 there?« said the old lady. »Are
her lessons to be very cheap or very expensive? Those are the two baits I know
of.«
    »There is another bait for those who hear her,« said Deronda. »Her singing
is something quite exceptional, I think. She has had such first-rate teaching -
or rather first-rate instinct with her teaching - that you might imagine her
singing all came by nature.«
    »Why did she leave the stage, then?« said Lady Pentreath. »I'm too old to
believe in first-rate people giving up first-rate chances.«
    »Her voice was too weak. It is a delicious voice for a room. You who put up
with my singing of Schubert would be enchanted with hers,« said Deronda, looking
at Mrs. Raymond. »And I imagine she would not object to sing at private parties
or concerts. Her voice is quite equal to that.«
    »I am to have her in my drawing-room when we go up to town,« said Lady
Mallinger. »You shall hear her then. I have not heard her myself yet; but I
trust Daniel's recommendation. I mean my girls to have lessons of her.«
    »Is it a charitable affair?« said Lady Pentreath. »I can't bear charitable
music.«
    Lady Mallinger, who was rather helpless in conversation, and felt herself
under an engagement not to tell anything of Mirah's story, had an embarrassed
smile on her face, and glanced at Deronda.
    »It is a charity to those who want to have a good model of feminine
singing,« said Deronda. »I think everybody who has ears would benefit by a
little improvement on the ordinary style. If you heard Miss Lapidoth« - here he
looked at Gwendolen - »perhaps you would revoke your resolution to give up
singing.«
    »I should rather think my resolution would be confirmed,« said Gwendolen. »I
don't feel able to follow your advice of enjoying my own middlingness.«
    »For my part,« said Deronda, »people who do anything finely always inspirit
me to try. I don't mean that they make me believe I can do it as well. But they
make the thing, whatever it may be, seem worthy to be done. I can bear to think
my own music not good for much, but the world would be more dismal if I thought
music itself not good for much. Excellence encourages one about life generally;
it shows
