In the long silence which followed, Orsino relapsed into his former despondency.  After all, whether he confessed his failure or not, he had undeniably failed and been played upon from the first, and he admitted it to himself without attempting to spare his vanity, and his self-contempt was great and painful.  The fact that he had grown from a boy to a man during his experience did not make it easier to bear such wounds, which are felt more keenly by the strong than by the weak when they are real.

As the day wore on the longing to see Maria Consuelo grew upon him until he felt that he had never before wished to be with her as he wished it now.  He had no intention of telling her his trouble but he needed the assurance of an ever ready sympathy which he so often saw in her eyes, and which was always there for him when he asked it.  When there is love there is reliance, whether expressed or not, and where there is reliance, be it ever so slender, there is comfort for many ills of body, mind and soul.

CHAPTER XXII.

Orsino felt suddenly relieved when he had left his office in the afternoon.  Contini’s gloomy mood was contagious, and so long as Orsino was with him it was impossible not to share the architect’s view of affairs.  Alone, however, things did not seem so bad.  As a matter of fact it was almost impossible for the young man to give up all his illusions concerning his own success in one moment, and to believe himself the dupe of his own blind vanity instead of regarding himself as the winner in the fight for independence of thought and action.  He could not deny the facts Contini alleged.  He had to admit that he was apparently in Del Ferice’s power, unless he appealed to his own people for assistance.  He was driven to acknowledge that he had made a great mistake.  But he could not altogether distrust himself and he fancied that after all, with a fair share of luck, he might prove a match for Ugo on the financier’s own ground.  He had learned to have confidence in his own powers and judgment, and as he walked away from the office every moment strengthened his determination to struggle on with such resources as he might be able to command, so long as there should be a possibility of action of any sort.  He felt, too, that more depended upon his success than the mere satisfaction of his vanity.  If he failed, he might lose Maria Consuelo as well as his self-respect:  He had that sensation, familiar enough to many young men when extremely in love, that in order to be loved in return one must succeed, and that a single failure endangers the stability of a passion which, if it be honest, has nothing to do with failure or success.  At Orsino’s age, and with his temper, it is hard to believe that pity is more closely akin to love than admiration.