noon
And I fear that such a one as that shall touch the heart of my peerless Valentina ? Why , it is a thought that does her but poor honour . '' And dismissing Francesco from his mind , he sought the strings with his fingers , and thrummed an accompaniment as he returned to the window , his voice , wondrous sweet and tender , breaking into a gentle love-song . Monna Valentina and her ladies dined at noon in a small chamber opening from the great hall , and thither were bidden Francesco and Gonzaga . The company was waited upon by the two pages , whilst Fra Domenico , with a snow-white apron girt about his portentous waist , brought up the steaming viands from the kitchen where he had prepared them ; for , like a true conventual , he was something of a master in the confection -- and a very glutton in the consumption -- of delectable comestibles . The kitchen was to him as the shrine of some minor cult , and if his breviary and beads commanded from him the half of the ecstatic fervour of his devotions to pot and pan , to cauldron and to spit , then was canonisation indeed assured him . He set before them that day a dinner than which a better no prince commanded , unless it were the Pope .