The Meridian times. (Meridian, Idaho) 1909-1938, 1921-01-21
ELr oMOLA mia," said the blind
* scholar, ''thou wilt reach
- w. +ha paadfuI uoIrrmns-fhou

scholar, ''thou wilt reach
va the needful volumes-thou
knowest them-on the fifth shelf of
the cabinet"
Tito rose at the same moment with
Romola, saying, 81 will reach them, if
you will point them out" and fol-
lowed her hastily into the adjoining
small room,
"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.
II hope" she continued, turning her
eyes full on Tito, with look of grave
confidence-"I hope he will not weary
you; this work makes him so happy"
"And me too, Romola-if you only
let me say, love you-if you will oily
think me worth loving a little"
His speech was the softest murmur,
and the dark beautiful face, nearer to
hers than it had ever been before,
was looking at her with beseeching
tenderness.
ST 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 before sunk to that
murmur. 1t seemed to them both that
they were looking at each other a long
while before her lips moved again
yet 1t was but a moment till she said,
ST know now what it is to be happy"
The faces just met, and the dark
curls mingled for an instant with the
ripping gold. Quick as lightning after
that, Tito set his foot on projecting
ledge of the book shelves and reached
down the needful volumes. They were
both contented to be silent and sep
arate, for that first blissful experience
of mutual consciousness was all the
more exquisite for being unperturbed
by immediate sensation.
1t had all been as rapid as the ir-
reversible mingling of waters. for even
the eager and jealous Bardo had not
become impatient.
Whey they told her father he
wanted time for reflection. "Be patient
my children; you are very young"
"No more could be said, and RO-
moIa's 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 prepared for the wrongdoer
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 a.
the sense that this woman, whose
beauty 1t was hardly possible to think
of as anything but the necessary con-
sequence of her noble nature, loved
him with all the tenderness that spoke
in her clear eyes, brought strong
reaction Of regret that he had not kept
himself free from that first deceit
which had dragged him into the dam
ger of being disgraced before her.
There was spring of bitterness min
gled with that fountain of sweets"
George Eliot's magnificent study of
character concerns itself with Flor
ence at the time when Christopher
Columbus was discovering America,
when Savonarola was prior of Saint
Marks and ruled the city by his
moral 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 more than mortal
source; when Charles the Eighth of
France 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 fin
ally Florence turned against Savon-
arola, and he met his death in
fgnominy or martyrdom, as one viewed
1t as foe or partisan. Across the scene
there fit the figures of Pico della
Mirandola, OF Fra Bartolommeo, of
Domenico Ghirlandajo, of Cossimo di
Piero, of Poliziano, Of Bernardo del
Nero. of Strozzis and Tornabuonis, of
Niccolo Machiavelli, Of promising