JEROME'S FATHER-IN-LAW. Ill 



in the neighbourhood. At this fire Cardan was present ; 

 out of it the members of the tribune's family were 

 rescued with much difficulty, not indeed without some 

 shock to the modesty of the youngest daughter. Lucia 

 was the eldest of the daughters, and may then, perhaps, 

 have been first seen by her future husband. An impres- 

 sion, otherwise fleeting, then made upon Jerome, may 

 have been revived subsequently in his vision of the white- 

 robed maiden who invited him to pass beyond the gates 

 of paradise. Dream- figures are, however, unsubstantial, 

 and resemblances between them and the daylight aspects 

 of real flesh and blood are matters rather for the fancy 

 than the judgment to lay stress upon. 



By the second fire, the tribune of course was not 

 ruined. His friends again came forward. Houses were 

 again open for the reception of his children while he 

 established himself in new premises, next door to the 

 dwelling of the young physician and philosopher. Re- 

 presentations made at Venice procured from the senate a 

 liberal order that Aldobello should be compensated for 

 his loss by an immediate grant of six months' pay. Very 

 soon afterwards his new neighbour, the doctor, courted 

 Lucia, and the tribune, whose career in Sacco just nar- 

 rated had all been comprised in the short space of seven' 

 years, consented to the wedding. 



Marriage is, in a poor philosopher, a bold act. Jerome, 



