"Your Eminence might easily have prevented the duel."
"I knew nothing about it," answered the Cardinal, glancing keenly at
Anastase.
"Nor I," said the artist, simply.
"You see my information is not always so good as people imagine, my friend."
"It is a pity," remarked Gouache. "It would have been better had poor Del
Ferice been killed outright. The matter would have terminated there."
"Whereas—"
"Whereas Del Ferice will naturally seek an occasion for revenge."
"You speak as though you were a friend of Don Giovanni's," said the
Cardinal.
"No; I have a very slight acquaintance with him. I admire him, he has such a fine head. I should be sorry if anything happened to him."
"Do you think Del Ferice is capable of murdering him?"