to be something better if I could." Without the
aid of sacred ceremony or costume, her feelings had turned this man,
only a few years older than herself, into a priest; a sort of trust
less rare than the fidelity that guards it. Young reverence for one who
is also young is the most coercive of all: there is the same level of
temptation, and the higher motive is believed in as a fuller force--not
suspected to be a mere residue from weary experience.

But the coercion is often stronger on the one who takes the reverence.
Those who trust us educate us. And perhaps in that ideal consecration
of Gwendolen's, some education was being prepared for Deronda.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

"Rien ne pese tant qu'un secret
Le porter loin est difficile aux dames:
Et je scais mesme sur ce fait
Bon nombre d'hommes qui sont femmes."
--LA FONTAINE.

Meanwhile Deronda had been fastened and led off by Mr. Vandernoodt, who
wished for a brisker walk, a cigar, and a little gossip. Since we
cannot tell a man his own secrets, the restraint of being in his
company often breeds a desire to pair off in conversation with some
more ignorant person, and Mr. Vandernoodt presently said--

"What a washed-out piece of cambric Grandcourt is! But if he is a
favorite of yours, I withdraw the remark."

"Not the least in the world," said Deronda.

"I thought not. One wonders how he came to have a great passion again;
and he must have had--to marry in this way. Though Lush, his old chum,
hints that he married this girl out of obstinacy. By George! it was a
very accountable obstinacy. A man might make up his mind to marry her
without the stimulus of contradiction. But he must have made himself a
pretty large drain of money, eh?"

"I know nothing of his affairs."

"What! not of the other establishment he keeps up?"

"Diplow? Of course. He took that of Sir Hugo. But merely for the year."

"No, no; not Diplow: Gadsmere. Sir Hugo knows, I'll answer for it."

Deronda said nothing. He really began to feel some curiosity, but he
foresaw that he should hear what Mr. Vandernoodt had to tell, without
the condescension of asking.

"Lush would not altogether own to it, of course. He's a confident and
go-between of Grandcourt's. But I have it on the best authority. The
fact is, there's another lady with four children at Gadsmere. She has
had the upper hand of him these ten years and more, and by what I can
understand has it