from you than your soul's brotherhood. I will think of
nothing else yet. But I am glad you are rich. You did not need money on
that diamond ring. You had some other motive for bringing it."

Deronda was a little startled by this clear-sightedness; but before he
could reply Mordecai added--"it is all one. Had you been in need of the
money, the great end would have been that we should meet again. But you
are rich?" he ended, in a tone of interrogation.

"Not rich, except in the sense that every one is rich who has more than
he needs for himself."

"I desired that your life should be free," said Mordecai,
dreamily--"mine has been a bondage."

It was clear that he had no interest in the fact of Deronda's
appearance at the Cohens' beyond its relation to his own ideal purpose.
Despairing of leading easily up to the question he wished to ask,
Deronda determined to put it abruptly, and said--

"Can you tell me why Mrs. Cohen, the mother, must not be spoken to
about her daughter?"

There was no immediate answer, and he thought that he should have to
repeat the question. The fact was that Mordecai had heard the words,
but had to drag his mind to a new subject away from his passionate
preoccupation. After a few moments, he replied with a careful effort
such as he would have used if he had been asked the road to Holborn---

"I know the reason. But I will not speak even of trivial family affairs
which I have heard in the privacy of the family. I dwell in their tent
as in a sanctuary. Their history, so far as they injure none other, is
their own possession."

Deronda felt the blood mounting to his cheeks as a sort of rebuke he
was little used to, and he also found himself painfully baffled where
he had reckoned with some confidence on getting decisive knowledge. He
became the more conscious of emotional strain from the excitements of
the day; and although he had the money in his pocket to redeem his
ring, he recoiled from the further task of a visit to the Cohens',
which must be made not only under the former uncertainty, but under a
new disappointment as to the possibility of its removal.

"I will part from you now," he said, just before they could reach
Cohen's door; and Mordecai paused, looking up at him with an anxious
fatigued face under the gaslight.

"When will you come back?" he said, with slow emphasis.

"May I leave that unfixed? May I ask for you at the Cohens' any evening
after your hour at the book-shop? Th