h its affairs--Mohammedans, even,
in well-tolerated companionship with Christian cavaliers; some of them
with faces blackened and robes tattered by the corroding breath of
centuries, others fresh and bright in new red mantle or steel corselet,
the exact doubles of the living. And wedged in with all these were
detached arms, legs, and other members, with only here and there a gap
where some image had been removed for public disgrace, or had fallen
ominously, as Lorenzo's had done six months before. It was a perfect
resurrection-swarm of remote mortals and fragments of mortals,
reflecting, in their varying degrees of freshness, the sombre dinginess
and sprinkled brightness of the crowd below.

Tito's glance wandered over the wild multitude in search of something.
He had already thought of Tessa, and the white hoods suggested the
possibility that he might detect her face under one of them. It was at
least a thought to be courted, rather than the vision of Romola looking
at him with changed eyes. But he searched in vain; and he was leaving
the church, weary of a scene which had no variety, when, just against
the doorway, he caught sight of Tessa, only two yards off him. She was
kneeling with her back against the wall, behind a group of
peasant-women, who were standing and looking for a spot nearer to the
sacred image. Her head hung a little aside with a look of weariness,
and her blue eyes were directed rather absently towards an altar-piece
where the Archangel Michael stood in his armour, with young face and
floating hair, amongst bearded and tonsured saints. Her right-hand,
holding a bunch of cocoons, fell by her side listlessly, and her round
cheek was paled, either by the light or by the weariness that was
expressed in her attitude: her lips were pressed poutingly together, and
every now and then her eyelids half fell: she was a large image of a
sweet sleepy child. Tito felt an irresistible desire to go up to her
and get her pretty trusting looks and prattle: this creature who was
without moral judgment that could condemn him, whose little loving
ignorant soul made a world apart, where he might feel in freedom from
suspicions and exacting demands, had a new attraction for him now. She
seemed a refuge from the threatened isolation that would come with
disgrace. He glanced cautiously round, to assure himself that Monna
Ghita was not near, and then, slipping quietly to her side, kneeled on
one knee, and said, in