 will be quite contented with it.«
    »Then she is not much like the rest of her sex; that's all I can say,« said
Sir Hugo, with a slight shrug. »However, she ought to be something
extraordinary, for there must be an entanglement between your horoscope and hers
- eh? When that tremendous telegram came, the first thing Lady Mallinger said
was, How very strange that it should be Daniel who sends it! But I have had
something of the same sort in my own life. I was once at a foreign hotel where a
lady had been left by her husband without money. When I heard of it, and came
forward to help her, who should she be but an early flame of mine, who had been
fool enough to marry an Austrian baron with a long moustache and short
affection? But it was an affair of my own that called me there - nothing to do
with knight-errantry, any more than your coming to Genoa had to do with the
Grandcourts.«
    There was silence for a little while. Sir Hugo had begun to talk of the
Grandcourts as the less difficult subject between himself and Deronda; but they
were both wishing to overcome a reluctance to perfect frankness on the events
which touched their relation to each other. Deronda felt that his letter, after
the first interview with his mother, had been rather a thickening than a
breaking of the ice, and that he ought to wait for the first opening to come
from Sir Hugo. Just when they were about to lose sight of the port, the baronet
turned, and pausing as if to get a last view, said in a tone of more serious
feeling -
    »And about the main business of your coming to Genoa, Dan? You have not been
deeply pained by anything you have learned, I hope? There is nothing that you
feel need change your position in any way? You know, whatever happens to you
must always be of importance to me.«
    »I desire to meet your goodness by perfect confidence, sir,« said Deronda.
»But I can't answer those questions truly by a simple yes or no. Much that I
have heard about the past has pained me. And it has been a pain to meet and part
with my mother in her suffering state, as I have been compelled to do. But it is
no pain - it is rather a clearing up of doubts for which I am thankful, to know
my parentage. As to the effect on my position, there will be no change in my
gratitude to
