ay with them," said Mirah, when she had repeated the hymn several
times.

"Why not?" said Deronda. "The lisped syllables are very full of
meaning."

"Yes, indeed," said Mrs. Meyrick. "A mother hears something of a lisp
in her children's talk to the very last. Their words are not just what
everybody else says, though they may be spelled the same. If I were to
live till my Hans got old, I should still see the boy in him. A
mother's love, I often say, is like a tree that has got all the wood in
it, from the very first it made."

"Is not that the way with friendship, too?" said Deronda, smiling. "We
must not let the mothers be too arrogant."

The little woman shook her head over her darning.

"It is easier to find an old mother than an old friend. Friendships
begin with liking or gratitude--roots that can be pulled up. Mother's
love begins deeper down."

"Like what you were saying about the influence of voices," said
Deronda, looking at Mirah. "I don't think your hymn would have had more
expression for me if I had known the words. I went to the synagogue at
Frankfort before I came home, and the service impressed me just as much
as if I had followed the words--perhaps more."

"Oh, was it great to you? Did it go to your heart?" said Mirah,
eagerly. "I thought none but our people would feel that. I thought it
was all shut away like a river in a deep valley, where only heaven
saw--I mean---" she hesitated feeling that she could not disentangle
her thought from its imagery.

"I understand," said Deronda. "But there is not really such a
separation--deeper down, as Mrs. Meyrick says. Our religion is chiefly
a Hebrew religion; and since Jews are men, their religious feelings
must have much in common with those of other men--just as their poetry,
though in one sense peculiar, has a great deal in common with the
poetry of other nations. Still it is to be expected that a Jew would
feel the forms of his people's religion more than one of another
race--and yet"--here Deronda hesitated in his turn--"that is perhaps
not always so."

"Ah no," said Mirah, sadly. "I have seen that. I have seen them mock.
Is it not like mocking your parents?--like rejoicing in your parents'
shame?"

"Some minds naturally rebel against whatever they were brought up in,
and like the opposite; they see the faults in what is nearest to them,"
said Deronda apologetically.

"But you are not like that," said Mirah, looking at him with
unconscious fix