Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Second series (IA playsbyjacintobe00bena).pdf/132

 always been familiar with disgust. What she desired was to exhibit herself upon the fashionable promenades, to visit the principal restaurants, the theatres which were patronized by the aristocracy—in a word, the other life; and it was natural. What amused the one, bored the other. So, shortly after, my friend fell in love with a noble lady, of flawless birth, and then for the first time he was able to run about the lower quarters to his heart's content, and to visit all the vulgar theatres and disreputable cafés, because they all proved equally amusing to that noble lady, and so they were both always of one accord. I wonder if our experience has been the same?

. It has.

. We do not live as abstractions in the world, as fragments of the ideal. We are something in ourselves, but the environment which surrounds us is much more than ourselves—it is the landscape in which we are figures. The scenery is half of the play, in life as upon the stage.

. Yes, there are times and places in which we might fall in love with the first person to present himself, without ever having seen him before, or stopping even to ask his name. I wonder: what are you thinking of now?

. I was listening to that waltz. It is one of the memories of my life—a waltz that Elsa used to sing in the theatre.

. When she was still a popular favorite, a famous actress in your eyes, not merely a respectable woman to whom the mention of her triumphs as an artist gives offense. There is a waltz also in my life. Waltzes blend themselves so easily with the past, and remain in the memory even after years. Have you never noticed it?