Perhaps the ferment was all the stronger in Deronda's mind because he had never had a confidant to whom he could open himself on these delicate subjects. He had always been leaned on instead of being invited to lean. Sometimes he had longed for the sort of friend to whom he might possibly unfold his experience: a young man like himself who sustained a private grief and was not too confident about his own career; speculative enough to understand every moral difficulty, yet socially susceptible, as he himself was, and having every outward sign of equality either in bodily or spiritual wrestling; for he had found it impossible to reciprocate confidences with one who looked up to him. But he had no expectation of meeting the friend he imagined. Deronda's was not one of those quiveringly-poised natures that lend themselves to second sight.

GEORGE ELIOT, UK, in Daniel Deronda, 1876

Talvez o tumulto no espírito de Deronda fosse tanto mais forte quanto não tivera nunca um confidente a quem se abrir sobre assuntos delicados. Servira sempre de apoio, sem ser convidado a apoiar-se. Às vezes ansiara pelo género de amigo a quem pudesse revelar a sua vida; um homem novo como ele, que carregasse o peso de uma secreta mágoa e não estivesse muito seguro do seu percurso pessoal; suficientemente analítico para entender cada dificuldade moral, porém sensível no convívio, tal como ele próprio, e com os sinais externos da coragem nos combates de corpo e espírito; porque sempre julgara impossível trocar confidências com quem o achava superior. Mas não esperava encontrar o amigo imaginado. Deronda não tinha uma natureza vacilante, das que se dão a premonições.