since he had turned to look down at the florins. "Before I quit everything, and incur again all the risks of which I am even now weary, I must at least have a reasonable hope. Am I to spend 145 my life in a wandering search? I believe he is dead. Cennini was right about my florins: I will place them in his hands tomorrow."

When, the next morning, Tito put this determination into act, he had chosen his color in the game, and had given an inevita- 150 ble bent to his wishes. He had made it impossible that he should not from henceforth desire it to be the truth that his father was dead; impossible that he should not be tempted to baseness rather than that the precise facts of his conduct should not remain forever concealed.

155

Under every guilty secret there is hidden a brood of guilty wishes, whose unwholesome infecting life is cherished by the darkness. The contaminating effect of deeds often lies less in the commission* than in the consequent adjustment of our desires the enlistment of our self-interest on the side of falsity; 160 as, on the other hand, the purifying influence of public confession springs from the fact that by it the hope in lies is forever swept away, and the soul recovers the noble attitude of simplicity.

Besides, in this first distinct colloquy with himself the ideas 165 which had previously been scattered and interrupted had now concentrated themselves: the little rills of selfishness had united and made a channel, so that they could never again meet with the same resistance. Hitherto Tito had left in vague indecision the question whether, with the means in his power, he would not 170 return, and ascertain his father's fate; he had now made a definite excuse to himself for not taking that course; he had avowed to himself a choice which he would have been ashamed to

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-150. had chosen his color in the game. What is the figure of speech? On what is the metaphor founded?

151-155. He... concealed. Of what previous general statement is this the specific expression? Query as to "from henceforth."

156-164. Under... simplicity. Change into a less metaphysical form of statement. On what is the metaphor implied in “brood” founded?-Is there any distinction between "infecting " and "contaminating?"

167. the little rills, etc. How is the figure carried out?

avow to others, and which would have made him ashamed in the resurgent presence of his father. But the inward shame, the re- 175 flex of that outward law which the great heart of mankind makes for every individual man-a reflex which will exist even in the absence of the sympathetic impulses that need no law, but rush to the deed of fidelity and pity as inevitably as the brute mother shields her young from the attack of the hereditary* enemy— 180 that inward shame was showing its blushes in Tito's determined assertion to himself that his father was dead, or that at least search was hopeless.

*

Just as Tito reached the Ponte Vecchio and the entrance of the Via de' Bardi, he was suddenly urged back towards the angle 185 of the intersecting streets. A company on horseback, coming from the Via Guicciardini, and turning up the Via de' Bardi, had compelled the foot-passengers to recede hurriedly. Tito had been walking, as his manner was, with the thumb of his right hand resting in his belt; and as he was thus forced to pause, 190 and was looking carelessly at the passing cavaliers,* he felt a very thin cold hand laid on his. He started round, and saw the Dominican friar whose upturned face had so struck him in the morning. Seen closer, the face looked more evidently worn by sickness, and not by age; and again it brought some strong but 195 indefinite reminiscences to Tito.

"Pardon me, but-from your face and your ring," said the friar, in a faint voice-" is not your name Tito Melema?"

"Yes," said Tito, also speaking faintly, doubly jarred by the cold touch and the mystery. He was not apprehensive or timid 200 through his imagination, but through his sensations and perceptions he could easily be made to shrink and turn pale like a maiden.

"Then I shall fulfil my commission."*

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-175. resurgent presence. Explain.

181. showing its blushes. Express in plain terms.

191. cavaliers. Etymology?

200-204. He... commission. Discriminate between "apprehensive" and "timid ;" between "sensation" and "perception;" between "commission " (204) and "commission" (159).

The friar put his hand under his scapulary, and, drawing out a 203 small linen bag which hung round his neck, took from it a bit of parchment, doubled and stuck firmly together with some black adhesive substance, and placed it in Tito's hand. On the outside was written, in Italian, in a small but distinct character

"Tito Melema, aged twenty-three, with a dark, beautiful face, long dark curls, the brightest smile, and a large onyx ring on his right forefinger."

Tito did not look at the friar, but tremblingly broke open the bit of parchment. Inside, the words were:

"I am sold for a slave: I think they are going to take me to Antioch. The gems alone will serve to ransom me."

Tito looked round at the friar, but could only ask a question. with his eyes.

210

215

"I had it at Corinth," the friar said, speaking with difficulty, like one whose small strength had been sorely taxed-"I had it 220 from a man who was dying."

"He is dead, then?" said Tito, with a bounding of the heart. "Not the writer. The man who gave it me was a pilgrim,* like myself, to whom the writer had intrusted it, because he was journeying to Italy."

"You know the contents?"

225

"I know them not, but I conjecture them. Your friend is in slavery-you will go and release him. But I cannot say more at present." The friar, whose voice had become feebler and feebler, sank down on the stone bench against the wall from 230 which he had risen to touch Tito's hand.

"I am at San Marco; my name is Fra Luca."

When Fra Luca had ceased to speak, Tito still stood by him in irresolution, and it was not till, the pressure of the passengers being removed, the friar rose and walked slowly into the church 235 of Santa Felicità, that Tito also went on his way along the Via de' Bardi.

LITERARY ANALYSIS. 217, 218. ask a question with his eyes. Explain. And compare

"Drink to me only with thine eyes,

And I will drink with mine."

223. pilgrim. Derivation?

"If this monk is a Florentine," he said to himself-" if he is going to remain at Florence, everything must be disclosed." He felt that a new crisis had come; but he was not, for all that, too 240 agitated to pay his visit to Bardo and apologize for his previous non-appearance. Tito's talent for concealment was being fast developed into something less neutral. It was still possibleperhaps it might be inevitable-for him to accept frankly the altered conditions and avow Baldassarre's existence, but hard- 245 ly without casting an unpleasant light backward on his original reticence as studied equivocation,* in order to avoid the fulfilment of a secretly recognized claim, to say nothing of his quiet settlement of himself and investment of his florins, when, it would. be clear, his benefactor's fate had not been certified. It was, at 250 least, provisionally wise to act as if nothing had happened; and, for the present, he would suspend decisive thought: there was all the night for meditation, and no one would know the precise moment at which he had received the letter.

So he entered the room on the second story, where Romola 255 and her father sat among the parchment and the marble, aloof from the life of the streets on holidays as well as on common days, with a face just a little less bright than usual, from regret at appearing so late-a regret which wanted no testimony, since he had given up the sight of the Corso in order to express it— 260 and then set himself to throw extra animation into the evening, though all the while his consciousness was at work like a machine with complex action, leaving deposits quite distinct from the line of talk; and, by the time he descended the stone stairs and issued from the grim door in the starlight, his mind had real- 265 ly reached a new stage in its formation of a purpose.

And when, the next day, after he was free from his professorial work, he turned up the Via del Cocomero towards the Convent of San Marco, his purpose was fully shaped. He was going to ascertain from Fra Luca precisely how much he conject- 270

LITERARY ANALYSIS.

form of expression.

247. equivocation.

242, 243. was being fast developed. Improve the Derivation?

255-266. So... purpose. Observe the remarkable concentration of thought

in this sentence.

ured of the truth, and on what grounds he conjectured it; and, further, how long he was to remain at San Marco. And on that fuller knowledge he hoped to mould a statement which would in any case save him from the necessity of quitting Florence. Tito had never had occasion to fabricate* an ingenious lie before: the 275 occasion was come now-the occasion which circumstance never fails to beget on tacit falsity; and his ingenuity was ready. For he had convinced himself that he was not bound to go in search of Baldassarre. He had once said that on a fair assurance of his father's existence and whereabouts he would unhesitatingly 280 go after him. But, after all, why was he bound to go? What, looked at closely, was the end of all life but to extract the utmost sum of pleasure? And was not his own blooming life a promise of incomparably more pleasure, not for himself only, but for others, than the withered, wintry life of a man who was past 285 the time of keen enjoyment, and whose ideas had stiffened into barren rigidity? Those ideas had all been sown in the fresh soil of Tito's mind, and were lively germs there; that was the proper order of things-the order of Nature, which treats all maturity as a mere nidus* for youth. Baldassarre had done his work, had had his draught of life: Tito said it was his turn now. And the prospect was so vague: “I think they are going to take me to Antioch." Here was a vista! After a long voyage, to spend months, perhaps years, in a search for which even now there was no guarantee that it would not prove vain; and to 295 leave behind at starting a life of distinction and love; and to find, if he found anything, the old exacting companionship which was known by rote beforehand. Certainly the gems, and therefore the florins, were, in a sense, Baldassarre's—in the narrow sense by which the right of possession is determined in or- 300 dinary affairs; but in that larger and more radically natural view by which the world belongs to youth and strength, they were

LITERARY ANALYSIS.-274-277. Tito... ready. What does circumstance never fail to beget on tacit falsity?" Explain the expression "tacit falsity." 277-291. For... now. State in your own words the conclusion that Tito had now reached, and the process by which he reached it.

298-326. Certainly... themselves? Express briefly the self-imposed sophistries of Tito.-Explain "A mere tangle of anomalous traditions and opinions" (308, 309).-Point out a metaphor in this passage.

290