Romola's love thrown into the scale,
their preponderance on the side of good were all but irresistible. Yet
from the first we feel that it is otherwise--that this light, genial,
ease-loving nature has already, by its innate habitude of self-pleasing,
foreordained itself to sink down into ever deeper and more utter
debasement. With the "slight, almost imperceptible start," at the
accidental words which connect the value of his jewels with "a man's
ransom," we feel that some baseness is already within himself
contemplated. With the transference of their price to the goldsmith's
hands, we know that the baseness is in his heart resolved on. When the
message through the monk tells him that the ransom may still be
available, we never doubt what the decision will be. Present ease and
enjoyment, the maintaining and improving the position he has won--in
short, the "something that is due to himself," rather than a distant,
dangerous, possibly fruitless duty, howsoever clear.

The one purer feeling in that corrupt heart--his love for Romola--is
almost from the first tainted by the same selfishness. From the first he
recognises that his relation to her will give him a certain position in
the city; and he feels that with his ready tact and Greek suppleness this
is all that is needed to secure his further advancement. The vital
antagonism between his nature and hers bars the possibility of his
foreseeing how her truthfulness, nobleness, and purity shall become the
thorn in his ease-loving life.

In his earlier relations with Tessa, there is nothing more than seeking a
present and passing amusement, and the desire to sun himself in her
childish admiration and delight. He is as far as possible from the
intentional seducer and betrayer. But his accidental encounters with
her, cause him perplexity and annoyance; and at last it seems to him
safer for his own position, especially in regard to Romola, that she
should be secretly housed as she is, and taught to regard herself as his
wife. Soon there comes to be more of ease for him with the
bond-submissive child-mistress, than in the presence of the high-souled,
pure-hearted wife. In the first and decisive encounter with Baldassarre,
the words of repudiation which seal the whole after-character of his
life, apparently escape from him unconsciously and by surprise. But it
is the traitor-heart that speaks them. They could never even by surprise
have escaped the lips, had not the