ad on the hat
and cloak in which he had first seen her--the memorable cloak that had
once been wetted for a winding-sheet. She had come down-stairs equipped
in this way; and when Mrs. Meyrick said, in a tone of question, "You
like to go in that dress, dear?" she answered, "My brother is poor, and
I want to look as much like him as I can, else he may feel distant from
me"--imagining that she should meet him in the workman's dress. Deronda
could not make any remark, but felt secretly rather ashamed of his own
fastidious arrangements. They shook hands silently, for Mirah looked
pale and awed.

When Deronda opened the door for her, Mordecai had risen, and had his
eyes turned toward it with an eager gaze. Mirah took only two or three
steps, and then stood still. They looked at each other, motionless. It
was less their own presence that they felt than another's; they were
meeting first in memories, compared with which touch was no union.
Mirah was the first to break the silence, standing where she was.

"Ezra," she said, in exactly the same tone as when she was telling of
her mother's call to him.

Mordecai with a sudden movement advanced and laid his hand on her
shoulders. He was the head taller, and looked down at her tenderly
while he said, "That was our mother's voice. You remember her calling
me?"

"Yes, and how you answered her--'Mother!'--and I knew you loved her."
Mirah threw her arms round her brother's neck, clasped her little hands
behind it, and drew down his face, kissing it with childlike
lavishness, Her hat fell backward on the ground and disclosed all her
curls.

"Ah, the dear head, the dear head?" said Mordecai, in a low loving
tone, laying his thin hand gently on the curls.

"You are very ill, Ezra," said Mirah, sadly looking at him with more
observation.

"Yes, dear child, I shall not be long with you in the body," was the
quiet answer.

"Oh, I will love you and we will talk to each other," said Mirah, with
a sweet outpouring of her words, as spontaneous as bird-notes. "I will
tell you everything, and you will teach me:--you will teach me to be a
good Jewess--what she would have liked me to be. I shall always be with
you when I am not working. For I work now. I shall get money to keep
us. Oh, I have had such good friends."

Mirah until now had quite forgotten that any one was by, but here she
turned with the prettiest attitude, keeping one hand on her brother's
arm while she looked at Mrs. Meyr