And Orsino himself had changed, as was natural enough.  He was learning to seem what he was not, and those who have learned that lesson know how it influences the real man whom no one can judge but himself.  So long as there had been one person in his life with whom he could live in perfect sympathy he had given himself little trouble about his outward behaviour.  So long as he had felt that, come what might, his mother was on his side, he had not thought it worth his while not to be natural with every one, according to his humour.  He was wrong, no doubt, in fancying that Corona had deserted him.  But he had already suffered a loss, in Maria Consuelo, which had at the time seemed the greatest conceivable, and the pain he had suffered then, together with, the deep though, unacknowledged wound to his vanity, had predisposed him to believe that he was destined to be friendless.  The consequence was that a very slight break in the perfect understanding which had so long existed between him and his mother had produced serious results.  He now felt that he was completely alone, and like most lonely men of sound character he acquired the habit of keeping his troubles entirely to himself, while affecting an almost unnaturally quiet and equable manner with those around him.  On the whole, he found that his life was easier when he lived it on this principle.  He found that he was more careful in his actions since he had a part to sustain, and that his opinion carried more weight since he expressed it more cautiously and seemed less liable to fluctuations of mood and temper.  The change in his character was more apparent than real, perhaps, as changes of character generally are when not in the way of logical development; but the constant thought of appearances reacts upon the inner nature in the end, and much which at first is only put on, becomes a habit next, and ends by taking the place of an impulse.

Orsino was aware that his chief preoccupation was identical with that which absorbed his mother’s thoughts.  He wished to free himself from the business in which he was so deeply involved, and which still prospered so strangely in spite of the general ruin.  But here the community of ideas ended.  He wished to free himself in his own way, without humiliating himself by going to his father for help.  Meanwhile, too, Sant’ Ilario himself had his doubts concerning his own judgment.  It was inconceivable to him that Del Ferice could be losing money to oblige Orsino, and if he had desired to ruin him he could have done so with ease a hundred times in the past months.  It might be, he said to himself, that Orsino had after all, a surprising genius for affairs and had weathered the storm in the face of tremendous difficulties.  Orsino saw the belief growing in his father’s mind, and the certainty that it was there did not dispose him to throw up the fight and acknowledge himself beaten.