zen men of various
ages, from between twenty and thirty to fifty, all shabbily dressed,
most of them with clay pipes in their mouths, were listening with a
look of concentrated intelligence to a man in a pepper-and-salt dress,
with blonde hair, short nose, broad forehead and general breadth, who,
holding his pipe slightly uplifted in the left hand, and beating his
knee with the right, was just finishing a quotation from Shelley (the
comparison of the avalanche in his "Prometheus Unbound")

"As thought by thought is piled, till some great truth
Is loosened, and the nations echo round."

The entrance of the new-comers broke the fixity of attention, and
called for re-arrangement of seats in the too narrow semicircle round
the fire-place and the table holding the glasses, spare pipes and
tobacco. This was the soberest of clubs; but sobriety is no reason why
smoking and "taking something" should be less imperiously needed as a
means of getting a decent status in company and debate. Mordecai was
received with welcoming voices which had a slight cadence of compassion
in them, but naturally all glances passed immediately to his companion.

"I have brought a friend who is interested in our subjects," said
Mordecai. "He has traveled and studied much."

"Is the gentlemen anonymous? Is he a Great 'Unknown?'" said the
broad-chested quoter of Shelley, with a humorous air.

"My name is Daniel Deronda. I am unknown, but not in any sense great."
The smile breaking over the stranger's grave face as he said this was
so agreeable that there was a general indistinct murmur, equivalent to
a "Hear, hear," and the broad man said--

"You recommend the name, sir, and are welcome. Here, Mordecai, come to
this corner against me," he added, evidently wishing to give the
coziest place to the one who most needed it.

Deronda was well satisfied to get a seat on the opposite side, where
his general survey of the party easily included Mordecai, who remained
an eminently striking object in this group of sharply-characterized
figures, more than one of whom, even to Daniel's little exercised
discrimination, seemed probably of Jewish descent.

In fact pure English blood (if leech or lancet can furnish us with the
precise product) did not declare itself predominantly in the party at
present assembled. Miller, the broad man, an exceptional second-hand
bookseller who knew the insides of books, had at least grand-parents
who called themselves Germa