that
smile to her! Romola had never dreamed that there was a scholar in the
world who would smile at a deficiency for which she was constantly made
to feel herself a culprit. It was like the dawn of a new sense to her--
the sense of comradeship. They did not look away from each other
immediately, as if the smile had been a stolen one; they looked and
smiled with frank enjoyment.

"She is not really so cold and proud," thought Tito.

"Does _he_ forget too, I wonder?" thought Romola, "Yet I hope not, else
he will vex my father."

But Tito was obliged to turn away, and answer Bardo's question.

"I have had much practice in transcription," he said; "but in the case
of inscriptions copied in memorable scenes, rendered doubly impressive
by the sense of risk and adventure, it may have happened that my
retention of written characters has been weakened. On the plain of the
Eurotas, or among the gigantic stones of Mycenae and Tyrins--especially
when the fear of the Turk hovers over one like a vulture--the mind
wanders, even though the hand writes faithfully what the eye dictates.
But something doubtless I have retained," added Tito, with a modesty
which was not false, though he was conscious that it was politic,
"something that might be of service if illustrated and corrected by a
wider learning than my own."

"That is well spoken, young man," said Bardo, delighted. "And I will
not withhold from you such aid as I can give, if you like to communicate
with me concerning your recollections. I foresee a work which will be a
useful supplement to the `Isolario' of Christoforo Buondelmonte, and
which may take rank with the `Itineraria' of Ciriaco and the admirable
Ambrogio Traversari. But we must prepare ourselves for calumny, young
man," Bardo went on with energy, as if the work were already growing so
fast that the time of trial was near; "if your book contains novelties
you will be charged with forgery; if my elucidations should clash with
any principles of interpretation adopted by another scholar, our
personal characters will be attacked, we shall be impeached with foul
actions; you must prepare yourself to be told that your mother was a
fish-woman, and that your father was a renegade priest or a hanged
malefactor. I myself, for having shown error in a single preposition,
had an invective written against me wherein I was taxed with treachery,
fraud, indecency, and even hideous crimes. Such, my young friend--such
are