'No, it is of no use,' he answered in a melancholy tone. 'You are phlegmatic.'
'Perfectly,' Logotheti assented. 'If I were you, I would put her on in Rigoletto.'
'Does she know the part?' Schreiermeyer asked, as calmly as if nothing had happened.
'Ask Madame De Rosa,' suggested the Greek. 'I see her on the stage.'
'I will. There is truth in what you say about Faust. The part is trying.'
'You told me it was bosh,' Logotheti observed with a smile.
'I had forgotten that you are such a phlegmatic man, when I said that,' answered Schreiermeyer with the frankness of a conjurer who admits that his trick has been guessed.
They had been talking as if nothing were going on, but now the conductor turned to them, and gave a signal for silence, which was taken up by all the people on the stage.
'Sh—sh—sh—sh—' it came from all directions.
'Here comes Cordova,' observed Schreiermeyer in a low tone.