"So much the better, my lord, I could not present myself to you at a more favourable juncture; my triumph will be great."
"Listen, my dear friend, I cannot tell you if it is the influence of your name, or the learned and exalted manner with which you speak of your art, which gives me confidence in you, in spite of myself; but I experience, I will not say, a desire to eat, because I would challenge you to make me swallow the wing of an ortolan; but indeed I experience, in hearing you reason upon cooking, a pleasure which makes me hope that perhaps, later, if appetite returns to me, I--"
"My lord, pardon me if I interrupt you; you have a kitchen here?"
"Certainly, with every appointment. A fire has just been kindled there to keep warm what was brought already prepared from Chevet, but, alas! utterly useless."
"But what is the good of this breakfast, my dear friend? Go, believe me, and do not compromise a talent in which I am pleased to believe, by engaging in a foolish, impossible undertaking."
"To make you eat an excellent breakfast, sir, which will predispose you for a still better dinner."
"That is folly, I tell you; you are mad."
"I am, sir, perhaps," replied the cook, with a strange smile.
"Very well, bear then the penalty of your own pride," cried Dom Diégo, ringing violently. "If you are instantly overwhelmed with humiliation, and are compelled to confess the impotence of your art, it is you who would have it. Take care, take care."
"You will eat, my lord," replied the artist, in a professional tone; "yes, you will eat, and much, and deliciously."
At the moment the cook pronounced these rash words the majordomo, called by the sound of the bell, entered.
"Pablo," said the canon, "open the kitchen to this man, and lay a cover for me. Justice must be done."
"Do as I tell you, conduct M. Appetite to the kitchen, and if he has need of help, let some one help him."
"I have need of no one, sir, I am accustomed to work alone in my laboratory. I ask of you permission to shut myself in."
"Have all that you wish, my dear friend, but may I be for ever damned for my sins if I swallow a mouthful of what you are going to serve me. I understand myself, I think, and there is really an overweening pride in you--"