He approached Selva to bid him good-night, his hand extended. At once the entire company, with the exception of Don Paolo and Minucci, gathered round him, urging him to remain. He insisted quietly, checking his over-zealous assailants with a cold smile, a delicately sarcastic phrase, or a graceful gesture. Di Leyni turned to Fare, motioning to him to join the others; but the fiery Don Paolo responded only by an emphatic shrug and a scowl of irritation. In the meantime, a Tuscan voice was heard above the clamour of Marinier's assailants.
"Stia bono!" it said. "As yet nothing has been decided! Wait! I have not yet spoken!"
The speaker was Father Salvati, a Scolopio, and an old man with snowy hair, a florid complexion, and bright eyes.
"Nothing has as yet been decided," he repeated. "I, for one, approve of uniting, but I have one special end in view, while the discourses I have heard seem to me to favour a very different end. Intellectual progress is good, renovation of the formulas according to the spirit of the times is also good, a Catholic reform is excellent. I hold with Rafaello Lambruschini, who was a great man; with the 'Pensieri di un solitario'; but it appears to me that Professor Minucci is advocating a reform of an eminently intellectual nattire, and that "
Here Dane lifted his small, white, refined hand.
"Allow me, Father," he said. "My dear friend Marinier sees that the discussion is reopened. I beg him to resume his seat."