dressed. It was Tornabuoni who spoke.

"Will you go back with us, Melema? Or, since Messere is going off to
Signa now, will you wisely follow the fashion of the times and go to
hear the Frate, who will be like the torrent at its height this morning?
It's what we must all do, you know, if we are to save our Medicean
skins. _I_ should go if I had the leisure."

Tito's face had recovered its colour now, and he could make an effort to
speak with gaiety.

"Of course I am among the admirers of the inspired orator," he said,
smilingly; "but, unfortunately, I shall be occupied with the Segretario
till the time of the procession."

"_I_ am going into the Duomo to look at that savage old man again," said
Piero.

"Then have the charity to show him to one of the hospitals for
travellers, Piero mio," said Tornabuoni. "The monks may find out
whether he wants putting into a cage."

The party separated, and Tito took his way to the Palazzo Vecchio, where
he was to find Bartolommeo Scala. It was not a long walk, but, for
Tito, it was stretched out like the minutes of our morning dreams: the
short spaces of street and piazza held memories, and previsions, and
torturing fears, that might have made the history of months. He felt as
if a serpent had begun to coil round his limbs. Baldassarre living, and
in Florence, was a living revenge, which would no more rest than a
winding serpent would rest until it had crushed its prey. It was not in
the nature of that man to let an injury pass unavenged: his love and his
hatred were of that passionate fervour which subjugates all the rest of
the being, and makes a man sacrifice himself to his passion as if it
were a deity to be worshipped with self-destruction. Baldassarre had
relaxed his hold, and had disappeared. Tito knew well how to interpret
that: it meant that the vengeance was to be studied that it might be
sure. If he had not uttered those decisive words--"He is a madman"--if
he could have summoned up the state of mind, the courage, necessary for
avowing his recognition of Baldassarre, would not the risk have been
less? He might have declared himself to have had what he believed to be
positive evidence of Baldassarre's death; and the only persons who could
ever have had positive knowledge to contradict him, were Fra Luca, who
was dead, and the crew of the companion galley, who had brought him the
news of the encounter with the pirates. The chances were infinite
against Bal