For some time all were silent and gazed with angry perplexity. When a man is ashamed he generally begins to get angry and is disposed to be cynical. By degrees a murmur arose in the audience.

“What’s the meaning of it?” a man who had come in from the refreshment-room muttered in one of the groups.

“It’s silly.”

“It’s something literary. It’s a criticism of the Voice .”

“What’s that to me?”

From another group:

“Asses!”

“No, they are not asses; it’s we who are the asses.”

“Why are you an ass?”