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"I am afraid," she said; "that I disagree with
everybody."
"You always do, and the worst of it is that you
are always right," Riccardo put in.
"I think it is quite true that we must fight the
Jesuits somehow; and if we can't do it with one
weapon we must with another. But mere defiance
is a feeble weapon and evasion a cumbersome
one. As for petitioning, that is a child's toy."
"I hope, signora," Grassini interposed, with
a solemn face; "that you are not suggesting such
methods as--assassination?"
Martini tugged at his big moustache and Galli
sniggered outright. Even the grave young
woman could not repress a smile.
"Believe me," she said, "that if I were ferocious
enough to think of such things I should not be
childish enough to talk about them. But the
deadliest weapon I know is ridicule. If you can
once succeed in rendering the Jesuits ludicrous,
in making people laugh at them and their claims,
you have conquered them without bloodshed."
"I believe you are right, as far as that goes,"
Fabrizi said; "but I don't see how you are going
to carry the thing through.


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