his adoptive father, Baldassarre Calvo, close to his own. The two men
looked at each other silent as death; Tito with cheeks and lips all
bloodless, fascinated by terror. The next instant the grasp on his arm
relaxed, and Baldassarre disappeared within the church.


_IV.--Romola's Ordeal_


With Baldassarre lurking in Florence, Tito went in hourly fear. At any
moment the story of his baseness might be blown abroad; at any moment,
worse still, he might be struck down by the old man, in whose wild eyes
he had read only a fierce yearning for vengeance.

As a precaution, Tito took to wearing a coat of fine chain-mail under
his doublet, and the discovery of this alarmed Romola for his safety,
and shocked her with a suspicion that he was something of a coward.

But by now Tito was deeply involved in Florentine politics, and easily
persuaded her that it was against secret political intriguers that he
thus shielded himself. He went on to confess that his life was no longer
safe in Florence, and he was resolved to leave the city for good. But to
this she demurred; her father had died and left his library and his
collection as a sacred trust to her and Tito, and until they had carried
out his wish and made them over to the city authorities, she felt she
could not go.

Tito made light of her scruples. Her father's wish, he said, had been a
mere foolish vanity; they had need of money, and he intended to sell
both the library and collection, and when, for the first time in her