feeling that she could not disentangle her thought from its imagery.
    »I understand,« said Deronda. »But there is not really such a separation -
deeper down, as Mrs. Meyrick says. Our religion is chiefly a Hebrew religion;
and since Jews are men, their religious feelings must have much in common with
those of other men - just as their poetry, though in one sense peculiar, has a
great deal in common with the poetry of other nations. Still it is to be
expected that a Jew would feel the forms of his people's religion more than one
of another race - and yet« - here Deronda hesitated in his turn - »that is
perhaps not always so.«
    »Ah no,« said Mirah, sadly. »I have seen that. I have seen them mock. Is it
not like mocking your parents? - like rejoicing in your parents' shame?«
    »Some minds naturally rebel against whatever they were brought up in, and
like the opposite: they see the faults in what is nearest to them,« said
Deronda, apologetically.
    »But you are not like that,« said Mirah, looking at him with unconscious
fixedness.
    »No, I think not,« said Deronda; »but you know I was not brought up as a
Jew.«
    »Ah, I am always forgetting,« said Mirah, with a look of disappointed
recollection, and slightly blushing.
    Deronda also felt rather embarrassed, and there was an awkward pause, which
he put an end to by saying playfully -
    »Whichever way we take it, we have to tolerate each other; for if we all
went in opposition to our teaching, we must end in difference, just the same.«
    »To be sure. We should go on for ever in zigzags,« said Mrs. Meyrick. »I
think it is very weak-minded to make your creed up by the rule of contrary.
Still one may honour one's parents, without following their notions exactly, any
more than the exact cut of their clothing. My father was a Scotch Calvinist and
my mother was a French Calvinist: I am neither quite Scotch, nor quite French,
nor two Calvinists rolled into one, yet I honour my parents' memory.«
    »But I could not make myself not a Jewess,« said Mirah, insistently, »even
if I changed my belief.«
    »No, my dear. But if Jews and Jewesses went on changing their religion, and
making no difference between themselves and Christians, there would come a time