“Do you think the Pope so very ill, then?” asked Pierre, both anxious and interested.
The Count smiled and raised both arms: “Ah!” said he, “can one ever tell? They all get ill when their interest lies that way. However, I believe that the Pope is this time really indisposed; a complaint of the bowels, it is said; and at his age, you know, the slightest indisposition may prove fatal.”
The two men took a few steps in silence, then the priest again asked a question: “Would Cardinal Sanguinetti have a great chance if the Holy See were vacant?”
“A great chance! Ah! that’s another of those things which one never knows. The truth is people class Sanguinetti among the acceptable candidates, and if personal desire sufficed he would certainly be the next pope, for ambition consumes him to the ma
