"I serve the Church, Mr. Leigh!" he said proudly. "And in that high
service all means are permitted to us for a righteous end!"
"Ah!--the old Jesuitical hypocrisy!" And Aubrey smiled bitterly.
"Lies are permitted in the Cause of Truth! One word, Monsignor! I
have no wish to play at any game of double-dealing with you. I have
heard the whole of your interview with this lady. It is the first
time I have ever played the eavesdropper--but my duty was to protect
my promised wife, if she needed protection--and I thought it was
possible she might need it--from YOU!"
Gherardi turned a livid paleness, and drew a quick breath.
"I know your moves," went on Aubrey quietly, "and it will be my
business as well as my pleasure to frustrate them. Moreover, I shall
give your plot into the care of the public press--"
"You will not dare!" cried Gherardi fiercely. "But--after all, what
matter if you do!--no one will believe you!"
"Not in Rome, perhaps," returned Aubrey coolly. "But in England,--in
America,--things are different. There are many honest men who
dislike to contemplate even a distant vision of the talons of Rome
hovering over us--we look upon such mischief as a sign of decay,--
for only where the carcasses of nations lie, does the vulture hover!
We are not dead yet! And now, Monsignor,--as your interview with the
Countess is ended--an interview to which I have been a witness--may
I suggest the removal of your presence? You have made a proposition-
-she has rejected it--the matter is ended!"
Civilly calm and cold he stood, holding Sylvie close to him with one
embracing arm, and Gherardi, looking at the two together thus,
impotently wished that the heavy sculptured and painted ceiling
above them might fall and crush them into a pulp before him.
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