e sinner!" said Tito, pinching her chin, "you have alf your prayers. I will punish you by not looking aby; it is ugly."d edi bosan yad nad romerion did not like those words, even though Tito was She had some pouting distress in her face, as she ling anxiously over the baby, smo dilgim it is not true! He is prettier than anything. You nk he is ugly. You will look at him. He is even han when you saw him before - only he's asleep, an't see his eyes or his tongue, and I can't show you - and it grows isn't that wonderful? Look at s true his face is very much all alike when he's here is not so much to see as when he's awake. If im very gently, he won't wake: you want to kiss ot true?" dgirl or ad son as I li isfied her by giving the small mummy a butterfly then putting his hand on her shoulder and turning owards him, said, "You like looking at the baby a looking at your husband, you false one!" A She was still kneeling, and now rested her hands on his knee, looking up at him like one of Fra Lippo Lippi's roundcheeked adoring angels. "No," she said, shaking her head; "I love you always best, only I want you to look at the bambino and love him; I used only to want you to love me." "And did you expect me to come again so soon?" said Tito, inclined to make her prattle. He still felt the effects of the agitation he had undergone, still felt like a man who has been violently jarred, and this was the easiest relief from silence and solitude. NO PLAC st in a whisper, as ase we thought the came again, and it w he is there, and you told me not to do be you will perhaps for to confession." Yes, tell me everyth after all a trivial m Oh, you will be sor ething when I don't s ent to him first; it w show him my baby ere, and I thought ng to him. And It ed to come and slee ade Monna Lisa say day almost, but whe him something to e Some beggar, I sup "Ah, no," said Tessa, "I have counted the days-to-day I began at my right thumb again since you put on the beautiful chain coat, that Messer San Michele gave you to take care of you on your journey. And you have got it on now," she said, peeping through the opening in the breast of his tunic. "Perhaps it made you come back sooner." "Perhaps it did, Tessa," he said. "But don't mind the coat now. Tell me what has happened since I was here. Did you see the tents in the Prato, and the soldiers and horsemen when they passed the bridges - did you hear the drums and trumpets?' "Yes, and I was rather frightened, because I thought the soldiers might come up here. And Monna Lisa was a little afraid too, for she said they might carry our kids off; she said it was their business to do mischief. But the Holy Madonna took care of us, for we never saw one of them up here. But something has happened, only I hardly dare tell you, and that is what I was saying more Aves for." "What do you mean, Tessa?" said Tito, rather anxiously. "Make haste and tell me." am angry with N No, I think he is Lisa, only she a he gets himself sha says he is a decen in his right mind: I d and he looks a lit w where he was. "What sort of face g to beat strangely. dassarre, that it was sitting on the stra stool, my Tessa, Shall you not forg his knee. "Yes, but will you let me sit on your knee? because then I think I shall not be so frightened." He took her on his knee, and put his arm round her, but looked grave: it seemed that something unpleasant must pursue him even here. "At first, I didn't mean to tell you," said Tessa, speaking a whisper, as if that would mitigate the offence; we thought the old man would be gone away before again, and it would be as if it had not been. But there, and you are come, and I never did anything me not to do before. And I want to tell you, and will perhaps forgive me, for it is a long while before nfession." 00 tell me everything, my Tessa." He began to hope er all a trivial matter. you will be sorry for him: I'm afraid he cries about g when I don't see him. But that was not the reason him first; it was because I wanted to talk to him y him my baby, and he was a stranger that lived and I thought you wouldn't care so much about my him. And I think he is not a bad old man, and he O come and sleep on the straw next to the goats, and Conna Lisa say, 'Yes, he might,' and he's away all Imost, but when he comes back, I talk to him, and something to eat." e beggar, I suppose. It was naughty of you, Tessa, angry with Monna Lisa. I must have him sent gamont Hist I think he is not a beggar, for he wanted to pay isa, only she asked him to do work for her instead. ets himself shaved, and his clothes are tidy: Monna he is a decent man. But sometimes I think he is right mind: Lupo, at Peretola, was not in his right I he looks a little like Lupo sometimes, as if he didn't ere he was."il aid aureuros w tudi noi eyinque it sort of face has he?" said Tito, his heart begineat strangely. He was so haunted by the thought of re, that it was already he whom he saw in imaginag on the straw not many yards from him."Fetch I, my Tessa, and sit on it." 1 you not forgive me?" she said, timidly, moving knee. NO PLAC "I can't think how to tell you: he is not like my stepfather Nofri, or anybody. His face is yellow, and he has deep marks in it; and his hair is white, but there is none on the top of his head: and his eyebrows are black, and he looks from under them at me, and says, 'Poor thing!' to me, as if he thought I was beaten as I used to be; and that seems as if he couldn't be in his right mind, doesn't it? And I asked him his name once, but he couldn't tell it me: yet everybody has a name is it not true? And he has a book now, and keeps looking at it ever so long, as if he were a padre. But I think he is not saying prayers, for his lips never move; - ah, you are angry with me, or is it because you are sorry for the old man?" aly, where, under th ow the whole truth, f Tito's eyes were still fixed on Tessa; but he had ceased to see her, and was only seeing the objects her words suggested. It was this absent glance which frightened her, and she could not help going to kneel at his side again. But he did not heed her, and she dared not touch him, or speak to him: she knelt, trembling and wondering; and this state of mind suggesting her beads to her, she took them from the floor, and began to tell them again, her pretty lips moving silently, and her blue eyes wide with anxiety and struggling tears. e eyes of men, t pentance that would pall past unpleasa ness, his indisp with any creature , now his father w ate of ease that his nous hatred in Ba mething of the old Tito longed to hav ined with good-wi ase of what he had Szola. It was not di e whom he had inju and no quickness e of that honey on y was there, and it calculating activi oped towards the do beads, roused him "My Tessa, get me & not angry They went down the Tito was quite unconscious of her movements-unconscious of his own attitude: he was in that wrapt state in which a man will grasp painful roughness, and press, and press it closer, and never feel it. A new possibility had risen before him, which might dissolve at once the wretched conditions of fear and suppression that were marring his life. Destiny had brought within his reach an opportunity of retrieving that moment on the steps of the Duomo, when the Past had grasped him with living quivering hands, and he had disowned it. A few steps, and he might be face to face with his father, with no witness by; he might seek forgiveness and reconciliation; and there was money now, from the sale of the library, to enable them to leave Florence without disclosure, and go into Southern there, under the probable French rule, he had alaid a foundation for patronage. Romola need never e whole truth, for she could have no certain means of ing that prisoner in the Duomo with Baldassarre, or ing what had taken place on the steps, except from arre himself; and if his father forgave, he would also to bury, that offence. with this possibility of relief, by an easy spring, from evil, there rose the other possibility, that the fierceman might refuse to be propitiated. Well- and if things would only be as they had been before; for uld be no witness by. It was not repentance with a eet round it and taper in hand, confessing its hated e eyes of men, that Tito was preparing for: it was a ce that would make all things pleasant again, and I past unpleasant things secret. And Tito's softmess, his indisposition to feel himself in harsh relach any creature, was in strong activity towards his now his father was brought near to him. It would be of ease that his nature could not but desire, if that s hatred in Baldassarre's glance could be replaced ching of the old affection and complacency. longed to have his world once again completely d with good-will, and longed for it the more eagerly of what he had just suffered from the collision with It was not difficult to him to smile pleadingly on om he had injured, and offer to do them much kindd no quickness of intellect could tell him exactly the hat honey on the lips of the injured. The oppors there, and it raised an inclination which hemmed culating activity of his thought. He started up, and towards the door; but Tessa's cry, as she dropped s, roused him from his absorption. He turned and Tessa, get me a lantern; and don't cry, little pigeon, angry." went down the stairs, and Tessa was going to shout |