"Yes ... no, that is impossible also."
"Why so, my child?"
"Because I don't know where he is, and I shouldn't know where to find him. In his last letter he said it was better I should not know."
"Then he has cut himself off from you entirely?"
"Entirely. I am to see him next in Rome."
"And meantime, that he may not run the risk of being traced by his enemies, he has stopped all channels of communication with his friends?"
"Yes."
The Pope's face whitened visibly, and an inward voice said to him, "This is God's hand. Death is waiting for the man in Rome, and he is walking blindly on to it."
The weary eyes looked with compassion on Roma's quivering face. "There's no help for it," thought the Pope.
"Suppose, my child ... suppose it were within your power to hinder evil consequences, would you do it?"