This company is at an end, and there are no more of
its class to succeed. Who follows ? And we go down
to consult the weather-beaten old clerk who sells tickets
for the Goldoni. ' Who next ? — ^Tina di Lorenzo ! What !
The Signore has never heard her ? — ^Never ? Is it possible ?
Ah! Tina di Lorenzo, Tina . . .' And, released at last,
somewhat past lunch-time, we go away with a double
appetite for ' pasta-faggioli ' and Tina.
CHAPTER VI

THEATRES AND AUDIENCES. DIVAGANDO

This chapter might have conceivably been divided,
allowing to each part a separate head. But for reasons
which I do not feel bound to explain, I prefer to follow
the example of certain distinguished musicians: and,
instead of keeping the last two movements separate
and affording the public a space for breathing and
comment, hurry on my ' largo appassionato ' into a final
' presto diavoloso.' And lest, when the chapter is
finished, the reader should be tempted to describe the
terms as exaggerated ones, I hereby warn him that they
must not be taken too literally, and that we merely
mean that a practice which has the sanction of the high
masters of harmony, cannot be blameworthy in such a
humdrum account as this.
