It was with difficulty that Roma maintained her calmness while the Baron was speaking, but she only shook a stray lock of hair from her forehead, and sat silent.
"Well, the month is over. I have given you every opportunity to deal with our friend as you thought best. Have you found out anything about him?"
She put on a bold front and answered, "No."
"So your effort has failed?"
"Absolutely."
"Then you are likely to give up your plan of punishing the man for defaming and degrading you?"
"I have given it up already."
"Strange! Very strange! Very unfortunate also, for we are at this moment at a crisis when it is doubly important to the Government to possess the information you set out to find. Still, your idea was a good one, and I can never be sufficiently grateful to you for suggesting it. And although your efforts have failed, you need not be uneasy. You have given us the clues by which our efforts are succeeding, and you shall yet punish the man who insulted you so publicly and so grossly."
"How is it possible for me to punish him?"
"By identifying David Rossi as one who was condemned in contumacy for high treason sixteen years ago."