The footman goes out; the cook enters in his white apron and white cap: he is nervous and, now that his mistress is already frowning her eyebrows because of his disrespectful costume, he begins to stammer:
"Forgive me, excellency...."
And he points with an unhappy face to his apron, his white sleeves....
And he complains that the head gamekeeper has not provided sufficient ortolans. He cannot make his pasty; he dares not take it upon himself, excellency.
She looks at him with her sphinx-like eyes; she has a great inclination to burst out laughing at his comical face, his despairing gestures, his outstretched arms, to laugh and also to cry wildly and loudly.
"What are we to do, excellency, what are we to do?"
The town is too far away; there is no time to send there before dinner and, for the matter of that, they never have anything in the town. Besides, it is really the steward's fault, excellency; the steward should have told her excellency....
"There are larks," she says.
"Those were to go to Lipara to-morrow, excellency, to his excellency the duke!"
The duchess shrugs her shoulders, laughing a little: