Roland was not visible till near midnight on the Piazza. The promenaders, chiefly military of the garrison, were few at that period of social protestation, and he could declare his disappointment aloud, ringingly, as he strolled up to Nevil, looking as if the cigar in his mouth and the fists entrenched in his wide trowsers-pockets were mortally at feud. His adventure had not pursued its course luminously. He had expected romance, and had met merchandize, and his vanity was offended. To pacify him, Nevil related how he had heard that since the Venetian rising of '49, Venetian ladies had issued from the ordeal of fire and famine of another pattern than the famous old Benzon one, in which they touched earthiest earth. He praised Republicanism for that. The spirit of the new and short-lived Republic wrought that change in Venice. 'Oh, if they're republican as well as utterly decayed,' said Roland, 'I give them up; let them die virtuous.' Nevil told Roland that he had spoken to Renee. He won sympathy, but Roland could not give him encouragement. They crossed and recrossed the shadow of the great campanile, on the warm-white stones of the square, Nevil admitting the weight of whatsoever Roland pointed to him in favour of the arrangement according to French notions, and indeed, of aristocratic notions everywhere, saving that it was imperative for Renee to be disposed of in marriage early. Why rob her of her young springtime! 'French girls,' replied Roland, confused by the nature of the explication in his head--'well, they're not English; they want a hand to shape them, otherwise they grow all awry. My father will not have one of her aunts to live with him, so there she is. But, my dear Nevil, I owe my life to you, and I was no party to this affair. I would do anything to help you. What says Renee?' 'She obeys.' 'Exactly. You see! Our girls are chess-pieces until they 're married. Then they have life and character sometimes too much.' 'She is not like them, Roland; she is like none. When I spoke to her first, she affected no astonishment; never was there a creature so nobly sincere. She's a girl in heart, not in mind. Think of her sacrificed to this man thrice her age!' 'She differs from other girls only on the surface, Nevil. As for the man, I wish she were going to marry a younger. I wish, yes, my friend,' Roland squeezed Nevil's hand, 'I wish! I'm afraid it's hopeless. She did not tell you to hope?' 'Not by one single sign,' said Nevil. 'You see, my friend!' 'For that reason,' Nevil rejoined, with the calm fanaticism of the passion of love, 'I hope all the more . . . because I will not believe that she, so pure and good, can be sacrificed. Put me aside--I am nothing. I hope to save her from that.' 'We have now,' said Roland, 'struck the current of duplicity. You are really in love, my poor fellow.'