a Jewess would feel."

"The Jewesses of that time sat on ruins," said Hans, starting up with a
sense of being checkmated. "That makes them convenient for pictures."

"But the dress--the dress," said Amy; "is it settled?"

"Yes; is it not?" said Mirah, looking doubtfully at Mrs. Meyrick, who
in her turn looked up at her son, and said, "What do you think, Hans?"

"That dress will not do," said Hans, decisively. "She is not going to
sit on ruins. You must jump into a cab with her, little mother, and go
to Regent Street. It's plenty of time to get anything you like--a black
silk dress such as ladies wear. She must not be taken for an object of
charity. She has talents to make people indebted to her."

"I think it is what Mr. Deronda would like--for her to have a handsome
dress," said Mrs. Meyrick, deliberating.

"Of course it is," said Hans, with some sharpness. "You may take my
word for what a gentleman would feel."

"I wish to do what Mr. Deronda would like me to do," said Mirah,
gravely, seeing that Mrs. Meyrick looked toward her; and Hans, turning
on his heel, went to Kate's table and took up one of her drawings as if
his interest needed a new direction.

"Shouldn't you like to make a study of Klesmer's head, Hans?" said
Kate. "I suppose you have often seen him?"

"Seen him!" exclaimed Hans, immediately throwing back his head and
mane, seating himself at the piano and looking round him as if he were
surveying an amphitheatre, while he held his fingers down
perpendicularly toward the keys. But then in another instant he wheeled
round on the stool, looked at Mirah and said, half timidly--"Perhaps
you don't like this mimicry; you must always stop my nonsense when you
don't like it."

Mirah had been smiling at the swiftly-made image, and she smiled still,
but with a touch of something else than amusement, as she said--"Thank
you. But you have never done anything I did not like. I hardly think he
could, belonging to you," she added, looking at Mrs. Meyrick.

In this way Hans got food for his hope. How could the rose help it when
several bees in succession took its sweet odor as a sign of personal
attachment?

CHAPTER XL.

"Within the soul a faculty abides,
That with interpositions, which would hide
And darken, so can deal, that they become
Contingencies of pomp; and serve to exalt
Her native brightness, as the ample moon.
In the deep stillness of a summer even.
Rising behind a thick and