She was answering with an affirmative, when Agostino broke in,--

"Camilla! And honour to whom honour is due! Let Caesar claim the
writing of the libretto, if it be Caesar's! It has passed the
censorship, signed Agostino Balderini--a disaffected person out of
Piedmont, rendered tame and fangless by a rigorous imprisonment. The
sources of the tale, O ye grave Signori Tedeschi? The sources are partly
to be traced to a neat little French vaudeville, very sparkling--Camille,
or the Husband Asserted; and again to a certain Chronicle that may be
mediaeval, may be modern, and is just, as the great Shakespeare would
say, 'as you like it.'"

Agostino recited some mock verses, burlesquing the ordinary libretti, and
provoked loud laughter from Carlo Ammiani, who was familiar enough with
the run of their nonsense.

"Camilla is the bride of Camillo. I give to her all the brains, which is
a modern idea, quite! He does all the mischief, which is possibly
mediaeval. They have both an enemy, which is mediaeval and modern. None
of them know exactly what they are about; so there you have the modern,
the mediaeval, and the antique, all in one. Finally, my friends, Camilla
is something for you to digest at leisure. The censorship swallowed it
at a gulp. Never was bait so handsomely taken! At present I have the
joy of playing my fish. On the night of the fifteenth I land him.
Camilla has a mother. Do you see? That mother is reported, is generally
conceived, as dead. Do you see further? Camilla's first song treats of
a dream she has had of that mother. Our signorina shall not be troubled
to favour you with a taste of it, or, by Bacchus and his Indian nymphs, I
should speedily behold you jumping like peas in a pan, like trout on a
bank! The earth would be hot under you, verily! As I was remarking, or