"The week's heat we sometimes get here is worse than the
heat in Genoa, where one sits in the shaded coolness of large rooms.
You must have a better home now. I shall do as I like with you, being
the stronger half." He smiled toward Ezra, who said--

"I am straitened for nothing except breath. But you, who might be in a
spacious palace, with the wide green country around you, find this a
narrow prison. Nevertheless, I cannot say, 'Go.'"

"Oh, the country would be a banishment while you are here," said
Deronda, rising and walking round the double room, which yet offered no
long promenade, while he made a great fan of his handkerchief. "This is
the happiest room in the world to me. Besides, I will imagine myself in
the East, since I am getting ready to go there some day. Only I will
not wear a cravat and a heavy ring there," he ended emphatically,
pausing to take off those superfluities and deposit them on a small
table behind Ezra, who had the table in front of him covered with books
and papers.

"I have been wearing my memorable ring ever since I came home," he went
on, as he reseated himself. "But I am such a Sybarite that I constantly
put it off as a burden when I am doing anything. I understand why the
Romans had summer rings--_if_ they had them. Now then, I shall get on
better."

They were soon absorbed in their work again. Deronda was reading a
piece of rabbinical Hebrew under Ezra's correction and comment, and
they took little notice when Lapidoth re-entered and took a seat
somewhat in the background.

His rambling eyes quickly alighted on the ring that sparkled on the bit
of dark mahogany. During his walk, his mind had been occupied with the
fiction of an advantageous opening for him abroad, only requiring a sum
of ready money, which, on being communicated to Deronda in private,
might immediately draw from him a question as to the amount of the
required sum: and it was this part of his forecast that Lapidoth found
the most debatable, there being a danger in asking too much, and a
prospective regret in asking too little. His own desire gave him no
limit, and he was quite without guidance as to the limit of Deronda's
willingness. But now, in the midst of these airy conditions preparatory
to a receipt which remained indefinite, this ring, which on Deronda's
finger had become familiar to Lapidoth's envy, suddenly shone detached
and within easy grasp. Its value was certainly below the smallest of
the imaginary s