He hurried into the house and met Silvio in the little passage outside his study.
"Am I an unwelcome guest?" Silvio said to him, quickly. "I hope not, because—"
"You are always welcome," interrupted Don Agostino, "but—well, to tell you the truth, Silvio, I am not sure that I am very pleased to see you. But if I am not pleased, it is on your own account, not on mine. May one ask what has brought you here so unexpectedly, ragazzo mio?"
Silvio took a crumpled newspaper out of his pocket—the number of the Tribuna that his father had shown him the night before.
"That," he replied, briefly, handing the paper to Don Agostino, and pointing to the telegram dated from Montefiano.
Don Agostino read it. Then he uttered an exclamation of anger.
"Idiots!" he exclaimed; "idiots, and cowards, too! This is the Abbé Roux's doing, of course. Well, it is another blunder, an irremediable blunder. In two or three hours' time the report will be all over Montefiano that troops have been sent for. The afternoon post will bring the Tribuna—" He paused in evident agitation.
"I could not remain quietly in Rome after reading that," said Silvio. "So I took the morning train, and here I am. At first I could not understand what it all meant; for Bianca, though she mentioned that there was some trouble with the people because the Abbé Roux had persuaded her step-mother to dismiss the fattore, certainly did not write as if it was anything serious. All the same, I was uneasy, for one never knows what a small matter of this kind may not develop into. But Ernana, to whom I have been talking while waiting for you, has given me to understand that it is by no means a small matter, but that the people are really angry and threatening to force their way into the castle."
Don Agostino nodded. "Ernana is right," he said; "it is not a small thing. I fear, directly this telegram in the Tribuna becomes known, that it will speedily become a very much bigger thing."
"Then I am doubly glad that I am here," observed Silvio, quietly.