“Perhaps that might be interesting, but I think I shall reserve it for my autobiography.  You said you were connected with the press.  Do I understand that you are an author?”

By this time the Interviewer had come to the conclusion that it was a very warm day.  He did not seem to be getting hold of his pitcher by the right handle, somehow.  But he could not help answering Maurice’s very simple question.

“If writing for a newspaper gives one a right to be called an author, I may call myself one.  I write for the “People’s Perennial and Household Inquisitor.”

“Are you the literary critic of that well-known journal, or do you manage the political column?”

“I am a correspondent from different places and on various matters of interest.”

“Places you have been to, and people you have known?”

“Well, yes,-generally, that is.  Sometimes I have to compile my articles.”

“Did you write the letter from Rome, published a few weeks ago?”

The Interviewer was in what he would call a tight place.  However, he had found that his man was too much for him, and saw that the best thing he could do was to submit to be interviewed himself.  He thought that he should be able to pick up something or other which he could work into his report of his visit.

“Well, I—­prepared that article for our columns.  You know one does not have to see everything he describes.  You found it accurate, I hope, in its descriptions?”

“Yes, Murray is generally accurate.  Sometimes he makes mistakes, but I can’t say how far you have copied them.  You got the Ponte Molle—­the old Milvian bridge—­a good deal too far down the stream, if I remember.  I happened to notice that, but I did not read the article carefully.  May I ask whether you propose to do me the honor of reporting this visit and the conversation we have had, for the columns of the newspaper with which you are connected?”

The Interviewer thought he saw an opening.  “If you have no objections,” he said, “I should like very much to ask a few questions.”  He was recovering his professional audacity.

“You can ask as many questions as you consider proper and discreet, —­after you have answered one or two of mine:  Who commissioned you to submit me to examination?”

“The curiosity of the public wishes to be gratified, and I am the humble agent of its investigations.”

“What has the public to do with my private affairs?”

“I suppose it is a question of majority and minority.  That settles everything in this country.  You are a minority of one opposed to a large number of curious people that form a majority against you.  That is the way I’ve heard the chief put it.”