What an unmannerly ecclesiastic! thought Corradini; for indeed, put thus bluntly and crudely what the commune, as represented by himself, was doing did not look as entirely correct as could be desired.
"I was in Rome, most illustrious," said Don Silverio, "in connection with this matter some months ago?"
"In Rome?"
To hear this was unpleasant to the Syndic; it ha never occurred to him that his rural, illiterate, and sparsely populated district would have contained any person educated enough to think of inquiring in Rome about this local matter.
"To Rome! Why did you go to Rome?"
"To acquire information concerning this scheme."
"You are an owner of land?"
"No, sir. I am a poor, very poor, priest."
"It cannot concern you, then."
"It concerns my people. Nothing which concerns them is alien to me."