Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Second series (IA playsbyjacintobe00bena).pdf/316

. Don Ramón…

. Sir!

. Your wife is well, I trust?

. Thank you, very.

. [To ] I trust your wife is well?

. Perfectly.

. How is your charming daughter?

. Perfectly…

. [To ] No doubt you expected a call. I hesitated whether to write or to come myself, but Josefina advised me to call. Writing is more delicate. When one goes too far, it is easy to take it back if it is only talk, but when it is written down, if you let yourself go, there you are. Don't you think so? You know I have been insulted; you know that I must kill some one.

. Heavens, man! Kill some one?

. Yes, kill some one, and I should have done it before, had I not cooled off and thought it over. I am not the only one who has been insulted. My wife has been insulted, France has been insulted.

. Gracious! The question is assuming international proportions.

. Yes, somebody said, speaking of me, that I was a typical French husband.

. Of course, you ignored it. Literature is probably responsible for the prevalent opinion of French husbands.

. Ah! Suppose I had not cooled off and thought it over?

. Don't you exaggerate? I see nothing in all this except ignorance of our character and our customs upon your part, an excessive formalism, if you will—severity; as for those who insulted you, they merely displayed ill-breed-