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!" He looked for the button of the electric bell, and not finding it in the blindness of his rage, he shrieked: "Usher! Usher!" The Under-Secretary of State, who was used to these scenes--they were nothing worse than "fires of straw," for the Minister had a heart of gold--at first laughed in his sleeve.

When, however, he heard his friend call the usher in that tone, knowing well the indiscretion of ushers and how much dangerous gossip might arise from this incident, reflecting ridicule also on himself, he resolutely restrained the Minister, almost commanding him to calm himself.

Then he said sharply to Benedetto: "Go, at once!" The Minister began to walk up and down the room in silence, his head bowed, with short, hurried steps, struggling to conquer the child in him, which would have liked to stamp its feet.
Benedetto did not obey.

Erect and severe, glowing with the invisible rays of a dominating spirit, which kept the Under-Secretary of State at a distance, he forced the other, through this magnetic power, to turn towards him, to stop and to look him in the face.
"_Signor Ministro_," he said.