Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Second series (IA playsbyjacintobe00bena).pdf/248

 thing about it is trying not to show how hard it is. Your only excuse is that you don't know how much you make me suffer.

. Although some day I am likely to find out. I am a tyrant, a monster, an evil genius—I, a poor, inoffensive gentleman, who thinks of nothing but his business, his wife, his daughter, his home, who never cared for nor even dreamed of anything else!

. As for myself, I say nothing, because I am used to it. But you owe something to your daughter—yes, our daughter—I love her as much as if she were mine. I suppose you think that she is wedded to the role of martyr like I am, when she has everything in the world to make her happy?

. María Antonia? Never! That is, unless… But no, you would be incapable…

. Yes, Gonzalo, and it is not her fault either; it is yours, her husband's—men's. You are as God made you, or else as opportunity has, or as bad as the law will allow, for you have made it yourselves. It is as lenient with your faults as it is intolerant of ours.

. Are we elevating the discussion to a moral and philosophical plane? It is time to dress. I cannot afford to get into any worse humor.

. You certainly cannot. Don't you care to hear about your daughter?

. But what am I to hear? That she is jealous of her husband, as you are of me, and upon precisely the same grounds. I am sorry for poor Pepe.

. However, María Antonia is right, and it is my duty to warn you. I talk to her exactly as you do to me, although you will never believe it; I tell her that it is of no consequence, that Pepe is neither better nor worse than other husbands; it is no disgrace and nothing to feel badly about, anyway.