He
looked away from Benedetto and listened. Benedetto grasped the back of
his chair that he might not be tempted to turn his back on him. The
other man roused himself; the angry light, which for a moment had died
down, blazed forth again in his eyes. He threw aside the newspaper which
he had held in his hand all the time, and bringing his fist down heavily
upon the table, he exclaimed:
"What are you doing? Do not dare to move!"
The two men looked at each other fixedly for a few seconds in silence,
one with a look of majestic authority, the other stern and forbidding.
The official continued violently:
"Shall I have you arrested here?"
Benedetto was still looking at him in silence; at length he answered:
"I am waiting. Do as you please."
An usher, who had knocked several times in vain, now appeared on
the threshold and bowed to the Commendatore without speaking. The
Commendatore answered at once: "I am coming," and, rising hastily,
left the room with a strange expression on his face, where anger was
disappearing, and obsequiousness was dawning.
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