"All that is very good; but the thing can't be done, for I never get
hold of the keys, nor does my master ever let them out of his keeping;
day and night they sleep under his pillow."

"Well, then, there's another thing you may do, if so be you have made up
a mind to be a first-rate musician; if you haven't, I need not bother
myself with advising you."

"Have a mind, do you say? Ay, and to that degree that there is nothing I
wouldn't do, if it were possible anyhow, for sake of being able to play
music."

"Well, if that's the case, you have only to scrape away a little mortar
from the gate-post near the hinge, and I will give you, through that
opening, a pair of pincers and a hammer, with which you may by night
draw out the nails of the staple, and we can easily put that to rights
again, so that no one will ever suspect that the lock was opened. Once
shut up with you in your loft, or wherever you sleep, I will go to work
in such style that you will turn out even better than I said, to my own
personal advantage, and to the increase of your accomplishments. You
need not give yourself any concern about what we shall have to eat. I
will bring enough to last us both for more than a week, for I have
pupils who will not let me be pinched."

"As for that matter we are all right; for with what my master allows me,
and the leavings brought me by the slave-girls, we should have enough
for two more besides ourselves. Only bring the hammer and pincers, and I
will make an opening close to the hinge, through which you may pass them
in, and I will stop it up again with mud. I will take the fastenings out
of the lock, and even should it be necessary to give some loud knocks,
my master sleeps so far off from this gate, that it must be either a
miracle or our extraordinary ill luck if he hears them."

"Well, then, with the blessing of God, friend Luis, in two days from
this time you shall have everything necessary for the execution of your
laudable purpose. Meanwhile, take care not to eat such things as are apt
to make phlegm, for they do the voice no good, but a deal of harm."

"Nothing makes me so hoarse so much as wine, but I would not give it up
for all the voices above ground."

"Don't think I would have you do so; God forbid! Drink, Luis my boy,
drink; and much good may it do you, for wine drunk in measure never did
any one harm."

"I always drink in measure. I have a jug here that holds exactly three
pints and a half. The