" Romola said, making a
movement forward.

"You shall not!" said Tito, in a bitter whisper, seizing her wrists with
all his masculine force. "I am master of you. You shall not set
yourself in opposition to me."

There were passers-by approaching. Tito had heard them, and that was
why he spoke in a whisper. Romola was too conscious of being mastered
to have struggled, even if she had remained unconscious that witnesses
were at hand. But she was aware now of footsteps and voices, and her
habitual sense of personal dignity made her at once yield to Tito's
movement towards leading her from the loggia.

They walked on in silence for some time, under the small drizzling rain.
The first rush of indignation and alarm in Romola had begun to give way
to more complicated feelings, which rendered speech and action
difficult. In that simpler state of vehemence, open opposition to the
husband from whom she felt her soul revolting had had the aspect of
temptation for her; it seemed the easiest of all courses. But now,
habits of self-questioning, memories of impulse subdued, and that proud
reserve which all discipline had left unmodified, began to emerge from
the flood of passion. The grasp of her wrists, which asserted her
husband's physical predominance, instead of arousing a new fierceness in
her, as it might have done if her impetuosity had been of a more vulgar
kind, had given her a momentary shuddering horror at this form of
contest with him. It was the first time they had been in declared
hostility to each other since her flight and return, and the check given
to her ardent resolution then, retained the power to arrest her now. In
this altered condition her mind began to dwell on the probabilities that
would save her from any desperate course: Tito would not risk betrayal
by her; whatever had been his original intention, he must be determined
now by the fact that she knew of the plot. She was not bound now to do
anything else than to hang over him that certainty, that if he deceived
her, her lips would not, be closed. And then, it was possible--yes, she
must cling to that possibility till it was disproved--that Tito had
never meant to aid in the betrayal of the Frate.

Tito, on his side, was busy with thoughts, and did not speak again till
they were near home. Then he said--

"Well, Romola, have you now had time to recover calmness? If so, you
can supply your want of belief in me by a little rational inference