st exquisite Giambava wine was to be had.

The flutist from Udine of course went to the theatres, and by his means
some of the others went _gratis_ from time to time, but always to the
play, and usually either to the Rossini or Gerbino theatres. For Franco
to be obliged to pass the posters at the Regio and the other opera
houses was a far greater trial than to be obliged to clean his own boots
and lunch off two square inches of omelet that was so thin it would have
served admirably to observe the spots on the sun through. He had had the
good fortune to make the acquaintance of a certain C., a Venetian, who
was secretary at the department of Public Works, and who presented him
to the family of a most distinguished major in the sanitary corps, also
Venetian, and who owned a piano and was in the habit of receiving a few
friends of an evening, on which occasions he would regale them with a
cup of most excellent coffee of a quality almost unique in the Turin of
those days. When, for one reason or another, the "seven wise men" did
not spend the evening together, Franco would go to this gentleman's
house in Piazza Milano, to make music, to converse on art with the
daughters, or to discuss politics with his hostess, a fierce Venetian
patriot, a woman of great talents, and possessed of a strenuous soul,
who had not only borne heroically all the hardships and the bitterness
of exile, but had sustained the courage of her husband, whose first
steps had been most painful and difficult; for those precious, honest
old numskulls of the inflexible Piedmontese administration had actually
obliged this already famous professor of the University of Padua to
submit to an examination, before they would admit him into the army as
surgeon.[O]

The correspondence between Turin and Oria did not indeed reflect the
true state of mind of Franco and Luisa; it ran on smoothly and
affectionately enough, but with great caution and reserve on either
side. Luisa had expected that Franco would answer her note, and resume
the great discussion. As he never mentioned either the note or what had
passed between them that last night, she risked an allusion. It was
allowed to pass unheeded. As a matter of fact Franco had several times
started to write with the intention of confuting his wife's opinions.
Before beginning he always felt himself strong, and was convinced that
with a little thought he could easily discover crushing arguments, and,
indeed, arguments