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Updated: May 25, 2025
Grandcourt was gone with Sir Hugo to King's Topping, to see the old manor-house; others of the gentlemen were shooting; she was condemned to go and see the decoy and the waterfowl, and everything else that she least wanted to see, with the ladies, with old Lord Pentreath and his anecdotes, with Mr. Vandernoodt and his admiring manners.
Since we cannot tell a man his own secrets, the restraint of being in his company often breeds a desire to pair off in conversation with some more ignorant person, and Mr. Vandernoodt presently said "What a washed-out piece of cambric Grandcourt is! But if he is a favorite of yours, I withdraw the remark." "Not the least in the world," said Deronda. "I thought not.
Vandernoodt had no more to tell about it. Since the early days when he tried to construct the hidden story of his own birth, his mind had perhaps never been so active in weaving probabilities about any private affair as it had now begun to be about Gwendolen's marriage.
Vandernoodt, who had the mania of always describing one thing while you were looking at another, was quite intolerable with his insistence on Lord Blough's kitchen, which he had seen in the north. "Pray don't ask us to see two kitchens at once. It makes the heat double. I must really go out of it," she cried at last, marching resolutely into the open air, and leaving the others in the rear.
"Oh, by the Visitor-list," said Deronda, with a scarcely perceptible shrug. "Vandernoodt told me her name was Harleth, and she was with the Baron and Baroness von Langen. I saw by the list that Miss Harleth was no longer there." This held no further information for Lush than that Gwendolen had been gambling.
At that moment he was plunged in the depth of an easy chair, being talked to by Mr. Vandernoodt, who apparently thought the acquaintance of such a bridegroom worth cultivating; and an incautious person might have supposed it safe to telegraph secrets in front of him, the common prejudice being that your quick observer is one whose eyes have quick movements. Not at all.
And perhaps in that ideal consecration of Gwendolen's, some education was being prepared for Deronda. "Rien ne pese tant qu'un secret Le porter loin est difficile aux dames: Et je sçais mesme sur ce fait Bon nombre d'hommes qui sont femmes." Meanwhile Deronda had been fastened and led off by Mr. Vandernoodt, who wished for a brisker walk, a cigar, and a little gossip.
"She can know nothing of it," said Deronda, emphatically. But that positive statement was immediately followed by an inward query "Could she have known anything of it?" "It's rather a piquant picture," said Mr. Vandernoodt "Grandcourt between two fiery women. For depend upon it this light-haired one has plenty of devil in her. I formed that opinion of her at Leubronn.
Raymond, and his wife; the useful bachelor element by Mr. Sinker, the eminent counsel, and by Mr. Vandernoodt, whose acquaintance Sir Hugo had found pleasant enough at Leubronn to be adopted in England. All had assembled in the drawing-room before the new couple appeared.
"Yes, she has got herself up as a sort of serpent now all green and silver, and winds her neck about a little more than usual." "Oh, she must always be doing something extraordinary. She is that kind of girl, I fancy. Do you think her pretty, Mr. Vandernoodt?" "Very. A man might risk hanging for her I mean a fool might." "You like a nez retroussé, then, and long narrow eyes?"
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