thy of the mother you honored."

He waited there, and Mordecai, throwing himself backward in his chair,
again closed his eyes, uttering himself almost inaudibly for some
minutes in Hebrew, and then subsiding into a happy-looking silence.
Deronda, watching the expression in his uplifted face, could have
imagined that he was speaking with some beloved object: there was a new
suffused sweetness, something like that on the faces of the beautiful
dead. For the first time Deronda thought he discerned a family
resemblance to Mirah.

Presently when Mordecai was ready to listen, the rest was told. But in
accounting for Mirah's flight he made the statement about the father's
conduct as vague as he could, and threw the emphasis on her yearning to
come to England as the place where she might find her mother. Also he
kept back the fact of Mirah's intention to drown herself, and his own
part in rescuing her; merely describing the home she had found with
friends of his, whose interest in her and efforts for her he had
shared. What he dwelt on finally was Mirah's feeling about her mother
and brother; and in relation to this he tried to give every detail.

"It was in search of them," said Deronda, smiling, "that I turned into
this house: the name Ezra Cohen was just then the most interesting name
in the world to me. I confess I had fear for a long while. Perhaps you
will forgive me now for having asked you that question about the elder
Mrs. Cohen's daughter. I cared very much what I should find Mirah's
friends to be. But I had found a brother worthy of her when I knew that
her Ezra was disguised under the name of Mordecai."

"Mordecai is really my name--Ezra Mordecai Cohen."

"Is there any kinship between this family and yours?" said Deronda.

"Only the kinship of Israel. My soul clings to these people, who have
sheltered me and given me succor out of the affection that abides in
Jewish hearts, as sweet odor in things long crushed and hidden from the
outer air. It is good for me to bear with their ignorance and be bound
to them in gratitude, that I may keep in mind the spiritual poverty of
the Jewish million, and not put impatient knowledge in the stead of
loving wisdom."

"But you don't feel bound to continue with them now there is a closer
tie to draw you?" said Deronda, not without fear that he might find an
obstacle to overcome. "It seems to me right now--is it not?--that you
should live with your sister; and I have prepared