ept when the case was urgent, and Saracinesca knew perfectly
well that it would be hard to prove anything more serious against Del
Ferice than the crime of joining in the silly talk of Valdarno and his
set. Giovanni had told his father plainly that he was sure Del Ferice
derived his living from some illicit source, but he was wholly unable to
show what that source was. Most people believed the story that Del Ferice
had inherited money from an obscure relative; most people thought he was
clever and astute, but were so far deceived by his frank and unaffected
manner as to feel sure that he always said everything that came into his
head; most people are so much delighted when an unusually clever man
deigns to talk to them, that they cannot, for vanity's sake, suspect him
of deceiving them. Saracinesca did not doubt that the mere statement of
his own belief in regard to Del Ferice would have considerable weight
with the Cardinal, for he was used to power of a certain kind, and was
accustomed to see his judgment treated with deference; but he knew the
Cardinal to be a cautious man, hating despotic measures, because by his
use of them he had made himself so bitterly hated--loth always to do by
force what might be accomplished by skill, and in the end far more likely
to attempt the conversion of Del Ferice to the reactionary view, than to
order his expulsion because his views were over liberal. Even if old
Saracinesca had possessed a vastly greater diplomatic instinct than he
did, coupled with an unscrupulous mendacity which he certainly had not,
he would have found it hard to persuade the Cardinal against his will;
but Saracinesca was, of all men, a man violent in action and averse to
reflection before or after the fact. That he should ultimately be
revenged upon Del Ferice and Donna Tullia for the part they had lately
played, was a matter which it never entered his head to doubt; but when
he endeavoured to find means which should persuade the Cardinal to assist
him, he seemed fenced in on all sides by impossibilities. One thing only
helped him--namely, the conviction that if the statesman could be induced
to examine Del Ferice's conduct seriously, the latter would prove to be
not only an enemy to the State, but a bitter enemy to the Cardinal
himself.

The more Saracinesca thought of the matter, the more convinced he was
that he should go boldly to the Cardinal and state his belief that Del
Ferice was a dangerous traitor, who