by written agreement; the
purchasers have left Florence, and I hold the bonds for the
purchase-money."

"If my father had suspected you of being a faithless man," said Romola,
in a tone of bitter scorn, which insisted on darting out before she
could say anything else, "he would have placed the library safely out of
your power. But death overtook him too soon, and when you were sure his
ear was deaf, and his hand stiff, you robbed him." She paused an
instant, and then said, with gathered passion, "Have you robbed somebody
else, who is _not_ dead? Is that the reason you wear armour?"

Romola had been driven to utter the words as men are driven to use the
lash of the horsewhip. At first, Tito felt horribly cowed; it seemed to
him that the disgrace he had been dreading would be worse than he had
imagined it. But soon there was a reaction: such power of dislike and
resistance as there was within him was beginning to rise against a wife
whose voice seemed like the herald of a retributive fate. Her, at
least, his quick mind told him that he might master.

"It is useless," he said, coolly, "to answer the words of madness,
Romola. Your peculiar feeling about your father has made you mad at
this moment. Any rational person looking at the case from a due
distance will see that I have taken the wisest course. Apart from the
influence of your exaggerated feelings on him, I am convinced that
Messer Bernardo would be of that opinion."

"He would not!" said Romola. "He lives in the hope of seeing my
father's wish exactly fulfilled. We spoke of it together only
yesterday. He will help me yet. Who are these men to whom you have
sold my father's property?"

"There is no reason why you should not be told, except that it signifies
little. The Count di San Severino and the Seneschal de Beaucaire are
now on their way with the king to Siena."

"They may be overtaken and persuaded to give up their purchase," said
Romola, eagerly, her anger beginning to be surmounted by anxious
thought.

"No, they may not," said Tito, with cool decision.

"Why?"

"Because I do not choose that they should."

"But if you were paid the money?--we will pay you the money," said
Romola.

No words could have disclosed more fully her sense of alienation from
Tito; but they were spoken with less of bitterness than of anxious
pleading. And he felt stronger, for he saw that the first impulse of
fury was past.

"No, my Romola. Understand tha