They were invited to consider it, and to decide what action, if any, seemed called for.

[*Unbelievers.] He sat down without having risked his leadership by any statement of his own attitude.

He had simply reported facts that he believed to be true--facts that many of the notables plainly did not yet believe, or believed only in part.

There followed a perfect babel of argument, during which the servants passed the coffee and cakes around.

After that, during every interval between speeches there was more coffee and more cakes--wonderful cakes made with honey and almonds, immensely filling; but the more full an Arab gets of stodgy food the more his tongue wags, until at last he talks himself to sleep.
For ten minutes men were shouting their opinions to one another to and fro across the room.