 into yours;
for he whom I longed for afar, was he not you whom I discerned as mine when you
came near? Nevertheless, you shall judge. For my soul is satisfied.« Mordecai
paused, and then began in a changed tone, reverting to previous suggestions from
Deronda's disclosure: »What moved your parents --?« but he immediately checked
himself, and added, »Nay, I ask not that you should tell me aught concerning
others, unless it is your pleasure.«
    »Some time - gradually - you will know all,« said Deronda. »But now tell me
more about yourselves, and how the time has passed since I went away. I am sure
there has been some trouble. Mirah has been in distress about something.«
    He looked at Mirah, but she immediately turned to her brother, appealing to
him to give the difficult answer. She hoped he would not think it necessary to
tell Deronda the facts about her father on such an evening as this. Just when
Deronda had brought himself so near, and identified himself with her brother, it
was cutting to her that he should hear of this disgrace clinging about them,
which seemed to have become partly his. To relieve herself she rose to take up
her hat and cloak, thinking she would go to her own room: perhaps they would
speak more easily when she had left them. But meanwhile Mordecai said -
    »To-day there has been a grief. A duty which seemed to have gone far into
the distance, has come back and turned its face upon us, and raised no gladness
- has raised a dread that we must submit to. But for the moment we are delivered
from any visible yoke. Let us defer speaking of it, as if this evening which is
deepening about us were the beginning of the festival in which we must offer the
first-fruits of our joy, and mingle no mourning with them.«
    Deronda divined the hinted grief, and left it in silence, rising as he saw
Mirah rise, and saying to her, »Are you going? I must leave almost immediately -
when I and Mrs. Adam have mounted the precious chest, and I have delivered the
key to Mordecai - no, Ezra, - may I call him Ezra now? I have learned to think
of him as Ezra since I have heard you call him so.«
    »Please call him Ezra,« said Mirah, faintly, feeling a new timidity under
Deronda's glance and near presence. Was there really something different about
him, or was
