Part 11 (1/2)

Tessa obeyed with a tranquillising sense that life was going to be something quite new, and that t.i.to would be with her often. All who remember their childhood remember the strange vague sense, when some new experience came, that everything else was going to be changed, and that there would be no lapse into the old monotony. So the bit of coral was hung beside the tiny bag with the sc.r.a.p of scrawled parchment in it, and Tessa felt braver.

”And now you will give me a kiss,” said t.i.to, economising time by speaking while he swept in the contents of the wallet and hung it at his waist again, ”and look happy, like a good girl, and then--”

But Tessa had obediently put forward her lips in a moment, and kissed his cheek as he hung down his head.

”Oh, you pretty pigeon!” cried t.i.to, laughing, pressing her round cheeks with his hands and crus.h.i.+ng her features together so as to give them a general impartial kiss.

Then he started up and walked away, not looking round till he was ten yards from her, when he just turned and gave a parting beck. Tessa was looking after him, but he could see that she was making no signs of distress. It was enough for t.i.to if she did not cry while he was present. The softness of his nature required that all sorrow should be hidden away from him.

”I wonder when Romola will kiss my cheek in that way?” thought t.i.to, as he walked along. It seemed a tiresome distance now, and he almost wished he had not been so soft-hearted, or so tempted to linger in the shade. No other excuse was needed to Bardo and Romola than saying simply that he had been unexpectedly hindered; he felt confident their proud delicacy would inquire no farther. He lost no time in getting to Ognissanti, and hastily taking some food there, he crossed the Arno by the Ponte alia Carraja, and made his way as directly as possible towards the Via de' Bardi.

But it was the hour when all the world who meant to be in particularly good time to see the Corso were returning from the Borghi, or villages just outside the gates, where they had dined and reposed themselves; and the thoroughfares leading to the bridges were of course the issues towards which the stream of sightseers tended. Just as t.i.to reached the Ponte Vecchio and the entrance of the Via de' Bardi, he was suddenly urged back towards the angle of the intersecting streets. A company on horseback, coming from the Via Guicciardini, and turning up the Via de'

Bardi, had compelled the foot-pa.s.sengers to recede hurriedly. t.i.to had been walking, as his manner was, with the thumb of his right-hand resting in his belt; and as he was thus forced to pause, and was looking carelessly at the pa.s.sing cavaliers, he felt a very thin cold hand laid on his. He started round, and saw the Dominican friar whose upturned face had so struck him in the morning. Seen closer, the face looked more evidently worn by sickness and not by age; and again it brought some strong but indefinite reminiscences to t.i.to.

”Pardon me, but--from your face and your ring,”--said the friar, in a faint voice, ”is not your name t.i.tomelema?”

”Yes,” said t.i.to, also speaking faintly, doubly jarred by the cold touch and the mystery. He was not apprehensive or timid through his imagination, but through his sensations and perceptions he could easily be made to shrink and turn pale like a maiden.

”Then I shall fulfil my commission.”

The friar put his hand under his scapulary, and drawing out a small linen bag which hung round his neck, took from it a bit of parchment, doubled and stuck firmly together with some black adhesive substance, and placed it in t.i.to's hand. On the outside was written in Italian, in a small but distinct character--

”_t.i.to Melema, aged twenty-three, with a dark, beautiful face, long dark curls, the brightest smile, and a large onyx ring on his right forefinger_.”

t.i.to did not look at the friar, but tremblingly broke open the bit of parchment. Inside, the words were--

”_I am sold for a slave: I think they are going to take me to Antioch.

The gems alone will serve to ransom me_.”

t.i.to looked round at the friar, but could only ask a question with his eyes.

”I had it at Corinth,” the friar said, speaking with difficulty, like one whose small strength had been overtaxed--”I had it from a man who was dying.”

”He is dead, then?” said t.i.to, with a bounding of the heart.

”Not the writer. The man who gave it me was a pilgrim, like myself, to whom the writer had intrusted it, because he was journeying to Italy.”

”You know the contents?”

”I do not know them, but I conjecture them. Your friend is in slavery: you will go and release him. But I am unable to talk now.” The friar, whose voice had become feebler and feebler, sank down on the stone bench against the wall from which he had risen to touch t.i.to's hand, adding--

”I am at San Marco; my name is Fra Luca.”

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

t.i.tO'S DILEMMA.

When Fra Luca had ceased to speak, t.i.to still stood by him in irresolution, and it was not till, the pressure of the pa.s.sengers being removed, the friar rose and walked slowly into the church of Santa Felicita, that t.i.to also went on his way along the Via de' Bardi.

”If this monk is a Florentine,” he said to himself; ”if he is going to remain at Florence, everything must be disclosed.” He felt that a new crisis had come, but he was not, for all that, too evidently agitated to pay his visit to Bardo, and apologise for his previous non-appearance.