“Steady!”
Benedetto was silent.
“It appears to me, caro mio,” said the friend, turning his head alone towards his colleague, “that this promises to be the first time your eloquence has failed you. Here the model of the nihil respondit is taken very seriously.”
Benedetto shuddered, horrified at this allusion to the Divine Master, and the fear of seeming a presumptuous imitator. At that moment he ceased to feel his illness—the fever, the thirst, the heaviness of his head.
“Oh, no!” he exclaimed, “now I will answer! You say you are not Pilate. But the truth is that I am the least of Christ’s servants, because I have been unfaithful to Him, and you repeat to me Pilate’s very words:—Quid est veritas? Now you are not disposed to receive truth, as Pilate was not disposed to receive it.”
“Oh!” his interlocutor exclaimed. “And why not?”
His friend laughed noisily.
“Because,” Benedetto replied, “he who performs deeds of darkness is surrounded by darkness, and the light cannot reach him. You perform deeds of darkness. It is not difficult to understand; you are the Minister of the Interior—I know you by reputation. You were not born to perform deeds of darkness; there has been much light in some of your deeds, there is much light in your soul, much light of truth and of kindness; but at this moment you are performing a deed of darkness. I am here to-night because you have entered into a shameful bargain. You say you adore Truth, and you ask a brother if he possess Truth, while you hide the fact that you have already sold him!”
During Benedetto’s speech, the Minister’s friend—himself an Excellency, but of lower rank—had raised his head from the couch at last. He seemed to be only now beginning to consider the man and what he was saying worthy of attention. He also seemed amused at the lesson his chief had received. He admired his friend’s great genius, but scoffed in his heart at his passing fits of idealism. The chief was at first amazed; then he started to his feet, shouting like a madman:
“You are a liar! You are insolent! You do not deserve my kindness! I have not sold you, you are not worth anything; I will give you away! Go! Go away!”