The Fayette falcon. (Somerville, Tenn.) 190?-current, 1921-01-21

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
market, by the Omnipresent brattl
merchant and hueksteri and introduced
TO breakfast and a kiss from pretty
little Tessa, and passed under the deft
hand of the wonder-working barber
philosopher Nello. That shrewd crafts
man with edged tools-razor or tongue
introduced him to the bright ana
powerful folk who frequented his shop
as If 1t were a club, and brought MN
TO the notice Of the blind scholar Bar
do. who needed just such a clever
Young student as Tito for helper.
From that his path was easy to the
confidence of the great; Latin secre-
tary to the state. embassies to Rome
everything was his, even to the envy
of Niccolo Machiavelli. The world saw
only the dazzling success; there were
few who marked "the change that
came from the final departure OF moral
vouthfulness," who saw the perhdies
and desertions of the dextrous and fac
lie Greek, the baseness that smiles
and triumphs; who knew how he had
left to slavery the adaptive father VINO
had rescued him and made him wnat
he was, how he proved false to the
memory of Romola's father, VINO set
him ON his way to triumph in Flor
ence. how he betrayed his great pat
rons. how he deceived poor Tessa.
that "sweet, pouting. innocent, round
thing" how he threw away the great
treasure Of RomOla's love, and how
his only bitter thought was that a
timely, well devised falsehood might
have saved him from every fatal con-
sequence.
over against the figure Of the man
she married stands Romola, "fair az
the Florentine lily before 1t got quar-
relsome and turned red" as the rhap'
sodic Nello described her. Her con.
tempt Of all injustice and meanness
the noble serenity with which she &C
cepted, though not without inward
struggle, all that life and duty brought
her, the willing service she rendered
her father, her husband, the poor, the
sufferers In the plague, Tito's aban
doned father, even Tessa. her rival e
the title of wife, the mother of Tito'i
children, the majestic self-possessioI
which at the slightest touch on thu
fibres Of affection or pity, could be
Z come passionate with tenderness-al
this justified her godfather, Bernardo
del Nero in his exhortatlon to her ia
Their. .Remember. Bardo, thou hast
rare gem of thy own; take care M
man gets 1t who is not likely to pa,
a worthy price. That pretty Gree
Lhas a 1.-THE sickness about him tina
seems maryellously fitted for slippin
! easily into any nest he fixes his eye
: upon"
But he that smiles and triumph
does not always triumph to the enc
:; He Is sometimes found out. SO 1t wa
. with Tito. He had made the las
preparation for departure to a large
( fleld of action. Pursued In the nigh
by a crowd Of angry men, ne barrel
had time to leap from a bridge Int
g the Arno. A long swim In the dari
q ness--in the tumult of his blood b
e could only feel vaguely that ne wa
: safe and might land. But whereg In
Q current was having It's way with him
g he hardly knew where he was; e.
a baustIon was bringing on the dream
state that precedes Inconsistencies.
= But now there were eyes that Oil
a cerned him-aged. strong for the oil
y tance. Baldassare-his father-loo
Ing up blankly from the search
e which his poverty had led him, M
1t seen a white object coming along u
stream-could that be any fortuna
p chance for him7 He looked and lookt
q. till the object gathered form; then
re leaned forward with start as he 8
Or among the rank green stems, and =
70 eyes seemed to be filled with ne
Or light--yet he only watched-motio
Is less Something was being brought
" him.
1e The next instant mans BODY W
ut cast violently on the grass two var
30 from him, and he started forward u
TX panther, clutching the velvet tur
n as he fell forward on the body a
ed flashed q look In the mans face.
re Dead-was he deadf The eyes We
ng risid. But no, 1t could not be-tusti
pt had brought him. Men looked De
1T sometimes, and jet the life came ba
m 10 them. Baldassare did not feel I
er. BILE in that moment. He knew y
In what he could do. He got his lar
fingers within the neck Of the tul
Of and held them there, kneeling on 9
Dr. knee beside the body and watchl
Ter the face. In his eyes there was o.
ca, fierceness.
Int Rigid-rigid still. Those eyes "
his the half-fallen lids were locked agail
en Vengeance. Could 1t be that ne y
his dead? Surely at last the eyelids w
led ouivering; the eyes were no ionl
ms rigid. There was q vibrating hent
tai them-they opened wide.
Of aAh, yesl You see me-you kn
'ue mel" EE