Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Second series (IA playsbyjacintobe00bena).pdf/188

 were such meals as when you, with your own royal hands, prepared our simple fare.

. Really? Do you mean it? Then Governor's wife that I am, I shall put on my apron and go down into the kitchen, and bring back again those happy days.

. So much happier, so much more tranquil than now!

. What is the use of poetizing at a distance? You forget the disappointments, the humiliations, the black hours that we went through in Madrid. And I want you to remember them and to keep them always in mind, so as to frighten you out of the danger of losing in a moment what it has cost us so many years to attain.

. It is true. There were black hours.

. And who encouraged you? Who animated you? Who always gave you advice?

. You, you! You always gave me advice. You are right. I don't know how I came to be so foolish as to displease you. I'll do whatever you wish, without consulting anybody. Does that satisfy you? Now do I appreciate you at your true worth? Now do I deserve your love?

. Yes, yes! Now you do! And you will see that I know how to reward you. I am satisfied. How easy it is to satisfy me!… Embrace me. Ah! Again… How good you are at heart, and how I love you!

. It is so long since you have embraced me—not since my inauguration.

. Nonsense! Since your inauguration? Suppose somebody should hear you say that!

. I mean a real, spontaneous embrace. Well, my dear, I will see what I can do.

. Yes, at once.

. But I must legalize the blow. [The