The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-08-16
ROMOLA

BY GEORGE ELIOT

Condensation by Profess'
"Romola mia," said the blind schol-
ar, thou wilt reach the heedful vol
| umes-thou knowest them-on the
| fifth shelf of the cabinet"
Tito rose at the same moment with
Romola, saying, Il will reach them,
| If you will point them out" and fol-
| lowed her hastily into the adjoining
small room, where the walls were also
covered with ranges of books in per
feet order.
There they are" said Romola,
pointing upward; every book is just
where it was when my father ceased
to see them"
Tito stood by her without fastening
to reach the books. They had never
been in this room together before.
II hope" she continued, turning
her eyes full on Tito, with a look Of
grave confidence-"I hope he will not
weary you; this work makes me so
happy"
And me too, Romola-if you will
only let me say l love you-if you
will only think me worth loving a
little"
His speech was the softest MUIR
muir, and the dark, beautiful face,
nearer to hers than it had ever been
before, was looking at her with be-
seeching tenderness.
Il do love YOU" murmured ROmola;
she looked at him with the same sim
pie majesty as ever, but her voice had
never in her life sunk to that MUIR
muir 1t seemed to both of them that
they were looking at each other long
time before their lips moved again;
yet it was but moment till she said,
II know now what it is to be happy"
The faces just met, and the dark
curls mingled for a moment with the
ripling gold. Quick as lightning after
that, Tito set his foot on projecting
ledge of the bookshelves and reached
down the needed volumes. They were
both contented to be silent and sep
arate, for the first blissful experience
of mutual consciousness was all the
more exquisite for being unperturbed
by the immediate sensation.
1t had been as rapid as the irrever-
sible mingling of waters, for even the
eager and jealous Bardo had not be-
come impatient.
When they told her father, he want
ed time for reflection. BE patient,
my children; you are very young
No more could be said and RomO-
las heart was perfectly satisfied. Not
so Tito's. If the subtle mixture Of
good and evil prepares suffering for
human truth and purity, there is also
suffering for the wrong-doer by the
same mingled conditions. AS Tito
kissed Romola on their parting that
evening the very strength of the thrill
that moved his whole being at the
sense that this woman, whose beauty
it was hardly possible to think Of as
anything else but the necessary con-
sequence of her noble nature, loved
him with all the tenderness that
spoke in her clear eyes, brought a
strong reaction of regret that he had
not kept himself free from that first
deceit which had dragged him into
the danger of being disgraced before
her. There was a spring OF bitterness
mingled with that fountain of sweets
George Elliott's magnificent study
of character concerns itself with Flor
ence at the time when Christopher
Columbus was discovering America,
when Savonarola was prior OF st.
Marks, and ruled the city by his NOR
al energy and his fanaticism, when
his pious frenzies, his visions and his
predictions of heavenly wrath seemed
to the majority of his fellow citizens
as coming from a more than mortal
source when Charles the Eighth of
FRINGE invaded Italy; when the plague
brought dire dismay; when the city
was distraught by the struggles of the
austere devotees of Savonarola, and
the gay partisans of pleasure; when
the mighty ones of the land were
united against poor, distracted Flor
ence; when Piero de- Medici was con-
spring to regain the power once held
by Lorenzo the Magnificent; when
finally Florence turned against Sa-
vonarola, and he met his death in
ignominy or martyrdom, as one view
ed it as foe or partisan. Across the
scene there fits the figures of Pico
della Mirandola, of Fra Bartolommeo,
of Domenico Ghirlandajo, of Cosimo di
Piero, of Poliziano, of Bernardo del
Nero, of Strozzis and Tornabuonis, of
Niccolo Machiavelli, of a promising
youth named Michaelangelo Buon-
arotti' and many others. All these
make the setting for the lives of
woman and man and the progress of
their souls, the one upward and the
other downward, as wonderfully drawn
as ever human lives were portrayed by
pen of man or woman.
Florence saw Tito Melema ever
making his way upward from the day
when he found himself adrift after
shipwreck, and was carried to the mar