of the relieved
tension in Mordecai's mind that he could smile and say, "Fine, fine!"

"You have forgotten your greatcoat and comforter," said young Mrs.
Cohen, and he went back into the work-room and got them.

"He's come to life again, do you see?" said Cohen, who had
re-entered--speaking in an undertone. "I told you so: I'm mostly
right." Then in his usual voice, "Well, sir, we mustn't detain you now,
I suppose; but I hope this isn't the last time we shall see you."

"Shall you come again?" said Jacob, advancing. "See, I can catch the
ball; I'll bet I catch it without stopping, if you come again."

"He has clever hands," said Deronda, looking at the grandmother. "Which
side of the family does he get them from?"

But the grandmother only nodded towards her son, who said promptly, "My
side. My wife's family are not in that line. But bless your soul! ours
is a sort of cleverness as good as gutta percha; you can twist it which
way you like. There's nothing some old gentlemen won't do if you set
'em to it." Here Cohen winked down at Jacob's back, but it was doubtful
whether this judicious allusiveness answered its purpose, for its
subject gave a nasal whinnying laugh and stamped about singing, "Old
gentlemen, old gentlemen," in chiming cadence.

Deronda thought, "I shall never know anything decisive about these
people until I ask Cohen pointblank whether he lost a sister named
Mirah when she was six years old." The decisive moment did not yet seem
easy for him to face. Still his first sense of repulsion at the
commonness of these people was beginning to be tempered with kindlier
feeling. However unrefined their airs and speech might be, he was
forced to admit some moral refinement in their treatment of the
consumptive workman, whose mental distinction impressed them chiefly as
a harmless, silent raving.

"The Cohens seem to have an affection for you," said Deronda, as soon
as he and Mordecai were off the doorstep.

"And I for them," was the immediate answer. "They have the heart of the
Israelite within them, though they are as the horse and the mule,
without understanding beyond the narrow path they tread."

"I have caused you some uneasiness, I fear," said Deronda, "by my
slowness in fulfilling my promise. I wished to come yesterday, but I
found it impossible."

"Yes--yes, I trusted you. But it is true I have been uneasy, for the
spirit of my youth has been stirred within me, and this body is not
strong enou