'Who, I say?'
'Most high lady, the very predestined man—no other. Would you still ask who? I had thought you more accomplished. Intrigue, like a statue, is not carved out with a single tool. The eyes, the ears, the lips, each demand their separate instrument. Dost thou seek to shape all with one? O, fie, fie!'
He shook his finger gaily at her. She sat, frowning, with her hands clenched before her; but she gave no answer.
'Why, I am but a tyro,' said the prince; 'yet could I teach thee, it seems, some first precepts in our craft—as thus: Use things most useful for their uses; employ not your dagger as a shoe-horn, or it may chance to cut your heel; an instrument hath its purpose and design; think not one password will unlock all camps; selection is the cream of policy—and so on.'
She started to her feet, in an instant resolution.
'I have the ring,' she said.
He bowed suavely. She stared at him.
'What then, Messer?'
'Why,' he said, 'only that, do you not think, it were safer in my hands than in yours?'
'Safer!' she cried in a suppressed voice; 'for whom?'