Nor were his hands alone employed; his feet were constantly at work with complicated pedaling; his body swayed to and fro; the perspiration poured down his face while he toiled to produce a great crescendo with the feeble means the thankless instrument placed at his command.  He stamped, puffed, shouted; his fingers were as swift as the serpent’s double tongue; and finally, at the last crash on the keys, he fell back in his chair, resting his head on the top of it.

“Per Bacco! I am quite stunned,” said the Count as he left the house.  “A child dancing on the keyboard would make better music.”

“Certainly mere chance could not more successfully avoid hitting two notes in concord than that possessed creature has done during the past hour,” said Giardini.

“How is it that the regular beauty of Marianna’s features is not spoiled by incessantly hearing such a hideous medley?” said the Count to himself.  “Marianna will certainly grow ugly.”

“Signor, she must be saved from that,” cried Giardini.

“Yes,” said Andrea.  “I have thought of that.  Still, to be sure that my plans are not based on error, I must confirm my doubts by another experiment.  I will return and examine the instruments he has invented.  To-morrow, after dinner, we will have a little supper.  I will send in some wine and little dishes.”

The cook bowed.

Andrea spent the following day in superintending the arrangement of the rooms where he meant to install the artist in a humble home.

In the evening the Count made his appearance, and found the wine, according to his instructions, set out with some care by Marianna and Giardini.  Gambara proudly exhibited the little drums, on which lay the powder by means of which he made his observations on the pitch and quality of the sounds emitted by his instruments.

“You see,” said he, “by what simple means I can prove the most important propositions.  Acoustics thus can show me the analogous effects of sound on every object of its impact.  All harmonies start from a common centre and preserve the closest relations among themselves; or rather, harmony, like light, is decomposable by our art as a ray is by a prism.”

He then displayed the instruments constructed in accordance with his laws, explaining the changes he had introduced into their constitution.  And finally he announced that to conclude this preliminary inspection, which could only satisfy a superficial curiosity, he would perform on an instrument that contained all the elements of a complete orchestra, and which he called a Panharmonicon.

“If it is the machine in that huge case, which brings down on us the complaints of the neighborhood whenever you work at it, you will not play on it long,” said Giardini.  “The police will interfere.  Remember that!”

“If that poor idiot stays in the room,” said Gambara in a whisper to the Count, “I cannot possibly play.”