Emilio and Vendramin together--for these three
understood each other by means of Italian glances, by turns arch and
keen, or veiled and sidelong--the physician at last discerned part of
the truth. An earnest entreaty from the Duchess had prompted Vendramin's
suggestion to Emilio, for Massimilla had begun to suspect the misery
endured by her lover in that cold empyrean where he was wandering,
though she had no suspicions of la Tinti.

"These two young men are mad!" said the doctor.

"As to the Prince," said the Duchess, "trust me to cure him. As to
Vendramin, if he cannot understand this sublime music, he is perhaps
incurable."

"If you would but tell me the cause of their madness, I could cure
them," said the Frenchman.

"And since when have great physicians ceased to read men's minds?" said
she, jestingly.

The ballet was long since ended; the second act of _Mose_ was beginning.
The pit was perfectly attentive. A rumor had got abroad that Duke
Cataneo had lectured Genovese, representing to him what injury he was
doing to Clarina, the _diva_ of the day. The second act would certainly
be magnificent.

"The Egyptian Prince and his father are on the stage," said the Duchess.
"They have yielded once more, though insulting the Hebrews, but they
are trembling with rage. The father congratulates himself on his son's
approaching marriage, and the son is in despair at this fresh obstacle,
though it only increases his love, to which everything is opposed.
Genovese and Carthagenova are singing admirably. As you see, the tenor
is making his peace with the house. How well he brings out the beauty of
the music! The phrase given out by the son on the tonic, and repeated by
the father on the dominant, is all in character with the simple, serious
scheme which prevails throughout the score; the sobriety of it makes the
endless variety of the music all the more wonderful. All Egypt is there.

"I do not believe that there is in modern music a composition more
perfectly noble. The solemn and majestic paternity of a king is fully
expressed in that magnificent theme, in harmony with the grand style
that stamps the opera throughout. The idea of a Pharaoh's son pouring
out his sorrows on his father's bosom could surely not be more admirably
represented than in this grand imagery. Do you not feel a sense of the
splendor we are wont to attribute to that monarch of antiquity?"

"It is indeed sublime music," said the Frenchman.

"The air