Daniel Deronda

ey when his sidereal clock shall pretend that time is at Nought. His less accurate grandmother Poetry has always been understood to start in the middle; but on reflection it appears that her pro

r our prologue be in heaven or on earth, it is but a fractio

? Was the good or the evil genius dominant in those beams? Probably the evil; else why was the effect that of unrest rather th

e splendid resorts which the enlightenment of ages has prepared for the same species of pleasure at a heavy cost of gilt mouldings, dark-toned color and chubby nudities, all correspondingly heavy-forming

ly constructed automaton. Round two long tables were gathered two serried crowds of human beings, all save one having their faces and attention bent on the tables. The one exception was a melancholy little boy, with his knees and calves simply in their natural clothing of epidermis, but f

ithered after short bloom like her artificial flowers, holding a shabby velvet reticule before her, and occasionally putting in her mouth the point with which she pricked her card? There too, very near the fair countess, was a respectable London tradesman, blonde and soft-handed, his sleek hair scrupulously parted behind and before, conscious of circulars addressed to the nobility and gentry, whose distinguished patronage enabled him to take his holidays fashionably, and to a certain extent in their distinguished company. Not his the gambler's passion that nullifies appetite, but a well-fed leisure, which, in the intervals of winning money in business and spending it showily, sees no better resource than winning money in play and spending it yet more showily-reflecting always that Providence had never manifested any disapprobation of his amusement, and dispassionate enough to leave off if the sweetness of winning much and seeing others lose had turned to the sourness of losing much and seeing others win. For the vice of gambling lay in losing money at

rm negativeness of expression which had the effect of a mask-as if they had all eaten of som

e a poor service to mankind. But suddenly he felt the moment become dramatic. His attention was arrested by a young lady who, standing at an angle not far from him, was the last to whom his eyes traveled. She was bending and speaking English to a mi

s this problematic sylph bent forward to deposit her stake with an air of firm choice; and the next they returned to the face which, at present unaffected by beholders, was directed steadily toward the game. The sylph was a winner; and as her taper fingers, delicately gloved in p

Gwendolen had replied that she cared for the excitement of play, not the winnings. On that supposition the present moment ought to have made the flood-tide in her eager experience of gambling. Yet, when her next stake was swept away, she felt the orbits of her eyes getting hot, and the certainty she had (without looking) of that man still watching her was something like a pressure which begins to be torturing. The more reason to her why she should not flinch, but go on playing as if she were indifferent to loss or gain. Her friend touched her elbow and proposed that they should quit the table. For reply Gwendolen put ten louis on the same spot: she was in that mood of defiance in which the mind loses sight of any end beyond the satisfaction of enraged resistance; and with the puerile stupidity of a dominant impulse includes luck among its objects of defiance. Since she was not winning strikingly, the next best thing was to lose strikingly. She controlled her muscles, and showed no tremor of mouth or hands. Each time her stake was swept off she doubled it. Many were now watching her, but the sole observation she was conscious of was Deronda's, who, though she never looked toward him, she was sure had not moved away. Such a drama takes no long while to play out: development and catastrophe can often be measured by nothing clumsier than the moment-hand. "Faites votre jeu, mesdames et messieurs," said the autom

s brilliant with gas and with the costumes of ladies who fl

n Harleth. She was under the wing, or rather soared by the shoulder, of the lady who had sat by her at the roulette-table; and with them was a gentleman with a white musta

-that Miss Harle

serpent now-all green and silver, and wind

aordinary. She is that kind of girl, I fancy

isk hanging for her-

troussé, then, and

o with such

emble du

was tempted by a s

e wants a tinge of color in her cheeks.

horoughly healthy. And that delicate nose with its gradual little upward curve is distracting. And

so self-complacent, as if it knew its own beauty-the cur

"It is wonderful what unpleasant girls get into vog

t the Russie. The baroness is English. Miss Harleth calls her cousin.

! and th

od furnitu

ette-table," said Mackworth. "I fanc

rops a ten-franc piece here and there. The gi

her winnings to-day. Ar

out anybody?" said Mr. Vandernood

t carry out the serpent idea more completely: it was that she watched for any chance of seeing Deronda, so that sh

eagerly, rather with a certain languor of utterance which she s

door. Do you mean that old Adon

oung man on the right with

it? I think he is an

who i

to our hotel with S

go Mall

o you k

e near us, but he never comes to it. What did you

a-Mr. D

ful name! Is he

er closely related to the baron

is not like young

admire young

y will say. I can't at all guess what thi

d hour last night on the terrace, and he never sp

should like to know hi

have an introduction. Shall I bring i

len, to be always bored," continued Madame von Langen, when Mr. Vandernoodt had moved

I must break my arm or my collar-bone. I must make something happen

onda's acquaintance w

erho

rha

Vandernoodt did not succeed in bringing him up to her that evening, an