will
remain. Debts! I know there are debts; and there is thy dowry, Romola,
to be paid. But there must be enough--or, at least, there can lack but
a small sum, such as the Signoria might well provide. And if Lorenzo
had not died, all would have been secured and settled. But now..."

At this moment Maso opened the door, and advancing to his master,
announced that Nello, the barber, had desired him to say, that he was
come with the Greek scholar whom he had asked leave to introduce.

"It is well," said the old man. "Bring them in."

Bardo, conscious that he looked more dependent when he was walking,
liked always to be seated in the presence of strangers, and Romola,
without needing to be told, conducted him to his chair. She was
standing by him at her full height, in quiet majestic self-possession,
when the visitors entered; and the most penetrating observer would
hardly have divined that this proud pale face, at the slightest touch on
the fibres of affection or pity, could become passionate with
tenderness, or that this woman, who imposed a certain awe on those who
approached her, was in a state of girlish simplicity and ignorance
concerning the world outside her father's books.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Note 1. A sign that such contrasts were peculiarly frequent in
Florence, is the fact that Saint Antonine, Prior of San Marco, and
afterwards archbishop, in the first half of this fifteenth century,
founded the society of Buonuomini di San Martino (Good Men of Saint
Martin) with the main object of succouring the _poveri vergognosi_--in
other words, paupers of good family. In the records of the famous
Panciatichi family we find a certain Girolamo in this century who was
reduced to such a state of poverty that he was obliged to seek charity
for the mere means of sustaining life, though other members of his
family were enormously wealthy.

CHAPTER SIX.

DAWNING HOPES.

When Maso opened the door again, and ushered in the two visitors, Nello,
first making a deep reverence to Romola, gently pushed Tito before him,
and advanced with him towards her father.

"Messer Bardo," he said, in a more measured and respectful tone than was
usual with him, "I have the honour of presenting to you the Greek
scholar, who has been eager to have speech of you, not less from the
report I have made to him of your learning and your priceless
collections, than because of the fu