
is a bad plan to look long at her back: the wish to see what it screens becomes
the stronger. There may be a very sweet smile on the other side. Deronda ended
by going to the end of the small table, at right angles to Gwendolen's position,
but before he could speak she had turned on him no smile, but such an appealing
look of sadness, so utterly different from the chill effort of her recognition
at table, that his speech was checked. For what was an appreciable space of time
to both, though the observation of others could not have measured it, they
looked at each other - she seeming to take the deep rest of confession, he with
an answering depth of sympathy that neutralised other feelings.
    »Will you not join in the music?« he said, by way of meeting the necessity
for speech.
    That her look of confession had been involuntary was shown by that just
perceptible shake and change of countenance with which she roused herself to
reply calmly, »I join in it by listening. I am fond of music.«
    »Are you not a musician?«
    »I have given a great deal of time to music. But I have not talent enough to
make it worth while. I shall never sing again.«
    »But if you are fond of music, it will always be worth while in private, for
your own delight. I make it a virtue to be content with my middlingness,« said
Deronda, smiling; »it is always pardonable, so that one does not ask others to
take it for superiority.«
    »I cannot imitate you,« said Gwendolen, recovering her tone of artificial
vivacity. »To be middling with me is another phrase for being dull. And the
worst fault I have to find with the world is, that it is dull. Do you know, I am
going to justify gambling in spite of you. It is a refuge from dulness.«
    »I don't admit the justification,« said Deronda. »I think what we call the
dulness of things is a disease in ourselves. Else how could any one find an
intense interest in life? And many do.«
    »Ah, I see! The fault I find in the world is my own fault,« said Gwendolen,
smiling at him. Then after a moment, looking up at the ivory again, she said,
»Do you never find fault with the world or with others?«
    »Oh yes. When I am in a grumbling mood.«
    »And hate people?
