"What does that mean?" murmured Dom Diégo, looking around him in dismay. "Pablo does not come! What a frightful and gloomy silence! Oh, something wonderful is happening! I dare not take a step."
Turning his ear to listen, the canon added:
"What is that hollow sound? Nothing human. Some one is coming. Ah, I have not a drop of blood in my veins!"
At this moment the door opened so violently that the canon screamed and hid his face in his hands, as he gasped the words:
It was not Satan by any means, but Pablo, the majordomo, who, not having answered the two calls of the bell, was running precipitately, and thus produced the noise that the superstitious imagination of the canon transformed into something mysterious and supernatural.
The majordomo, struck with the attitude of the canon, approached him, and said:
"Ah, my God, what is the matter with you, my lord?"
At the voice of Pablo, Dom Diégo dropped his fat hands, which covered his face, and his servant saw the terror depicted in the master's countenance.
"Nothing, poor Pablo,--a foolish idea, which I am ashamed of now. But why are you so late?"
"I wished, sir, from curiosity, to enter this kitchen to see the work of this famous cook."
"After I assisted him in carrying his box, this strange man ordered me out of the kitchen, where he wished, he said, to be absolutely alone."
"Ah, Pablo, how he surrounds himself with mystery!"
"I obeyed, my lord, but I could not resist the temptation to stay outside at the door."
"Little by little an odour passed through the door, so delicious, so exquisite, so tempting, so exciting, that it was impossible for me to go away. If I had been nailed to the door I could not have been more immovable. I was bewildered, fascinated, entranced!"
"You know, my lord, that you gave me the excellent breakfast they brought to you this morning."
"Well, sir, this odour of which I tell you was so appetising that I felt myself seized with a furious hunger, and, without leaving the door, I took from one of the shelves of the pantry a large piece of dry bread."
"Dry," replied the majordomo, bowing his head.
"Dry!" cried the canon, raising his hands and eyes to heaven. "It is a miracle! He breakfasted an hour ago like an ogre, and now he has just bolted a piece of dry bread!"