Sovrani looked at him steadily.

“And I must refuse it, Monsignor!  If in private audience you wish to repeat the amazing falsehood you have just uttered respecting my daughter’s work—­I am afraid I should hardly keep my hands off you!  Believe me you are safest in company!”

Monsignor Gherardi paused a moment,—­then turned towards Sylvie.

“Contessa,” he said very deliberately.  “You can perhaps arrange this matter better than I can.  Florian Varillo is dead—­as I have told you; and for stating what I believe to be the truth regarding him I have been subjected to insult in your presence.  I have known you for many years and I knew your father before you,—­I have no wish to either distress or offend you,—­do you understand?  I am in your hands!”

Sylvie looked him full in the face.  “My husband will answer you, Monsignor,” she said.  “I am in his hands!” Gherardi turned as crimson as he had before been pale.  “Your husband!” He strode forward with a threatening movement—­then stopped short, as he confronted Aubrey Leigh.  “Your husband!  So!  You are married then!”—­ and he laughed fiercely—­“Married by the law, and excommunicated by the Church!  A pleasant position for the last of the Hermensteins!  Contessa, by your own act you have ruined the fortunes of your friends!  I would have held my peace at your will,—­but now all Rome shall know the truth!” “The truth according to the convenience of papal Rome?” queried Aubrey Leigh—­“The truth, as expounded to the Comtesse Hermenstein in your interview with her yesterday?”

Gherardi looked him over with superb indifference.

“My interview with the Comtesse Hermenstein was a private one”—­he said,—­“And if a spy was present, he must prove himself a spy.  And we of the Church do not accept a spy’s testimony!”

White with indignation Aubrey sprang forward,—­but Cyrillon Vergniaud restrained him.  “Patience!” he said in a low tone—­“Let him have his way for the moment—­it will then be my turn!”

“My word is law in Rome!”—­went on Gherardi—­“Whatsoever I choose to say will be confirmed and ratified by the greatest authority in the world—­the Pope!  I am ready to swear that Florian Varillo painted that picture,—­and the Pope is ready to believe it!  Who will admit such a masterpiece to be a woman’s work?  No one!  Each member of the house of Sovrani can bear witness to the fact that no one ever saw Angela Sovrani painting it!  But I know the whole story—­I was the last to see Florian Varillo before his death—­and he confessed the truth—­that he had worked for his betrothed wife in order to give her the greater fame!  So that he was not, and could not have been her assassin—­”

“Then her assassin must be found!” said Prince Pietro suddenly.  “And the owner of this sheath—­the sheath of the dagger with which she was stabbed—­must claim his property!” And holding up the sheath in question before Gherardi he continued—­