stream of feeling, and perhaps was surprised to find
what an exceedingly shallow rill it was. As in droughty regions baptism
by immersion could only be performed symbolically, Mr. Casaubon found
that sprinkling was the utmost approach to a plunge which his stream
would afford him; and he concluded that the poets had much exaggerated
the force of masculine passion. Nevertheless, he observed with pleasure
that Miss Brooke showed an ardent submissive affection which promised
to fulfil his most agreeable previsions of marriage. It had once or
twice crossed his mind that possibly there was some deficiency in
Dorothea to account for the moderation of his abandonment; but he was
unable to discern the deficiency, or to figure to himself a woman who
would have pleased him better; so that there was clearly no reason to
fall back upon but the exaggerations of human tradition.
“Could I not be preparing myself now to be more useful?” said Dorothea
to him, one morning, early in the time of courtship; “could I not learn
to read Latin and Greek aloud to you, as Milton’s daughters did to
their father, without understanding what they read?”
“I fear that would be wearisome to you,” said Mr. Casaubon, smiling;
“and, indeed, if I remember rightly, the young women you have mentioned
regarded that exercise in unknown tongues as a ground for rebellion
against the poet.”
“Yes; but in the first place they were very naughty girls, else they
would have been proud to minister to such a father; and in the second
place they might have studied privately and taught themselves to
understand what they read, and then it would have been interesting. I
hope you don’t expect me to be naughty and stupid?”
“I expect you to be all that an exquisite young lady can be in every
possible relation of life. Certainly it might be a great advantage if
you were able to copy the Greek character, and to that end it were well
to begin with a little reading.”
Dorothea seized this as a precious permission. She would not have asked
Mr. Casaubon at once to teach her the languages, dreading of all things
to be tiresome instead of helpful; but it was not entirely out of
devotion to her future husband that she wished to know Latin and Greek.
Those provinces of masculine knowledge seemed to her a standing-ground
from which all truth could be seen more truly. As it was, she
constantly doubted her own conclusions, because she felt her own
ignorance: how could she be confident that one-roomed cottages were not
for the glory of God, when men who knew the classics appeared to
conciliate indifference to the cottages with zeal for the glory?
Perhaps even Hebrew might be necessary—at least the alphabet and a few
roots—in order to arrive at the core of things, and judge soundly on
the social duties of the Christian. And she had not reached that point
of renunciation at which she would have been satisfied with having a
wise husband: she wished, poor child, to be wise herself. Miss Brooke
was certainly very naive with all her alleged cleverness. Celia, whose
mind had never been thought too powerful, saw the emptiness of other
people’s pretensions much more readily. To have in general but little
feeling, seems to be the only security against feeling too much on any
particular occasion.
