ling, I should be no better than
a mischievous animal."

"I don't know that I have ever betrayed _my_ feeling to her," said
Hans, as if he were vindicating himself.

"You mean that we are on a level, then; you have no reason to envy me."

"Oh, not the slightest," said Hans, with bitter irony. "You have
measured my conceit and know that it out-tops all your advantages."

"I am a nuisance to you, Meyrick. I am sorry, but I can't help it,"
said Deronda, rising. "After what passed between us before, I wished to
have this explanation; and I don't see that any pretensions of mine
have made a real difference to you. They are not likely to make any
pleasant difference to myself under present circumstances. Now the
father is there--did you know that the father is there?"

"Yes. If he were not a Jew I would permit myself to damn him--with
faint praise, I mean," said Hans, but with no smile.

"She and I meet under greater constraint than ever. Things might go on
in this way for two years without my getting any insight into her
feeling toward me. That is the whole state of affairs, Hans. Neither
you nor I have injured the other, that I can see. We must put up with
this sort of rivalry in a hope that is likely enough to come to
nothing. Our friendship can bear that strain, surely."

"No, it can't," said Hans, impetuously, throwing down his tools,
thrusting his hands into his coat-pockets, and turning round to face
Deronda, who drew back a little and looked at him with amazement. Hans
went on in the same tone--

"Our friendship--my friendship--can't bear the strain of behaving to
you like an ungrateful dastard and grudging you your happiness. For you
_are_ the happiest dog in the world. If Mirah loves anybody better than
her brother, _you are the man_."

Hans turned on his heel and threw himself into his chair, looking up at
Deronda with an expression the reverse of tender. Something like a
shock passed through Deronda, and, after an instant, he said--

"It is a good-natured fiction of yours, Hans."

"I am not in a good-natured mood. I assure you I found the fact
disagreeable when it was thrust on me--all the more, or perhaps all the
less, because I believed then that your heart was pledged to the
duchess. But now, confound you! you turn out to be in love in the right
place--a Jew--and everything eligible."

"Tell me what convinced you--there's a good fellow," said Deronda,
distrusting a delight that he was unused to.