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Selva was slightly perplexed; nevertheless he at once invited his guests to follow him, and conducted them to the terrace, where some chairs had been placed. "And Dane?" said he anxiously to Leynì, taking his arm, "And Professor Minucci, and Father Salvati." "They have arrived," the young man replied, smiling. "They are at the Aniene. I must tell you about it but it is a long story!
"These are very fine figures," said the Abbé Marinier with vehemence; "but you are all aware that similes are not arguments!" Don Clemente, standing in the corner between the door leading into the corridor and the window, and Professor Minucci, seated near him, began to speak at the same moment, but both stopped short; each wishing to allow the other to speak first.
His friend Leynì, who also thought these numerous petty cares should be set aside at such a moment, experienced an unpleasant sensation of coldness. Giovanni experienced the same sensation, but in a reflex manner, for he knew the impression that those present, who were strangers to them, must receive of Dane and perhaps also of Minucci. He himself knew them well.
Salvati was intractable, and It would be wiser to let Marinier carry away the impression that the plan was abandoned. Minucci guessed his motive, and was silent; but the thoughtless Don Paolo did not understand, and insisted that they should deliberate and vote at once. Selva, and di Leynì also out of respect for Giovanni's wishes persuaded him to wait.
The sky was overcast save just above the Francolano. There, over the great black mountain, two stars trembled; Minucci called di Leynì's attention to them. "See how those two little stars flash," said he. "Dante would say they are the 'little flames' of San Benedetto and Santa Scolastica, glittering because they perceive, in the shadow, a soul akin to theirs."
Andrea Minucci, in spite of his disordered fair hair, his spectacles, and a certain awkwardness in his movements, which gave him the appearance of a learned German, was a youthful and most ardent soul, tried in the fire of life, not sparkling on the surface like the soul of the Lombard, but enveloped in its own flame, severe, and, probably, stronger. Giovanni began speaking in a frank, open way.
Abbé Marinier asked permission to speak. "I am really very sorry," he said smiling, "but I have not brought even the smallest thread with which to bind myself. I also am one of those who see many things going wrong in the Church. "Exactly," thought Minucci, who had heard how ambitious Marinier was; "if you look for promotion, you must not join us;" and he added aloud: "Let us hear them."
Dane at once perceived an odour of damp woods, and the doors had to be closed again. An old petroleum lamp was burning on the writing-desk. Professor Minucci, who had weak eyes, asked timidly for a shade; which was looked for, found, and put in place. Don Paolo grumbled under his breath: "This is an infirmary!"
On the terrace of the restaurant, which faced the river, there was too much air, and in the small adjacent rooms there was too little, so he had ordered his repast served in a room at the hotel, and had sent the eggs back twice. Then the others had walked on, leaving him in the company of Professor Minucci and Father Salvati.
Dane, Selva, Don Clemente, and the other monk were silent and embarrassed, feeling especially the three ecclesiastics that Minucci had gone too far, that his words concerning the extent and intensity of faith, concerning the fear of Peter, were not weighed; that the whole tone of his discourse was too aggressive, and not in harmony with Dane's mystical exhortation, or with the language Selva had used in delineating the character of the proposed association.
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