Before consenting or refusing the Abbot wished to see Benedetto and speak with him.
The Abbot, while waiting for Benedetto, was strumming with his knuckles a piece of his own composition, accompanying the sound with horrible contortions of lips, nostrils and eyebrows.

Upon hearing a gentle knock at the door, he neither answered nor stopped playing.

Having finished the piece he began it again, and played it a second time from beginning to end.

Then he stopped and listened.

Another knock was heard, more gentle than the first.