mmering:

"'He intends to visit Tuscany during the coming month on a mission of
reconciliation. He will preach first in Florence, where he will stay for
about three weeks; then will go on to Siena and Pisa, and return to the
Romagna by Pistoja. He ostensibly belongs to the liberal party in the
Church, and is a personal friend of the Pope and Cardinal Feretti. Under
Gregory he was out of favour, and was kept out of sight in a little
hole in the Apennines. Now he has come suddenly to the front. Really,
of course, he is as much pulled by Jesuit wires as any Sanfedist in the
country. This mission was suggested by some of the Jesuit fathers. He is
one of the most brilliant preachers in the Church, and as mischievous
in his way as Lambruschini himself. His business is to keep the popular
enthusiasm over the Pope from subsiding, and to occupy the public
attention until the Grand Duke has signed a project which the agents of
the Jesuits are preparing to lay before him. What this project is I have
been unable to discover.' Then, further on, it says: 'Whether Montanelli
understands for what purpose he is being sent to Tuscany, or whether
the Jesuits are playing on him, I cannot make out. He is either an
uncommonly clever knave, or the biggest ass that was ever foaled. The
odd thing is that, so far as I can discover, he neither takes bribes nor
keeps mistresses--the first time I ever came across such a thing.'"

He laid down the letter and sat looking at her with half-shut eyes,
waiting, apparently, for her to speak.

"Are you satisfied that your informant is correct in his facts?" she
asked after a moment.

"As to the irreproachable character of Monsignor M-mon-t-tan-nelli's
private life? No; but neither is he. As you will observe, he puts in the
s-s-saving clause: 'So far as I c-can discover----

"I was not speaking of that," she interposed coldly, "but of the part
about this mission."

"I can fully trust the writer. He is an old friend of mine--one of my
comrades of '43, and he is in a position which gives him exceptional
opportunities for finding out things of that kind."

"Some official at the Vatican," thought Gemma quickly. "So that's the
kind of connections you have? I guessed there was something of that
sort."

"This letter is, of course, a private one," the Gadfly went on; "and you
understand that the information is to be kept strictly to the members of
your committee."

"That hardly needs saying. Then about t