Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Second series (IA playsbyjacintobe00bena).pdf/270

. Ladies and gentlemen… [To ] Ah, madame!

. How do you do, Josefina?

. Allow me to present our friends. Ramón, this is Adolphe Barona, our correspondent's son.

. Yes, yes indeed. His father is a great friend of mine. Great man, Barona!

. His wife.—Introduce your wife and daughter.

. My wife, my daughter. Although we have not had the pleasure before, we may consider ourselves old friends. Your father is like a brother to Gonzalo and myself. We entered business together when we were boys.

. I believe you did. Papa talks about you incessantly. Apparently you had rare sport in your day; you were up to—what is it?—tricks.

. Tricks?

. Yes, de… bêtises. I mean you made damn fools of yourselves.

. You don't say so.

. Although he speaks Spanish perfectly, without trace of foreign accent, as he has lived in Paris all his life he is unfamiliar at times with the precise meaning of words.

. I always speak Spanish at home with papa; but the habit of thinking in French makes me commit—how shall I say? I cannot help it—une gaffe, Josefina, une gaffe…

. You break badly. Is that what you say?

. Yes, that is what you say. [Aside to ] Say and do.

. Josefina speaks charmingly, like an unadulterated Madrileña.

. Oh, please don't accuse me of anything quite so shocking, or your expectations may be forfeited.