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Middlemarch Book 4, Chapter 34 Summary

  • On a morning in May, Mr. Featherstone's funeral procession goes by Lowick manor to the cemetery at the Lowick churchyard.
  • Celia and Sir James (who are now married), Lady Chettam (Sir James' mother), Mr. Brooke, Dorothea, and Mrs. Cadwallader all watch the procession from a window at Lowick.
  • Mr. Casaubon has politely welcomed the group, and then slipped off to his library to work despite Lydgate's warnings.
  • Dorothea's glad to have the company, though. Ordinarily she'd be shut up in the library with Mr. Casaubon.
  • As the funeral passes, Sir James recognizes Mr. and Mrs. Vincy and their son, Fred, along with Mr. Lydgate and a pretty young woman (probably Rosamond).
  • After they're done watching the funeral, Mr. Brooke shows up with the news that Ladislaw is staying with him, and will arrive shortly.
  • Mr. Casaubon, who has joined them from the library, is less than pleased – he figures Dorothea asked her uncle to invite Will to stay with him at the Grange.
  • Mr. Brooke is totally oblivious, though, and goes on and on about how great Will Ladislaw is, and how he'll help to put his papers in order.
  • Will sent the portrait of Mr. Casaubon as St. Thomas Aquinas with Mr. Brooke.