"May I be allowed a word, sir?"
"Speak."
"May it not well be, sir, that Don Silverio's organisation or
suggestion is underneath this insurrectionary movement of the young
men in the Valdedera?"
"It is possible; yes. See to it."
"Your servant, sir."
Sarelli withdrew, elated. He loved tracking, like a bloodhound, for
the sheer pleasure of the "cold foot chase." The official views both
layman and priest with contempt and aversion; both are equally his
prey, both equally his profit: he lives by them and on them, as the
galleruca does on the elm-tree, whose foliage it devours, but he
despises them because they are not officials, as the galleruca
doubtless, if it can think, despises the elm.