as if some possessing spirit which had leaped into the eyes
and gestures had sunk back again to the inmost recesses of the frame;
and moving further off as he held out the little book, the stranger
said in a tone of distant civility, "I believe Mr. Ram will be
satisfied with half-a-crown, sir."

The effect of this change on Deronda--he afterward smiled when he
recalled it--was oddly embarrassing and humiliating, as if some high
dignitary had found him deficient and given him his _conge_. There was
nothing further to be said, however: he paid his half-crown and carried
off his _Salomon Maimon's Lebensgeschichte_ with a mere "good-morning."

He felt some vexation at the sudden arrest of the interview, and the
apparent prohibition that he should know more of this man, who was
certainly something out of the common way--as different probably as a
Jew could well be from Ezra Cohen, through whose door Deronda was
presently entering, and whose flourishing face glistening on the way to
fatness was hanging over the counter in negotiation with some one on
the other side of the partition, concerning two plated stoppers and
three teaspoons, which lay spread before him. Seeing Deronda enter, he
called out "Mother! Mother!" and then with a familiar nod and smile,
said, "Coming, sir--coming directly."

Deronda could not help looking toward the door from the back with some
anxiety, which was not soothed when he saw a vigorous woman beyond
fifty enter and approach to serve him. Not that there was anything very
repulsive about her: the worst that could be said was that she had that
look of having made her toilet with little water, and by twilight,
which is common to unyouthful people of her class, and of having
presumably slept in her large earrings, if not in her rings and
necklace. In fact, what caused a sinking of heart in Deronda was, her
not being so coarse and ugly as to exclude the idea of her being
Mirah's mother. Any one who has looked at a face to try and discern
signs of known kinship in it will understand his process of
conjecture--how he tried to think away the fat which had gradually
disguised the outlines of youth, and to discern what one may call the
elementary expressions of the face. He was sorry to see no absolute
negative to his fears. Just as it was conceivable that this Ezra,
brought up to trade, might resemble the scapegrace father in everything
but his knowledge and talent, so it was not impossible that this mot