Don Agostino laughed. "Not quite a cardinal," he replied, "but somebody very near to a cardinal."
"Do you mean the man who was with Baron d'Antin—the young man?" asked Silvio.
"Precisely," returned Don Agostino. "He is not quite so young as he looks, however," he continued. "In fact, he must be certainly ten or twelve years older. Do you know him, Silvio?"
"By sight, yes. I do not know who he is, but one sees him in the world here in Rome—sometimes with English people—old ladies with odd things on their heads, and their daughters who walk like carabinieri pushing their way through a crowd. Diamine, but how they walk, the English girls! Everything moves at once—arms, shoulders, hips—everything! It is certainly not graceful."
"Never mind the English girls, Silvio, since you are not going to marry one," interrupted Giacinta. "Who is Baron d'Antin's friend, monsignore?" she added.
Don Agostino hesitated. "His name is Peretti," he replied, "the Commendatore Peretti. He is very intimate with the cardinal secretary of state. Some people say that he supplies his eminence with useful information which he acquires in the world outside the Vatican. He gives Italian lessons, I am told, to Silvio's English ladies; also to members of the embassies to the king."
"A spy, in fact," observed Silvio.
Don Agostino shrugged his shoulders. "Mah!" he ejaculated. "In any case," he continued, "I did not particularly wish to be seen by him, for it would at once be known at the Vatican that I had been in Rome in your and your father's company, and—well, the less quelli signori of the Vatican interest themselves in your affairs, Silvio, the better for you. For me it does not matter."
"It seems to me that it has mattered very much," growled the professor.
"And you think he did not see you?" said Silvio. "Ah, but you are mistaken, Don Agostino. He did see you, and he pointed you out to Baron d'Antin; and the baron saw me, too."