Indeed, though Monticelso acted shocked, he is actually bankrolling the assassination. Lodovico now recognizes the giant gap between Monticelso’s holier-than-thou exterior and his manipulative inner life. And tellingly, when Lodovico reaches for a metaphor for deception, he comes up with one that scorns women: the ultimate liar, in the count’s mind, is a woman who pretends to be chaste while secretly fantasizing about sex.