I was careful to keep him in sight;
I confess that I passed ten very nervous minutes. He recovered himself
at last, and went his way, slowly and with hanging head.
That I had really startled poor Theobald into a bolder use of his long-
garnered stores of knowledge and taste, into the vulgar effort and hazard
of production, seemed at first reason enough for his continued silence
and absence; but as day followed day without his either calling or
sending me a line, and without my meeting him in his customary haunts, in
the galleries, in the Chapel at San Lorenzo, or strolling between the
Arno side and the great hedge-screen of verdure which, along the drive of
the Cascine, throws the fair occupants of barouche and phaeton into such
becoming relief--as for more than a week I got neither tidings nor sight
of him, I began to fear that I had fatally offended him, and that,
instead of giving a wholesome impetus to his talent, I had brutally
paralysed it. I had a wretched suspicion that I had made him ill. My
stay at Florence was drawing to a close, and it was important that,
before resuming my journey, I should assure myself of the truth.
Pages:
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62