en to her as if she had come from a far off shore inhabited
by a race different from our own.

But for that very reason he made his visit brief with his usual
activity of imagination as to how his conduct might affect others, he
shrank from what might seem like curiosity or the assumption of a right
to know as much as he pleased of one to whom he had done a service. For
example, he would have liked to hear her sing, but he would have felt
the expression of such a wish to be rudeness in him--since she could
not refuse, and he would all the while have a sense that she was being
treated like one whose accomplishments were to be ready on demand. And
whatever reverence could be shown to woman, he was bent on showing to
this girl. Why? He gave himself several good reasons; but whatever one
does with a strong unhesitating outflow of will has a store of motive
that it would be hard to put into words. Some deeds seem little more
than interjections which give vent to the long passion of a life.

So Deronda soon took his farewell for the two months during which he
expected to be absent from London, and in a few days he was on his way
with Sir Hugo and Lady Mallinger to Leubronn.

He had fulfilled his intention of telling them about Mirah. The baronet
was decidedly of opinion that the search for the mother and brother had
better be let alone. Lady Mallinger was much interested in the poor
girl, observing that there was a society for the conversion of the
Jews, and that it was to be hoped Mirah would embrace Christianity; but
perceiving that Sir Hugo looked at her with amusement, she concluded
that she had said something foolish. Lady Mallinger felt apologetically
about herself as a woman who had produced nothing but daughters in a
case where sons were required, and hence regarded the apparent
contradictions of the world as probably due to the weakness of her own
understanding. But when she was much puzzled, it was her habit to say
to herself, "I will ask Daniel." Deronda was altogether a convenience
in the family; and Sir Hugo too, after intending to do the best for
him, had begun to feel that the pleasantest result would be to have
this substitute for a son always ready at his elbow.

This was the history of Deronda, so far as he knew it, up to the time
of that visit to Leubronn in which he saw Gwendolen Harleth at the
gaming-table.

CHAPTER XXI.

It is a common sentence that Knowledge is power; but who hath duly