and she had forgotten to provide herself with any other light. In
a few moments the room was in total darkness. Feeling her way to the
nearest chair, she sat down to wait for the morning.

Her purpose in seeking the key had called up certain memories winch had
come back upon her during the past week with the new vividness that
remembered words always have for us when we have learned to give them a
new meaning. Since the shook of the revelation which had seemed to
divide her for ever from Tito, that last interview with Dino had never
been for many hours together out of her mind. And it solicited her all
the more, because while its remembered images pressed upon her almost
with the imperious force of sensations, they raised struggling thoughts
which resisted their influence. She could not prevent herself from
hearing inwardly the dying prophetic voice saying again and again,--"The
man whose face was a blank loosed thy hand and departed; and as he went,
I could see his face, and it was the face of the great Tempter... And
thou, Romola, didst wring thy hands and seek for water, and there was
none... and the plain was bare and stony again, and thou wast alone in
the midst of it. And then it seemed that the night fell, and I saw no
more." She could not prevent herself from dwelling with a sort of
agonised fascination on the wasted face; on the straining gaze at the
crucifix; on the awe which had compelled her to kneel; on the last
broken words and then the unbroken silence--on all the details of the
death-scene, which had seemed like a sudden opening into a world apart
from that of her lifelong knowledge.

But her mind was roused to resistance of impressions that, from being
obvious phantoms, seemed to be getting solid in the daylight. As a
strong body struggles against fumes with the more violence when they
begin to be stifling, a strong soul struggles against phantasies with
all the more alarmed energy when they threaten to govern in the place of
thought.

What had the words of that vision to do with her real sorrows? That
fitting of certain words was a mere chance; the rest was all vague--nay,
those words themselves were vague; they were determined by nothing but
her brother's memories and beliefs. He believed there was something
fatal in pagan learning; he believed that celibacy was more holy than
marriage; he remembered their home, and all the objects in the library;
and of these threads the vision was woven