"Oh! oh! oh!"
Roma had leapt up and was moving about the room. Her lips were
compressed with scorn, her eyes were flashing, and she burst into a
torrent of words, which spluttered out of her quivering lips.
"Oh, to think of it! To think of it! You are right! The man who spends
his life looking for crime must have the soul of a criminal! He has no
conscience, no humanity, no mercy, no pity. And when he has tracked and
dogged a man to his mother's grave--his mother's grave--he can dine,
he can laugh, he can go to the theatre! Oh, I hate you! There, I've
told you! Now, do with me as you please!"
The death-like rigidity in the Baron's face decomposed into an expression
of intense pain, but he only passed his hand over his brow, and said,
after a moment of silence:
"My child, you are not only offending me, you are offending the theory
and principle of Justice. Justice has nothing to do with pity. In the
vocabulary of Justice there is but one word--duty. Duty called upon me
to fix this man's name upon him, that his obstructions, his slanders,
and his evil influence might be at an end. And now Justice calls upon
you to do the same."
The Baron leaned against the stove, and spoke in a calm voice, while
Roma in her agitation continued to walk about the room.
"Being a Deputy, and Parliament being in session, David Rossi can only
be arrested by the authorisation of the Chamber. In order to obtain that
authorisation, it is necessary that the Attorney-General should draw up
a statement of the case. The statement must be presented by the
Attorney-General to the Government, by the Government to the President,
by the President to a Committee, and by the Committee to Parliament.
Towards this statement the police have already obtained important
testimony, and a complete chain of circumstantial evidence has been
prepared. But they lack one link of positive proof, and until that link
is obtained the Attorney-General is unable to proceed. It is the
keystone of the arch, the central fact, without which all other facts
fall to pieces--the testimony of somebody who can swear, if need be,
that she knew both David Leone and David Rossi, and can identify the one
with the other."
"Well?"
The Baron, who had stopped, continued in a calm voice: "My dear Roma,
need I go on? Dead as a Minister is to all sensibility, I had hoped to
spare you. There is only one person known to me who can supply that
link. That person is yourself."