NALDO came again sooner than was expected: he e evening of the twenty-eighth of November, only s after his previous visit, proving that he had not eyond the mountains; and a scene which we have as it took place that evening in the Via de' Bardi to explain the impulse which turned his steps toill of San Giorgio.

Tito had first found this home for Tessa, on his Rome, more than a year and a half ago, he had persuaded himself, simply under the constraint imm by his own kindliness after the unlucky incident made foolish little Tessa imagine him to be her It was true that the kindness was manifested toetty trusting thing whom it was impossible to be it feeling inclined to caress and pet her; but it was ue that Tito had movements of kindness towards om any contemplated gain to himself. Otherwise, s her prettiness and prattle were in a lazy moment, ave preferred to be free from her; for he was not in Tessa he was in love for the first time in his life irely different woman, whom he was not simply in

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dina, and Messer N Lisa knew, he m thoroughly frighten stances of their m that silence she wou deafness, which ma hout some premed ious revelation to he with Baldassarre. rare, that it seem en them. They wer that all things were he always found hi -always felt anew

clined to shower caresses on, but whose presence possessed him so that the simple sweep of her long tresses across his cheek seemed to vibrate through the hours. All the young ideal passion he had in him had been stirred by Romola, and his fibre was too fine, his intellect too bright, for him to be tempted into the habits of a gross pleasure-seeker. But he had spun a web about himself and Tessa, which he felt incapable of breaking: in the first moments after the mimic marriage he had been prompted to leave her under an illusion by a distinct calculation of his own possible need, but since that critical moment it seemed to him that the web had gone on spinning itself in spite of him, like a growth over which he had no power. The elements of kindness and self-indulgence are hard to distinguish in a soft nature like Tito's; and the annoyance he had felt under Tessa's pursuit of him on the day of his betrothal, the thorough intention of revealing the truth to her with which he set out to fulfil his promise of seeing her again, were a sufficiently strong argument to him that in ultimately leaving Tessa under her illusion and providing a home for her, he had been overcome by his own kindness. And in these days of his first devotion to Romola he needed a self-justifying argument. He had learned to be glad that she was deceived about some things. But every strong feeling makes to itself a conscience of its own - has its own piety; just as much as the feeling of the son towards the mother, which will sometimes survive amid the worst fumes of depravation; and Tito could not yet be easy in committing a secret offence against his wedded love.

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as determined, if
ich the charm depe
alina, and not place
that would rob it o

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ed to see her in the piquancy of he to have new relat her pleasures les ent of nuts at disc he provided for charm from being ence, saved himse ready rather impor pired for his avowed This, in brief, had be pto a very recent Bardo's death, the Tth whom it was poss inducement to hil

But he was all the more careful in taking precautions to preserve the secrecy of the offence. Monna Lisa, who, like many of her class, never left her habitation except to go to one or two particular shops, and to confession once a year, knew nothing of his real name and whereabout: she only knew that he paid her so as to make her very comfortable, and minded little about the rest, save that she got fond of Tessa, and liked the cares for which she was paid. There was some mystery behind, clearly, since Tessa was a

old

man, when, for 1 otherwise have b

Romola's burden.

, and Messer Naldo was a signor; but, for aught sa knew, he might be a real husband. For Tito oughly frightened Tessa into silence about the aces of their marriage, by telling her that if she silence she would never see him again; and Monna fness, which made it impossible to say anything to at some premeditation, had saved Tessa from any revelation to her, such as had run off her tongue in th Baldassarre. And for a long while Tito's visits re, that it seemed likely enough he took journeys em. They were prompted chiefly by the desire to all things were going on well with Tessa; and always found his visit pleasanter than the prospect lways felt anew the charm of that pretty ignorant and trust he had not yet any real need of it. determined, if possible, to preserve the simplicity the charm depended; to keep Tessa a genuine and not place the small field-flower among condiwould rob it of its grace. He would have been > see her in the dress of any other rank than her piquancy of her talk would be all gone if things have new relations for her, if her world became pleasures less childish; and the squirrel-like of nuts at discretion marked the standard of the > provided for her. By this means Tito saved rm from being sullied; and he also, by a convenient , saved himself from aggravating expenses that ly rather importunate to a man whose money was 1 for his avowed habits of life.

n brief, had been the history of Tito's relation to > a very recent date. It is true that once or twice do's death, the sense that there was Tessa up the hom it was possible to pass an hour agreeably, had ducement to him to escape from a little weariness an, when, for lack of any positive engagement, he erwise have borne the weariness patiently and nola's burden. But the moment when he had first 1*

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-night; and when h gle dim light was ed Tessa in a kneel the baby lay. He her brown rosary, W the picture of th ches, lay in the loo fast asleep over her le room, and sat d the opening of the been looking at her She opened then motionless looking smiling at her shut happy passiveness. and stooped to kiss I dreamed it, and th ke, and it was true. Little sinner!" said

felt a real hunger for Tessa's ignorant lovingness and belief in him had not come till quite lately, and it was distinctly marked out by circumstances as little to be forgotten as the on-coming of a malady that has permanently vitiated the sight and hearing. It was the day when he had first seen Baldassarre, and had bought the armour. Returning across the bridge that night, with the coat of mail in his hands, he had felt an unconquerable shrinking from an immediate encounter with Romola. She, too, knew little of the actual world; she, too, trusted him; but he had an uneasy consciousness that behind her frank eyes there was a nature that could judge him, and that any ill-founded trust of her sprang not from pretty brute-like incapacity, but from a nobleness which might prove an alarming touchstone. He wanted a little ease, a little repose from self-control, after the agitation and exertions of the day; he wanted to be where he could adjust his mind to the morrow, without caring how he behaved at the present moment. And there was a sweet adoring creature within reach whose presence was as safe and unconstraining as that of her own kids, who would believe any fable, and remain quite unimpressed by public opinion. And so on that evening when Romola was waiting and listening for him, he turned his steps up the hill.

suid half

your prayer

r baby; it is ugly. Tessa did not like g. She had some ading anxiously Ah, it is not true! think he is ugly etter than when you you can't see his ey hair-and it grow It's true his fa ep, there is not so kiss him very gent is it not true?" He satisfied her by and then putting face towards him, er than looking at y

No wonder, then, that the steps took the same course on this evening, eleven days later, when he had had to recoil under Romola's first outburst of scorn. He could not wish Tessa in his wife's place, or refrain from wishing that his wife should be thoroughly reconciled to him; for it was Romola, and not Tessa, that belonged to the world where all the larger desires of a man who had ambition and effective faculties must necessarily lie. But he wanted a refuge from a standard disagreeably rigorous, of which he could not make himself independent simply by thinking it folly; and Tessa's little soul was that inviting refuge.

It was not much more than eight o'clock when he went up the stone steps to the door of Tessa's room. Usually she heard his entrance into the house, and ran to meet him, but