the midday sun
When Deronda arrived at the _ Italia _ in Genoa , no Princess Halm-Eberstein was there ; but on the second day there was a letter for him , saying that her arrival might happen within a week , or might be deferred a fortnight and more ; she was under circumstances which made it impossible for her to fix her journey more precisely , and she entreated him to wait as patiently as he could . With this indefinite prospect of suspense on matters of supreme moment to him , Deronda set about the difficult task of seeking amusement on philosophic grounds , as a means of quieting excited feeling and giving patience a lift over a weary road . His former visit to the superb city had been only cursory , and left him much to learn beyond the prescribed round of sight-seeing , by spending the cooler hours in observant wandering about the streets , the quay , and the environs ; and he often took a boat that he might enjoy the magnificent view of the city and harbor from the sea . All sights , all subjects , even the expected meeting with his mother , found a central union in Mordecai and Mirah , and the ideas immediately associated with them ; and among the thoughts that most filled his mind while his boat was pushing about within view of the grand harbor was that of the multitudinous Spanish Jews centuries ago driven destitute from their Spanish homes , suffered to land from the crowded ships only for a brief rest on this grand quay of Genoa , overspreading it with a pall of famine and plague -- dying mothers and dying children at their breasts -- fathers and sons a-gaze at each other 's haggardness , like groups from a hundred Hunger-towers turned out beneath the midday sun . Inevitably dreamy constructions of a possible ancestry for himself would weave themselves with historic memories which had begun to have a new interest for him on his discovery of Mirah , and now , under the influence of Mordecai , had become irresistibly dominant . He would have sealed his mind against such constructions if it had been possible , and he had never yet fully admitted to himself that he wished the facts to verify Mordecai 's conviction : he inwardly repeated that he had no choice in the matter , and that wishing was folly -- nay , on the question of parentage , wishing seemed part of that meanness which disowns kinship : it was a disowning by anticipation . What he had to do was simply to accept the fact ; and he had really no strong presumption to go upon , now that he was assured of his mistake about Sir Hugo .