Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Second series (IA playsbyjacintobe00bena).pdf/295

. Don't say that, my dear. You do not know how terribly it makes me feel.

. What have you heard from Enrique? Does he write frequently?

. His letters are very sad. Father was dreadfully severe when he went away. He is severe with us all; he imagines that we do not love him sufficiently.

. Ramón is extremely kind, but he feels that he best expresses his affection by working incessantly to make us rich. When he turns impatiently from the caresses of his children because he is absorbed in business cares, he expects them to appreciate his ill-humor, and to thank him for it, since it is an evidence of additional thousands which he is earning for them.

. He cannot understand that love takes no interest in account-books.

. There came a time when they grew hateful, too, to me; but then, after the bitterness of many sorrows, I have learned that if true affection exists anywhere, it is only in the prose of life, and we must reconcile ourselves to finding it there, amid aridness and vulgarity, unless we are prepared to mourn all our lives an irreparable loss.

. All men are egotists; they are forever indifferent to the emotions which we feel. Luisita is still horrified… She will dream of unhappy marriages to-night, as children have nightmares when they listen to ghost-stories or hear tales of robbers before going to bed. No, pay no attention to what we say; it does not interest you. These are old wives' tales… Ah! Pepe has kept his word and María Antonia did not wait…

. Good evening. Carmen. Luisita—how stunning! Where is María Antonia?