ality he thought his pupil a remarkable
lad, to whom one thing was as easy as another, if he had only a mind to
it.

Things went on very well with Daniel in his new world, except that a
boy with whom he was at once inclined to strike up a close friendship
talked to him a great deal about his home and parents, and seemed to
expect a like expansiveness in return. Daniel immediately shrank into
reserve, and this experience remained a check on his naturally strong
bent toward the formation of intimate friendship. Every one, his tutor
included, set him down as a reserved boy, though he was so good-humored
and unassuming, as well as quick, both at study and sport, that nobody
called his reserve disagreeable. Certainly his face had a great deal to
do with that favorable interpretation; but in this instance the beauty
of the closed lips told no falsehood.

A surprise that came to him before his first vacation strengthened the
silent consciousness of a grief within, which might be compared in some
ways with Byron's susceptibility about his deformed foot. Sir Hugo
wrote word that he was married to Miss Raymond, a sweet lady, whom
Daniel must remember having seen. The event would make no difference
about his spending the vacation at the Abbey; he would find Lady
Mallinger a new friend whom he would be sure to love--and much more to
the usual effect when a man, having done something agreeable to
himself, is disposed to congratulate others on his own good fortune,
and the deducible satisfactoriness of events in general.

Let Sir Hugo be partly excused until the grounds of his action can be
more fully known. The mistakes in his behavior to Deronda were due to
that dullness toward what may be going on in other minds, especially
the minds of children, which is among the commonest deficiencies, even
in good-natured men like him, when life has been generally easy to
themselves, and their energies have been quietly spent in feeling
gratified. No one was better aware than he that Daniel was generally
suspected to be his own son. But he was pleased with that suspicion;
and his imagination had never once been troubled with the way in which
the boy himself might be affected, either then or in the future, by the
enigmatic aspect of his circumstances. He was as fond of him as could
be, and meant the best by him. And, considering the lightness with
which the preparation of young lives seem to lie on respectable
consciences, Sir Hugo Mallinger