angled without importunity, had finally won him to agree upon. But
another acceptable accompaniment of his being in town was the
presentation of himself with the beautiful bride whom he had chosen to
marry in spite of what other people might have expected of him. It is
true that Grandcourt went about with the sense that he did not care a
languid curse for any one's admiration: but this state of not-caring,
just as much as desire, required its related object--namely, a world of
admiring or envying spectators: for if you are fond of looking stonily
at smiling persons--the persons must be and they must smile--a
rudimentary truth which is surely forgotten by those who complain of
mankind as generally contemptible, since any other aspect of the race
must disappoint the voracity of their contempt. Grandcourt, in town for
the first time with his wife, had his non-caring abstinence from curses
enlarged and diversified by splendid receptions, by conspicuous rides
and drives, by presentations of himself with her on all distinguished
occasions. He wished her to be sought after; he liked that "fellows"
should be eager to talk with her and escort her within his observation;
there was even a kind of lofty coquetry on her part that he would not
have objected to. But what he did not like were her ways in relation to
Deronda.

After the musical party at Lady Mallinger's, when Grandcourt had
observed the dialogue on the settee as keenly as Hans had done, it was
characteristic of him that he named Deronda for invitation along with
the Mallinger's, tenaciously avoiding the possible suggestion to
anybody concerned that Deronda's presence or absence could be of the
least importance to him; and he made no direct observation to Gwendolen
on her behavior that evening, lest the expression of his disgust should
be a little too strong to satisfy his own pride. But a few days
afterward he remarked, without being careful of the _a propos_--

"Nothing makes a woman more of a gawky than looking out after people
and showing tempers in public. A woman ought to have good manners. Else
it's intolerable to appear with her."

Gwendolen made the expected application, and was not without alarm at
the notion of being a gawky. For she, too, with her melancholy distaste
for things, preferred that her distaste should include admirers. But
the sense of overhanging rebuke only intensified the strain of
expectation toward any meeting with Deronda. The novelty and