“Madame,” said Gambara, as she ended, for he was sober, “we are victims of our own superiority. My music is good. But as soon as music transcends feeling and becomes an idea, only persons of genius should be the hearers, for they alone are capable of responding to it! It is my misfortune that I have heard the chorus of angels, and believed that men could understand the strains. The same thing happens to women when their love assumes a divine aspect: men cannot understand them.” This speech was well worth the forty francs bestowed by Massimilla; she took out a second gold piece, and told Marianna she would write to Andrea Marcosini. “Do not write to him, madame!” exclaimed Marianna. “And God grant you to always be beautiful!” “Let us provide for them,” said the Princess to her husband; “for this man has remained faithful to the Ideal which we have killed.” As he saw the gold pieces, Gambara shed tears; and then a vague reminiscence of old scientific experiments crossed his mind, and the hapless composer, as he wiped his eyes, spoke these words, which the circumstances made pathetic: “Water is a product of burning.” PARIS, June 1837. ADDENDUM The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy. Varese, Emilio Memmi, Prince of Massimilla Doni Varese, Princess of Massimilla Doni