you with respect to
it."

"You come from London?"

"Yes, sir."

"You wish to speak to me?"

"I do."

"You may speak freely."

The young man glanced in the direction of Bruno and of Bruno's wife, who
stood beside him.

"It is a delicate matter, sir," he said.

"Come this way," said David Rossi, and he took the stranger into his
bedroom.

IV

David Rossi took his seat at the desk between the windows, and made a
sign to the man to take a chair that stood near.

"Your name is Charles Minghelli?" said David Rossi.

"Yes. I have come to propose a dangerous enterprise."

"What is it?"

"That somebody on behalf of the people should take the law into his own
hands."

The man had spoken with perfect calmness, and after a moment of silence
David Rossi replied as calmly:

"I will ask you to explain what you mean."

The man smiled, made a deferential gesture, and answered, "You will
permit me to speak plainly?"

"Certainly."

"Thanks! I have read your Creed and Charter. I have even signed my name
to it. It is beautiful as a theory--most beautiful! And the Republic of
Man is beautiful too. Beautiful!"

"Well?"

"But more beautiful than practical, dear sir, and the ideal thread that
runs through your plan will break the moment the rough world begins to
tug at it."

"I will ask you to be more precise," said David Rossi.

"With pleasure. You have called a meeting in the Coliseum to protest
against the bread-tax. What if the Government prohibits it? Your
principle of passive resistance will not permit you to rebel, and
without the right of public meeting your association is powerless. Then
where are you?"

David Rossi had taken up his paper-knife dagger and was drawing lines
with the point of it on the letter of introduction which now lay open on
the desk. The man saw the impression he had produced, and went on with
more vigour.

"If the Governments of the world deny you the right of meeting, where
are your weapons of warfare? On the one side armies on armies of men
marshalled and equipped with all the arts and engines of war; on the
other side a helpless multitude with their hands in their pockets, or
paying a penny a week subscription to the great association that is to
overcome by passive suffering the power of the combined treasuries of
the world!"

David Rossi had risen from his seat, and was walking backward and
forward with a step that was long and slow.