Alberti is attacked at a Milanese salon

Alberti is attacked at a Milanese salon in a confrontation that makes his intellectual isolation visible: guests reproach him from sharply different positions, yet each treats his public religious arguments as grounds to judge his character. Still mourning Marcello Trento, he declines to defend himself, and his quiet refusal becomes the evening’s most consequential answer.

Background and Setting

Earlier that day, the hostess had hoped to see Alberti at breakfast; he arrives at half past nine in the evening, when she is alone with her unmarried daughter, about twenty-five. The hostess is surprised by his early arrival and fears he may leave early, contrary to her plans. She speaks courteously about the death that has troubled him, asking about the deceased, the villa, and the village. But Marcello is soon forgotten in the conversation. Moving from sympathy to teasing, she asks whether Praglia is far from Velo d’Astico, and Alberti blushes before he can answer.

Two women and two men join them. One woman is a young, beautiful Russian, Làlina, a theosophist mystic whose name has sometimes been linked with Alberti’s in Milanese conversation; she has shown him sympathy. The other is the older Swiss Miss Grüssli, a cool positivist who regards him as a bigot and reactionary. The men are a loud, flirtatious professor from Pavia and a younger, smaller political figure, more intellectually curious and more finely mannered than the professor. Alberti knows all four to some degree. The gathering therefore places him among people who know his public reputation, but interpret it through incompatible assumptions about religion and modern thought.

The Argument Over His Religious Position

A professor’s usual conversational bait—some eccentricity about love—has ceased to work, and this time he provokes a quarrel by suggesting that Russia should declare war on Switzerland over nihilist refugees. Miss Grüssli rebukes him sharply. The hostess then calls on Alberti to speak. His answer, that he has nothing to say and would maintain armed neutrality amid conflict, brings a brief, pointed quiet. The Russian agrees that the others will be against him, and the hostess smiles significantly; the professor notices these signs with satisfaction, as if the gathering has turned against Alberti.

Miss Grüssli explains that she has attended Alberti’s lectures on sixteenth-century heretics. She objects to his insistence that they should have remained silent and obedient, and says that the lectures displeased her and others. The professor distances himself from the dispute: as a positivist, he says he has no religious ideas and is indifferent to how heretics or Catholics are discussed, though he finds Catholic Intransigents the most logically consistent and therefore the most sympathetic. Grüssli counters that heretics, modernists, and papists may all seem alike to her, but that sincerity and moral dignity still matter.

Làlina makes the criticism more personal. Although she follows Annie Besant’s ideas, she says Alberti’s articles had once impressed her so much that she might have become Catholic if the Church had accepted the views he expressed there. She had imagined him as an apostle, steadfast in faith and ready for martyrdom. His lecture, she says, made her understand that he was not that kind of apostle: even a small, cold stake was not to his taste. Her rebuke connects his arguments about obedience to a disappointed expectation of courage, not merely to disagreement over doctrine.

Alberti’s Refusal to Defend Himself

As the professor jokes that Alberti is already burned and his ashes deserve respect, Alberti privately considers answering the women harshly, but does not. When the hostess asks why he will not defend himself, he replies that he fears persuading them. He says he has made a void around himself and finds solitude delightful; he has no need to defend himself, and fears that speech would produce words neither humble nor kind. The hostess insists that no one is asking for humility or kindness, only arguments. Alberti answers that he has heard no one ask him for reasoning.

The exchange clarifies the difference between being invited to debate and being genuinely heard. Alberti does not claim that the criticism is harmless: he recognizes that he might respond with anger. Rather, he refuses the social demand to turn a contested religious position into an impromptu performance. When the young hostess’s daughter asks whether he is silent because he has nothing to say, he laughs and says that she should be careful in future, since for now he has a muzzle. The joke keeps the exchange light on its surface while preserving his refusal.

Aftermath and Significance

When tea is served in another room, the hostess takes Alberti aside and tells him he has acted badly by not defending himself. She adds that the professor has made a great commotion against him, even at the school. Alberti dismisses the importance of this and returns to speak amiably with the two foreign women, while making no effort to be pleasant to the hostess’s daughter. The narrator distinguishes the women’s shortcomings from the daughter’s hostility: Grüssli and Làlina are described as unbalanced and insufficiently reflective for the roles they assume, but sincere and passionate about their ideas. The daughter’s opposition, by contrast, is presented as the presumption of someone whose social standing and apparent education exceed her actual understanding. Alberti is especially irritated by her because she professes disbelief in major religious claims yet still goes to Mass on Sundays; he avoids speaking to her for the rest of the evening.

On leaving, Alberti is accompanied into the street by the political man, who approves of his decision not to argue with the company. He then asks Alberti for a private, honest judgment about the future of the Church, using the image of Saint Peter’s boat and wondering whether it can continue under sail or must one day take a motor. The scene thus ends by contrasting the salon’s noisy, teasing accusations with a more serious request for counsel. Alberti has refused to defend himself before an audience that, in his view, did not truly ask for reasons; outside, one listener seeks the intimate answer the salon did not obtain.