is but momentary on the
permanent chosen treasure of the heart--some spoiling of her trust,
which wrought upon him now as if it had been the retreating cry of a
creature snatched and carried out of his reach by swift horsemen or
swifter waves, while his own strength was only a stronger sense of
weakness. How could his feelings for Gwendolen ever be exactly like his
feelings for other women, even when there was one by whose side he
desired to stand apart from them? Strangely the figure entered into the
pictures of his present and future; strangely (and now it seemed sadly)
their two lots had come in contact, hers narrowly personal, his charged
with far-reaching sensibilities, perhaps with durable purposes, which
were hardly more present to her than the reasons why men migrate are
present to the birds that come as usual for the crumbs and find them no
more. Not that Deronda was too ready to imagine himself of supreme
importance to a woman; but her words of insistance that he must "remain
near her--must not forsake her"--continually recurred to him with the
clearness and importunity of imagined sounds, such as Dante has said
pierce us like arrows whose points carry the sharpness of pity--

"Lamenti saettaron me diversi
Ca che di piefermti avean gli strali?"

Day after day passed, and the very air of Italy seemed to carry the
consciousness that war had been declared against Austria, and every day
was a hurrying march of crowded Time toward the world-changing battle
of Sadowa. Meanwhile, in Genoa, the noons were getting hotter, the
converging outer roads getting deeper with white dust, the oleanders in
the tubs along the wayside gardens looking more and more like fatigued
holiday-makers, and the sweet evening changing her office--scattering
abroad those whom the midday had sent under shelter, and sowing all
paths with happy social sounds, little tinklings of mule-bells and
whirrings of thrumbed strings, light footsteps and voices, if not
leisurely, then with the hurry of pleasure in them; while the
encircling heights, crowned with forts, skirted with fine dwellings and
gardens, seemed also to come forth and gaze in fullness of beauty after
their long siesta, till all strong color melted in the stream of
moonlight which made the Streets a new spectacle with shadows, both
still and moving, on cathedral steps and against the facades of massive
palaces; and then slowly with the descending moon all sank in deep
night and si