Then he laid down the documents and looked at Don Silverio from over his spectacles.
"I conclude, most reverend, that you come empowered by this young man to treat with us?"
"I venture, sir," replied Don Silverio respectfully, "to remind you again that it is impossible I should be so empowered, since Adone Alba was ignorant of the reason for which he was summoned here."
Corradini shuffled his documents nervously with some irritation.
"This conference, then, is a mere waste of time? I hold council to-day —"
"Pardon me, your Excellency," said Don Silverio blandly. "It will not be a waste of time if you will allow me to lay before you certain facts, and, first, to ask you one question: Who is, or are, the buyer or buyers of this land?"
The question was evidently unwelcome to the Syndic; it was direct, which every Italian considers ill-bred, and it was awkward to answer. He was troubled for personal reasons, and the calm and searching gaze of the priest's dark eyes embarrassed him. After all, he thought, it would have been better to deal with the boor himself.
"Why do you ask that?" he said irritably. "You are aware that the National Society for the Improvement of Land and the foreign company of the Teramo-Tronto Electric Railway combine in these projected works?"
"To which of these two societies, then, is Adone Alba, or am I, as his locum tenens, to address ourselves?"
"To neither. This commune deals with you."