all
alike--_non tantum ovum ovo simile_--one egg is not more like another
than they are. _Non tali auxilio_--we want no such help. We ask for
bread, not for stones; we want men, not empty-headed dandies. We have
both at present; but if the Emperor fails us, we shall have too many
dandies and too few men--too few men like you, Don Giovanni. Instead of
armed battalions we shall have polite societies for mutual assurance
against political risks,--instead of the support of the greatest military
power in Europe, we shall have to rely on a parcel of young gentlemen
whose opinions are guided by Donna Tullia Mayer."

Giovanni laughed and glanced at his Eminence, who chose to refer all the
imminent disasters of the State to the lady whom he did not wish to see
married to his companion.

"Is her influence really so great?" asked Saracinesca, incredulously.

"She is agreeable, she is pretty, she is rich--her influence is a type of
the whole influence which is abroad in Rome--a reflection of the life of
Paris. There, at least, the women play a real part--very often a great
one: here, when they have got command of a drawing-room full of fops,
they do not know where to lead them; they change their minds twenty times
a-day; they have an access of religious enthusiasm in Advent, followed by
an attack of Liberal fever in Carnival, and their season is brought to
a fitting termination by the prostration which overtakes them in Lent. By
that time all their principles are upset, and they go to Paris for the
month of May--_pour se retremper dans les idees idealistes_, as they
express it. Do you think one could construct a party out of such
elements, especially when you reflect that this mass of uncertainty is
certain always to yield to the ultimate consideration of self-interest?
Half of them keep an Italian flag with the Papal one, ready to thrust
either of them out of the window as occasion may require. Good night,
Giovanni. I have talked enough, and all Rome will set upon you to find
out what secrets of State I have been confiding. You had better prepare
an answer, for you can hardly inform Donna Tullia and her set that I have
been calling them a parcel of--weak and ill-advised people. They might
take offence--they might even call me by bad names,--fancy how very
terribly that would afflict me! Good night, Giovanni--my greetings to
your father."

The Cardinal nodded, but did not offer his hand. He knew that Giovanni
hated to kiss his