"
And sitting down, he turned his dark face and gleaming eyes full on
his confrere, who with a shrug of his massive shoulders expressed in
his attitude a disdainful relinquishment of the whole business.
"You have not," pursued Moretti deliberately, "grasped anything like
the extent of this man Leigh's determination and indifference to
results. Please mark that last clause,--indifference to results. He
is apparently alone in the world,--he seems to have nothing to lose,
and no one to care whether he succeeds or fails;--a most dangerous
form of independence! And in his persistence and eloquence he is
actually stopping--yes, I repeat it,--stopping and putting a serious
check on the advancement of the Roman Catholic party. And of course
any check just now means to us a serious financial loss both in
England and America,--a deficit in Vatican revenues which will very
gravely incommode certain necessary measures now under the
consideration of His Holiness. I expected you to grasp the man and
hold him,--not by intimidation but by flattery."
"You think he is to be caught by so common a bait?" said Gherardi,
"Bah! He would see through it at once!"
"Maybe!" replied Moretti, "But perhaps not if it were administered
in the way I mean.
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