The reverend gentleman now produced cold meat and bread and butter, which had all been carefully wrapped in paper, and took from a case several bottles of wine and a silver goblet, gilt inside, which he filled, tasted first himself, then smelled, tasted again, and finally presented to each of us in turn.  The students sat bolt upright on their casks, and only sipped a little, so great was their awe.  The girl, too, just dipped her little beak in the goblet, glancing shyly first at me and then at the students; but the oftener she looked at us the bolder she grew.

At last she informed the reverend gentleman that she was leaving her home for the first time, to go into service at a certain castle, and as she spoke I blushed all over, for the castle she mentioned was that of the Lady fair.  “Then she is my future lady’s maid!” I thought, staring at her, and feeling almost giddy.  “There is soon to be a grand wedding at the castle,” said his reverence.  “Yes,” replied the girl, who would have liked to learn more of the matter; “they say it is an old secret attachment, but that the Countess could never be brought to give her consent.”  His reverence replied only by “hm! hm!” refilling his goblet, and sipping from it with a thoughtful air.  I leaned forward with both elbows on the table, that I might lose no word of the conversation.  His reverence observed it.  “Let me tell you,” he began again, “that both Countesses sent me forth to discover whether the bridegroom be not in the country hereabouts.  A lady wrote from Rome that he left there some time ago.”  When he began about the lady in Rome I blushed again.  “Is your reverence acquainted with the bridegroom?” I asked, in confusion.  “No,” replied the old gentleman; “but they say he is a gay bird.”  “Oh, yes,” said I, hastily, “a bird that escapes as soon as it can from every cage, and sings gaily when it regains its freedom.”  “And wanders about in foreign countries,” the old gentleman continued, composedly, “goes everywhere at night, and sleeps on door-steps in the daytime.”  That vexed me extremely.  “Reverend sir,” I exclaimed, with some heat, “you have been falsely informed.  The bridegroom is a slender, moral, promising youth, who has been living in luxury in an old castle in Italy, and has associated solely with Countesses, famous painters, and lady’s-maids, who knows perfectly well how to take care of his money, if he had any, who—­” “Come, come, I had no idea that you knew him so well,” the divine here interrupted me, laughing so heartily that he grew quite purple in the face and the tears rolled down his cheeks.  “But I heard,” the girl interposed, “that the bridegroom was a stout, very wealthy gentleman.”  “Good heavens, yes, yes, to be sure!  Confusion worse confounded!” exclaimed his reverence, laughing so that it brought on a fit of coughing.  When he had somewhat recovered himself, he raised his goblet aloft and cried, “Here’s to the bridal pair!” I did not know what to make of the reverend gentleman and his talk, and I was ashamed, because of my adventures in Rome, to tell him here before all these people that I myself was the missing thrice happy bridegroom.