wisp--and if we understand our business, manage to hack the lumpy dough
of heavy sorrow into little pieces, which even a princely stomach can
digest."

"A coughing fool can do that too, so long as there is nothing wanting in
his upper story."

"You are mistaken, indeed you are. Great lords only wish to see the
velvet side of life--of death's doings, nothing at all. A man like me--
do you hear--a cougher, whose marrow is being consumed--incarnate misery
on two tottering legs--a piteous figure, whom one can no more imagine
outside the grave, than a sportsman without a terrier, or hound--such a
person calls into the ears of the ostrich, that shuts its eyes: 'Death
is pointing at you! Affliction is coming!' It is my duty to draw a
curtain between my lord and sorrow; instead of that, my own person brings
incarnate suffering before his eyes. The elector was as wise as if he
were his own fool, when he turned me out of the house."

"He graciously gave you leave of absence."

"And Gugelkopf is already installed in the palace as my successor! My
gracious master knows that he won't have to pay the pension long. He
would willingly have supported me up yonder till I died; but my wish to
go to Genoa suited him exactly. The more distance there is between his
healthy highness and the miserable invalid, the better."

"Why didn't you wait till spring, before taking your departure?"

"Because Genoa is a hot-house, that the poor consumptive does not need
in summer. It is pleasant to be there in winter. I learned that three