"If you were in earnest I might be willing to tell you what the secret is, but for a mere jest I cannot.

It is far too serious a matter." His tone convinced Donna Tullia that he really possessed some weapon which he could use against Don Giovanni if he pleased.

She wondered only why, if it were true, he did not use it, seeing that he must hate Saracinesca with all his heart.

Del Ferice knew so much about people, so many strange and forgotten stories, he had so accurate a memory and so acute an intelligence, that it was by no means impossible that he was in possession of some secret connected with the Saracinesca.

They were, or were thought to be, wild, unruly men, both father and son; there were endless stories about them both; and there was nothing more likely than that, in his numerous absences from home, Giovanni had at one time or another figured in some romantic affair, which he would be sorry to have had generally known.