Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Second series (IA playsbyjacintobe00bena).pdf/249

. Do you talk like that to María Antonia? It does seem incredible.

. I not only talk to her, I convince her. María Antonia is not a woman of my disposition; she is excitable, her temperament is not one to resign itself. Besides, she does not love her husband as I do you. She was in love with another man when she married.

. Whom she might just as well have married; there was no objection. I never was able to understand why she broke off with Enrique so suddenly. His mother and you had your heads together by the hour; then María Antonia made up her mind that she did not love him overnight, and the boy left Madrid. The ways of women are inexplicable.

. Ignorance is your invariable excuse. Do you mean to tell me that there was no obstacle to the marriage of your daughter with Carmen's son?

. I thought that was coming. Now I have been too friendly with Carmen. I explained how that was; that was before we were married—in fact, before I was a widower.

. Which is a great comfort to me. Yes, Carmen is my most intimate friend. She has suffered dreadfully, and her confession was not only more sweeping, it was far more sincere than yours. She has told me everything; she could not rest until she made me promise by all that was dear to me, to spare no effort to persuade María Antonia to give up Enrique, while she did whatever she could to influence her son.

. Why, does she think

. She was not sure. Prejudice and the law are very well, but we cannot avoid the consequences of our acts, wholly irrespective of sex. A man may doubt what children are really his, but a woman never knows whether her chil-