A month afterwards Marshall announced that he intended to pay a
visit.
'I am going,' he said, 'to see Mazzini. Who will go with me?'
Clara and Madge were both eager to accompany him. Mrs Caffyn and Mrs
Marshall chose to stay at home.
'I shall ask Cohen to come with us,' said Marshall. 'He has never
seen Mazzini and would like to know him.' Cohen accordingly called
one Sunday evening, and the party went together to a dull, dark,
little house in a shabby street of small shops and furnished
apartments. When they knocked at Mazzini's door Marshall asked for
Mr --- for, even in England, Mazzini had an assumed name which was
always used when inquiries were made for him. They were shown
upstairs into a rather mean room, and found there a man, really about
forty, but looking older. He had dark hair growing away from his
forehead, dark moustache, dark beard and a singularly serious face.
It was not the face of a conspirator, but that of a saint, although
without that just perceptible touch of silliness which spoils the
faces of most saints. It was the face of a saint of the Reason, of a
man who could be ecstatic for rational ideals, rarest of all
endowments. It was the face, too, of one who knew no fear, or, if he
knew it, could crush it. He was once concealed by a poor woman whose
house was surrounded by Austrian soldiers watching for him. He was
determined that she should not be sacrificed, and, having disguised
himself a little, walked out into the street in broad daylight, went
up to the Austrian sentry, asked for a light for his cigar and
escaped. He was cordial in his reception of his visitors,
particularly of Clara, Madge and Cohen, whom he had not seen before.
'The English,' he said, after some preliminary conversation, 'are a
curious people. As a nation they are what they call practical and
have a contempt for ideas, but I have known some Englishmen who have
a religious belief in them, a nobler belief than I have found in any
other nation. There are English women, also, who have this faith,
and one or two are amongst my dearest friends.'
'I never,' said Marshall, 'quite comprehend you on this point. I
should say that we know as clearly as most folk what we want, and we
mean to have it.'
'That may be, but it is not Justice, as Justice which inspires you.
Those of you who have not enough, desire to have more, that is all.'