were dead, monsieur, and Beethoven had composed the mass, I would not
have failed to attend the performance."

This retort put an end to the tactics of those who wanted to set
Gambara off on his high horse to amuse the new guest. Andrea was
already conscious of an unwillingness to expose so noble and pathetic
a mania as a spectacle for so much vulgar shrewdness. It was with no
base reservation that he kept up a desultory conversation, in the
course of which Signor Giardini's nose not infrequently interposed
between two remarks. Whenever Gambara uttered some elegant repartee or
some paradoxical aphorism, the cook put his head forward, to glance
with pity at the musician and with meaning at the Count, muttering in
his ear, "_E matto_!"

Then came a moment when the _chef_ interrupted the flow of his
judicial observations to devote himself to the second course, which he
considered highly important. During his absence, which was brief,
Gambara leaned across to address Andrea.

"Our worthy host," said he, in an undertone, "threatens to regale us
to-day with a dish of his own concocting, which I recommend you to
avoid, though his wife has had an eye on him. The good man has a mania
for innovations. He ruined himself by experiments, the last of which
compelled him to fly from Rome without a passport--a circumstance he
does not talk about. After purchasing the good-will of a popular
restaurant he was trusted to prepare a banquet given by a lately made
Cardinal, whose household was not yet complete. Giardini fancied he
had an opportunity for distinguishing himself--and he succeeded! for
that same evening he was accused of trying to poison the whole
conclave, and was obliged to leave Rome and Italy without waiting to