He closed the door behind him.
"Damnation!" said Giovacchino Gallo; "that is a strong man! Is Mother Church blind that she lets such an one rust and rot in the miserable parish of Ruscino?"
When Don Silverio rejoined the Vicar of Sant Anselmo the latter asked him anxiously how his errand had sped.
"It was a waste of breath and words," he answered. "I might have known that it would be so with any Government official."
"But you might have put a spoke in Count Corradini's wheel. If you had told Gallo that the other is trafficking —"
"Why should I betray a man who received me in all good faith? And what good would it have accomplished if I had done so?"
And more weary than ever in mind and body he returned to Ruscino.
As he had left the Prefect's presence that eminent person had rung for his secretary.
"Brandone, send me Sarelli."
In a few moments Sarelli had appeared; he was the usher of the Prefecture by appointment; by taste and in addition he was its chief spy. He was a native of the city, and a person of considerable acumen and excellent memory; he never needed to make memoranda — there is nothing so dangerous to an official as written notes. "Sarelli, what are the reports concerning the vicar of Ruscino?"