Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Second series (IA playsbyjacintobe00bena).pdf/109

. That is what I intend to find out. Call Chantel; get rid of the Baroness in any way you can.

. Chantel, the Comtesse wishes to see you. Pardon, Baroness…

. I beg your pardon.

. You did not remain to the concert?

. No, Her Highness was taken ill, and I was obliged to leave the room with her.

. With her and the Comte. We saw you go.

. The Comte has been most sympathetic.

. The Comtesse has been most displeased.

. Ah! The Comtesse? I was not aware that the Comte was married.

. He expects to marry shortly. The Princess has been flirting scandalously with the Comte all evening, and the Comtesse

. Is she the Comtesse who was a ballet-dancer? In fact, I am not sure what she was; I am not familiar with the details. In a place like this one is continually treading upon thin ice. I hear persons addressed as Duchess, Countess—when I am positive that there never were any such titles, and I have the entire almanac of European nobility by heart. There is a Duchessa d'Arcole here, for example, not to pursue the matter further

. A title dating from the First Empire, one of the most illustrious of France,

. It is not in my books. When it comes to that, in questions of nobility, the First Empire does not exist. It was a blot on the page of Europe.

. Why, Baroness! The first Duc d'Arcole was my great-grandfather. I would not exchange my title for a library of yours.

. I regret my indiscretion, and even more that