il, which gave his present
conduct the character of an epoch to him, and made him dwell on it with
argumentative vindication. It was not that he was taking a deeper step
in wrong-doing, for it was not possible that he should feel any tie to
the Mediceans to be stronger than the tie to his father; but his conduct
to his father had been hidden by successful lying: his present act did
not admit of total concealment--in its very nature it was a revelation.
And Tito winced under his new liability to disesteem.

Well! a little patience, and in another year, or perhaps in half a year,
he might turn his back on these hard, eager Florentines, with their
futile quarrels and sinking fortunes. His brilliant success at Florence
had had some ugly flaws in it: he had fallen in love with the wrong
woman, and Baldassarre had come back under incalculable circumstances.
But as Tito galloped with a loose rein towards Siena, he saw a future
before him in which he would no longer be haunted by those mistakes. He
had much money safe out of Florence already; he was in the fresh
ripeness of eight-and-twenty; he was conscious of well-tried skill.
Could he not strip himself of the past, as of rehearsal clothing, and
throw away the old bundle, to robe himself for the real scene?

It did not enter into Tito's meditations on the future, that, on issuing
from the council-chamber and descending the stairs, he had brushed
against a man whose face he had not stayed to recognise in the
lamplight. The man was Ser Ceccone--also willing to serve the State by
giving information against unsuccessful employers.

CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT.

A FINAL UNDERSTANDING.

Tito soon returned from Siena, but almost immediately set out on another
journey, from which he did not return till the seventeenth of August.
Nearly a fortnight had passed since the arrest of the accused, and still
they were in prison, still their fate was uncertain. Romola had felt
during this interval as if all cares were suspended for her, other than
watching the fluctuating probabilities concerning that fate. Sometimes
they seemed strongly in favour of the prisoners; for the chances of
effective interest on their behalf were heightened by delay, and an
indefinite prospect of delay was opened by the reluctance of all persons
in authority to incur the odium attendant on any decision. On the one
side there was a loud cry that the Republic was in danger, and that
lenity to the prisoners wou