movement of Gwendolen in relation to Deronda escaped him. He would
have denied that he was jealous; because jealousy would have implied
some doubt of his own power to hinder what he had determined against.
That his wife should have more inclination to another man's society
than to his own would not pain him: what he required was that she
should be as fully aware as she would have been of a locked hand-cuff,
that her inclination was helpless to decide anything in contradiction
with his resolve. However much of vacillating whim there might have
been in his entrance on matrimony, there was no vacillating in his
interpretation of the bond. He had not repented of his marriage; it had
really brought more of aim into his life, new objects to exert his will
upon; and he had not repented of his choice. His taste was fastidious,
and Gwendolen satisfied it: he would not have liked a wife who had not
received some elevation of rank from him; nor one who did not command
admiration by her mien and beauty; nor one whose nails were not of the
right shape; nor one the lobe of whose ear was at all too large and
red; nor one who, even if her nails and ears were right, was at the
same time a ninny, unable to make spirited answers. These requirements
may not seem too exacting to refined contemporaries whose own ability
to fall in love has been held in suspense for lack of indispensable
details; but fewer perhaps may follow him in his contentment that his
wife should be in a temper which would dispose her to fly out if she
dared, and that she should have been urged into marrying him by other
feelings than passionate attachment. Still, for those who prefer
command to love, one does not see why the habit of mind should change
precisely at the point of matrimony.

Grandcourt did not feel that he had chosen the wrong wife; and having
taken on himself the part of husband, he was not going in any way to be
fooled, or allow himself to be seen in a light that could be regarded
as pitiable. This was his state of mind--not jealousy; still, his
behavior in some respects was as like jealousy as yellow is to yellow,
which color we know may be the effect of very different causes.

He had come up to town earlier than usual because he wished to be on
the spot for legal consultation as to the arrangements of his will, the
transference of mortgages, and that transaction with his uncle about
the succession to Diplow, which the bait of ready money, adroitly
d