ring of the entertainment.

He had now, with the sharp glance of a military commander, arranged his
plan of battle, and felt perfectly sure of victory. He therefore rang
for a servant, and commanded the attendance of the chief cook in the
cabinet of the major-domo. Then with a gentlemanlike listlessness he
threw himself upon the divan and began to sip his coffee with the exact
dignified deportment that had been displayed by his excellency the
cardinal.

"Signor Gianettino," said he, to the entering cook, "I propose honoring
you to-day with a very important and significant affair. I wish, on the
day after to-morrow, to prepare an entertainment which in splendor and
magnificence shall surpass anything hitherto seen. You know that the
major-domos of the other diplomatists have become my irreconcilable
enemies through envy; they cannot forgive me for having more inventive
faculties and better taste than any of them! We must bring these
major-domos to despair, and with a gnashing of teeth they shall
acknowledge that in all things I am their master. You, however, must
aid me in this great work; in your hands, Signor Gianettino, lies a
considerable part of my triumph and my laurels. For what does it help
me, if the arrangements and decorations, if the whole establishment,
are excellent, should there be a failure in the highest and most sublime
part of the entertainment--in the food. The food, my dear sir, and a
well-ordered table, is the gist of a festival, and should there be the
least failure in that, the whole is profaned and desecrated, and must
be covered with a mourning-veil. Take my words to heart, signor; let
us have a table covered with food the mere odor of which shall set our
first gourmets in ecstatic astonishment, while its judicious arrangement
will give pleasure to the poetic mind! This is what I expect of you, and
if you succeed in satisfying my requirements, I am ready to reward your
exertions with fifty bottles of our best French wines."

Signor Gianettino returned his thanks with a pleasant, thoughtful smile,
and with a majestic step repaired to his boudoir, where he was seen for
a long time, walking back and forth in deep thought and with a wrinkled
brow. Then, stepping to his writing-table, he sketched the plan of this
inordinately great dinner, at first slowly and thoughtfully, and then
with constantly more and more fire and enthusiasm, carried away by the
greatness of the occasion, and animated by the