“What did you mean, sir, by your art with a little a?”
“Nothing whatever, but that I do not rate the chevalier’s capacity for music so high as you do.”
“And that was all?”
“What else, in heaven’s name?”
“You suggest that he blinds the marquise’s eyes—to what?”
“O, to nothing in particular!”
“I insist upon knowing.”
“Your Excellency overwhelms me. The mere thoughtless speculation of an idle mind. I put two and two together, not even considering that, according to some people, they do not necessarily make four.”
“Come, explain yourself.”
“Why, her Highness, by what we hear, is not, and very sensibly, moved by this man’s meretricious Art—with a big A; and yet she is moved by his art.”