"You seem so anxious that there should be a duel, that I should almost be
tempted to invent an account of one, lest you should be too grievously
disappointed," returned the diplomatist.

"You know very well that no invention will be necessary," said the Duca,
pressing him, for his curiosity was roused.

"Well--as you please to consider it. Good night," replied the ambassador.
It had amused him to annoy Astrardente a little, and he left him with the
pleasant consciousness of having excited the inquisitive faculty of his
friend to its highest pitch, without giving it anything to feed upon.

Men who have to do with men, rather than with things, frequently take a
profound and seemingly cruel delight in playing upon the feelings and
petty vanities of their fellow-creatures. The habit is as strong with
them as the constant practice of conjuring becomes with a juggler; even
when he is not performing, he will for hours pass coins, perform little
tricks of sleight-of-hand with cards, or toss balls in the air in
marvellously rapid succession, unable to lay aside his profession even
for a day, because it has grown to be the only natural expression of
his faculties. With men whose business it is to understand other men,
it is the same. They cannot be in a man's company for a quarter of an
hour without attempting to discover the peculiar weaknesses of his
character--his vanities, his tastes, his vices, his curiosity, his love
of money or of reputation; so that the operation of such men's minds may
be compared to the process of auscultation--for their ears are always
upon their neighbours' hearts--and their conversation to the percutations
of a physician to ascertain the seat of disease in a pair of
consumptive lungs.

But, with all his failings, Astrardente was a man of considerable
acuteness of moral vision. He had made a shrewd guess at Saracinesca's
business, and had further gathered from a remark dropped by his
diplomatic friend, that if there was to be a duel at all, it would be
fought by Giovanni. As a matter of fact, the ambassador himself knew
nothing certainly concerning the matter, or it is possible that, for the
sake of observing the effect of the news upon the Duchessa, he would have
told the whole truth; for he had of course heard the current gossip
concerning Giovanni's passion for her, and the experiment would have been
too attractive and interesting to be missed. As it was, she had started
at the mention of Sa