Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Second series (IA playsbyjacintobe00bena).pdf/267

. No, Laura, you are a competent judge; you are unquestionably capable of taking care of yourself.

. Yes, I have acquired the habit, thanks to your advice and friendly assistance.

. Your talent for business has always been astonishing. The mere idea of business is appalling to me. If I were a widow, I am sure I should not have courage to make any advances, or to speculate upon the Exchange.

. I should have fared poorly had I shared your reluctance. What I had from my father was modesty itself, which would have disappeared long ago had I displayed no taste for affairs. Fortunately, I trusted my principal to Gonzalo and he has doubled my income with incredible rapidity.

. We hope to surprise you shortly now that the new company has been organized. The scope of the business has been broadened, and at the same time the foundations have been made more secure. We shall no longer be dealing in castles in the air.

. So I trust, as does everybody. I am enchanted with the prospect; it is entrancing. [To and ] I am amazed that you do not take any interest in business.

. Yes, discuss business with a woman! My wife has preserved some notion of economy in the management of the house, as she knows what it means to begin, but Luisita, who was born in days of plenty, seems to believe that the sky rains down money. If she had her way, we should be ruined in less than two months.

. Do you wonder that I am not engaged? The young men listen to papa, and then decline absolutely to make advances.

. Engaged? Engaged? Show me the young man who has the hardihood to venture with one of these girls. Naturally, a young man's position is none too brilliant; he