t her speech rather momentous at the
beginning, Tessa fell to devouring Ninna with kisses, while Romola sat
in silence with absent eyes. It was inevitable that in this moment she
should think of the three beings before her chiefly in their relation to
her own lot, and she was feeling the chill of disappointment that her
difficulties were not to be solved by external law. She had relaxed her
hold of Lillo, and was leaning her cheek against her hand, seeing
nothing of the scene around her. Lillo was quick in perceiving a change
that was not agreeable to him; he had not yet made any return to her
caresses, but he objected to their withdrawal, and putting up both his
brown arms to pull her head towards him, he said, "Play with me again!"

Romola, roused from her self-absorption, clasped the lad anew, and
looked from him to Tessa, who had now paused from her shower of kisses,
and seemed to have returned to the more placid delight of contemplating
the heavenly lady's face. That face was undergoing a subtle change,
like the gradual oncoming of a warmer, softer light. Presently Romola
took her scissors from her scarsella, and cut off one of her long wavy
locks, while the three pair of wide eyes followed her movements with
kitten-like observation.

"I must go away from you now," she said, "but I will leave this lock of
hair that it may remind you of me, because if you are ever in trouble
you can think that perhaps God will send me to take care of you again.
I cannot tell you where to find me, but if I ever know that you want me,
I will come to you. Addio!"

She had set down Lillo hurriedly, and held out her hand to Tessa, who
kissed it with a mixture of awe and sorrow at this parting. Romola's
mind was oppressed with thoughts; she needed to be alone as soon as
possible, but with her habitual care for the least fortunate, she turned
aside to put her hand in a friendly way on Monna Lisa's shoulder and
make her a farewell sign. Before the old woman had finished her deep
reverence, Romola had disappeared.

Monna Lisa and Tessa moved towards each other by simultaneous impulses,
while the two children stood clinging to their mother's skirts as if
they, too, felt the atmosphere of awe.

"Do you think she _was_ a saint?" said Tessa, in Lisa's ear, showing her
the lock.

Lisa rejected that notion very decidedly by a backward movement of her
fingers, and then stroking the rippled gold, said--

"She's a great and noble lady