with his light, easy way
of taking life, had held it a reasonable preference in her that her son
should be made an English gentleman, seeing that she had the
eccentricity of not caring to part from her child, and be to him as if
she were not. Daniel's affectionate gratitude toward Sir Hugo made him
wish to find grounds of excuse rather than blame; for it is as possible
to be rigid in principle and tender in blame, as it is to suffer from
the sight of things hung awry, and yet to be patient with the hanger
who sees amiss. If Sir Hugo in his bachelorhood had been beguiled into
regarding children chiefly as a product intended to make life more
agreeable to the full-grown, whose convenience alone was to be
consulted in the disposal of them--why, he had shared an assumption
which, if not formally avowed, was massively acted on at that date of
the world's history; and Deronda, with all his keen memory of the
painful inward struggle he had gone through in his boyhood, was able
also to remember the many signs that his experience had been entirely
shut out from Sir Hugo's conception. Ignorant kindness may have the
effect of cruelty; but to be angry with it as if it were direct cruelty
would be an ignorant _un_kindness, the most remote from Deronda's large
imaginative lenience toward others. And perhaps now, after the
searching scenes of the last ten days, in which the curtain had been
lifted for him from the secrets of lives unlike his own, he was more
than ever disposed to check that rashness of indignation or resentment
which has an unpleasant likeness to the love of punishing. When he saw
Sir Hugo's familiar figure descending from the railway carriage, the
life-long affection which had been well accustomed to make excuses,
flowed in and submerged all newer knowledge that might have seemed
fresh ground for blame.

"Well, Dan," said Sir Hugo, with a serious fervor, grasping Deronda's
hand. He uttered no other words of greeting; there was too strong a
rush of mutual consciousness. The next thing was to give orders to the
courier, and then to propose walking slowly in, the mild evening, there
being no hurry to get to the hotel.

"I have taken my journey easily, and am in excellent condition," he
said, as he and Deronda came out under the starlight, which was still
faint with the lingering sheen of day. "I didn't hurry in setting off,
because I wanted to inquire into things a little, and so I got sight of
your letter to Lady Ma