 sympathy with her since their abrupt parting.
    In this state of mind he deferred departure, ate his dinner without sense of
flavour, rose from it quickly to find the synagogue, and in passing the porter
asked if Mr. and Mrs. Grandcourt were still in the hotel, and what was the
number of their apartment. The porter gave him the number, but added that they
were gone out boating. That information had somehow power enough over Deronda to
divide his thoughts with the memories wakened among the sparse talithim and keen
dark faces of worshippers whose way of taking awful prayers and invocations with
the easy familiarity which might be called Hebrew dyed Italian, made him reflect
that his grandfather, according to the Princess's hints of his character, must
have been almost as exceptional a Jew as Mordecai. But were not men of ardent
zeal and far-reaching hope everywhere exceptional? - the men who had the visions
which, as Mordecai said, were the creators and feeders of the world - moulding
and feeding the more passive life which without them would dwindle and shrivel
into the narrow tenacity of insects, unshaken by thoughts beyond the reaches of
their antennæ. Something of a mournful impatience perhaps added itself to the
solicitude about Gwendolen (a solicitude that had room to grow in his present
release from immediate cares) as an incitement to hasten from the synagogue and
choose to take his evening walk towards the quay, always a favourite haunt with
him, and just now attractive with the possibility that he might be in time to
see the Grandcourts come in from their boating. In this case, he resolved that
he would advance to greet them deliberately, and ignore any grounds that the
husband might have for wishing him elsewhere.
    The sun had set behind a bank of cloud, and only a faint yellow light was
giving its farewell kisses to the waves, which were agitated by an active
breeze. Deronda, sauntering slowly within sight of what took place on the
strand, observed the groups there concentrating their attention on a sailing
boat which was advancing swiftly landward, being rowed by two men. Amidst the
clamorous talk in various languages, Deronda held it the surer means of getting
information not to ask questions, but to elbow his way to the foreground and be
an unobstructed witness of what was occurring. Telescopes were being used, and
loud statements made that the boat held somebody who had been drowned. One said
it was the milord who had gone out in a sailing boat; another maintained that
the prostrate figure he discerned was miladi; a Frenchman who had no glass would
rather say that it was milord who had probably taken
