PRINCE.
What, then, will they believe? You shrug your shoulders. They will suppose Angelo the tool and me the prime mover.
MARINELLI (still more coldly).
Probable enough!
PRINCE.
Me! me, myself!--or from this hour I must resign all hopes of Emilia.
MARINELLI (in a tone of perfect indifference).
Which you must also have done, had the Count lived.
PRINCE (violently).
Marinelli!--(checking his warmth)--But you shall not rouse my anger. Be it so. It is so. You mean to imply that the Count's death is fortunate for me;--the best thing which could have happened--the only circumstance which could bring my passion to a happy issue--and, therefore, no matter how it happened. A Count more or less in the world is of little consequence. Am I right?--I am not alarmed at a little crime; but it must be a secret little crime, a serviceable little crime. But ours has not been either secret or serviceable. It has opened a passage only to close it again. Every one will lay it to our door. And, after all, we have not perpetrated it at all. This can only be the result of your wise and wonderful management.