Romola during the day, immediately proposed to accompany her home,
dismissing Maso, whose short steps annoyed him. It was only usual for
him to pay her such an official attention when it was obviously demanded
from him. Tito and Romola never jarred, never remonstrated with each
other. They were too hopelessly alienated in their inner life ever to
have that contest which is an effort towards agreement. They talked of
all affairs, public and private, with careful adherence to an adopted
course. If Tito wanted a supper prepared in the old library, now
pleasantly furnished as a banqueting-room, Romola assented, and saw that
everything needful was done: and Tito, on his side, left her entirely
uncontrolled in her daily habits, accepting the help she offered him in
transcribing or making digests, and in return meeting her conjectured
want of supplies for her charities. Yet he constantly, as on this very
morning, avoided exchanging glances with her; affected to believe that
she was out of the house, in order to avoid seeking her in her own room;
and playfully attributed to her a perpetual preference of solitude to
his society.

In the first ardour of her self-conquest, after she had renounced her
resolution of flight, Romola had made many timid efforts towards the
return of a frank relation between them. But to her such a relation
could only come by open speech about their differences, and the attempt
to arrive at a moral understanding; while Tito could only be saved from
alienation from her by such a recovery of her effusive tenderness as
would have presupposed oblivion of their differences. He cared for no
explanation between them; he felt any thorough explanation impossible:
he would have cared to have Romola fond again, and to her, fondness was
impossible. She could be submissive and gentle, she could repress any
sign of repulsion; but tenderness was not to be feigned. She was
helplessly conscious of the result: her husband was alienated from her.

It was an additional reason why she should be carefully kept outside of
secrets which he would in no case have chosen to communicate to her.
With regard to his political action he sought to convince her that he
considered the cause of the Medici hopeless; and that on that practical
ground, as well as in theory, he heartily served the popular government,
in which she had now a warm interest. But impressions subtle as odours
made her uneasy about his relations with San