No ... she answered thoughtfully. We mustn't speak so loudly. Cardinal Vaini can't be rich, nor the Duchess d'Aquilanera.
But they're all intellectual?
The Princess d'Espoli isn't intellectual.
Then what have they in common?
Oh, they haven't anything in common, except ... except that they despise most people, you and me and my father and so on. They've each got one thing, some great gift and that binds them together.
Do you believe that they work together and plan trouble here and there?
The girl's forehead wrinkled and she reddened slightly. No, I don't think they mean to, she said softly.
But they do? I insisted.
Well, they sit over there in Tivoli and talk about us and somehow, without knowing it, they then do something.
How many of them do you know?