However, all at once Monsignor Nani remarked: “But, my dear son, you tell me nothing of his Eminence Cardinal Sanguinetti.”
“The fact is, Monseigneur, that his Eminence is at Frascati, so I have been unable to see him.”
Thereupon the prelate, as if once more postponing the denouement with the secret enjoyment of an artistic diplomate, began to protest, raising his little plump hands with the anxious air of a man who considers everything lost: “Oh! but you must see his Eminence; it is absolutely necessary! Think of it! The Prefect of the Index! We can only act after your visit to him, for as you have not seen him it is as if you had seen nobody. Go, go to Frascati, my dear son.”
And thereupon Pierre could only bow and reply: “I will go, Monseigneur.”
XI.
ALTHOUGH Pierre knew that he wo
