Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Second series (IA playsbyjacintobe00bena).pdf/299

 execution. Well, here they are… [Throwing a number of letters and photographs upon the table] Do you see them? Now you know what it was; there is no need for me to tell you.

. María Antonia!

. What have you done?

. Now deny it! Say that it is a case of nerves, that I am a spoiled child! Tell me I am impossible, that I never give you any peace! What more peace do you want? You seem to have been enjoying yourself. Here, look at them! Letters, pictures… Lovely, are they not? Fascinating!

. Are you crazy? I demand that Isabel read these letters. Let her decide whether there is any warrant for this jealous scene, which you have trumped up out of some ridiculous play. Letters, are they? Yes, interesting letters, such as anybody might write—to anybody, to a friend; letters from actors, pictures of actresses—because there is more than one. They are not all from the same person.

. So I see. And they are not all written in the same tone either.

. Do you suppose that I attach any importance to these contemptible souvenirs? I should have shown them to you before, if I had not been certain that you would put exactly this interpretation upon them when I did so.

. If I had never seen them, either before or now, then I should never have put any interpretation upon them. Do you mean to tell me that there is nothing in those letters? I am likely to believe it. Here, take any one of them. What does it say? "As I told you yesterday…" How about this? "Of course, you understand…" Another: "Remember what we said…" Every one presupposes an interview. Why waste your time