"Ah, cruel man!"
"Cruel!" said the abbé, bewildered, "why do you call the doctor cruel, Dom Diégo?"
"Yes," interposed the physician, perfectly calm and smiling, "what cruelty can you accuse me of, sir?"
"You ask that, you ingrate!" said the canon. "You dare ask that!"
"What! you call the doctor an ingrate!" said the abbé.
"The doctor!" said the canon, "what doctor?"
"Why, my friend, the man to whom you are speaking," said the abbé, "my friend standing there, Doctor Gasterini."
"He!" cried the canon, rising abruptly. "I tell you that is my tempter, my seducer!"
"The devil! he sees him everywhere," said the abbé, impatiently. "I repeat it to you that the gentleman is Doctor Gasterini, my friend."
"And I repeat to you, abbé," cried Dom Diégo, "that the gentleman is the great cook of whom I have spoken to you!"