Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Second series (IA playsbyjacintobe00bena).pdf/220

. Well, what more do they wish? The most exacting should be satisfied. Liberty has triumphed. We have seen the play, and it turns out to be a good one. Yes, sir! Those who didn't like it, didn't like it, but the public has been heard from.

. Yes, but how? On their way home they broke two windows in the café. At Don Baldomero's there isn't so much as a whole pane of glass.

. He hasn't given up, though. Did you see the Abejorro?

. And the Echo! This story about the secretary and the Governor's wife—Nothing else was talked of in the café this morning. Have another glass?

. No, thank you. It would never do to have it go to my head. This story—you can take it from me—it's a lie out of the whole cloth, a calumny. I come into contact daily with Doña Josefina and Don Manuel, yes, sir, and with the Governor himself, and I consider them all in their way decent people, very decent people—without meaning anything by it—among the most decent we have had in the Palace during the twenty years I have been in it, and we have had all sorts of people, including decent people. But politics have no heart. It is every one for himself and the devil for all of them. Poor Doña Josefina! She was crying all morning like a Magdalen.

. No! She was?

. She hides nothing from me. While she was combing her hair, she let fall such a tear!

. But there are people who have seen the letters. You can read them in the papers.

. You can, can you? How do you know they are not forgeries? Yes, sir!

. [Much impressed] Ah! Very likely.