The two turned back into the house and crossed the hall to the ambassador’s private library. Melville closed the door and regarded his companion a trifle quizzically. Sybert dropped into a chair, indicated another, and pushed a box of cigars and some matches across the table; then he looked up and caught Melville’s expression. ‘Well, what’s up?’ he asked again. The consul-general selected a cigar with some deliberation, bit off the end, and regarded it critically, while his smile broadened. ‘I have just returned from the mass meeting of the foreign residents,’ he remarked. ‘That should have been entertaining.’ ‘It was,’ he admitted. ‘There was some spirited discussion as to the best way of suppressing the riots.’ ‘And how did they decide to do it?’ ‘They have appointed a committee.’ ‘Of course a committee!’ Sybert laughed. ‘And what is the committee to do? Wait on the ministers and invite them to reconstruct their morals? Ask the King to spend a little less money on the soldiers’ uniforms and a little more on their rations?’ ‘The Committee,’ said Melville, ‘is to raise money for food, and to assist the government as far as possible in quieting the people and suppressing the agitators.’ ‘Ah!’ breathed Sybert. ‘And,’ he added, with his eye on the young man, ‘I have the honour of informing you that you were made chairman.’ ‘Oh, the devil!’ ‘This is not an official notification,’ he pursued blandly; ‘but I thought you’d like to hear the news.’ ‘Who’s at the bottom of this? Why, in heaven’s name, didn’t you stop them?’ ‘I couldn’t very well; I was chairman of the meeting.’ Sybert’s usual easy nonchalance had vanished. He rose to his feet and took one or two turns about the room. ‘I don’t see why I should be shoved into it—I wish some of these officious fools would go back home, where they belong. I won’t serve on any such committee; I’ll be hanged if I will! I’ll resign.’ ‘Nonsense, Sybert; you can’t do that. It would be too marked. People would think you had some reason for not wanting to serve. It was very natural that your name should have occurred for the position; you have lived in Rome longer than most of us, and are supposed to understand the conditions and to be interested in good government.’ ‘It puts me in a mighty queer position.’ ‘I don’t see why.’ The elder man’s tone had grown cool. ‘They naturally took it for granted that you, as well as the rest of us, would want to have the riots suppressed and choke off any latent tendencies toward revolution in this precious populace.’ ‘It was the work of a lot of damned busybodies who wanted to see what I would do.’ Melville suppressed a momentary smile. ‘However,’ he remarked, ‘I see no reason why you should be so reluctant about serving in a good cause—I don’t suppose you wish to see a revolution any more than the rest of us.’