Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Second series (IA playsbyjacintobe00bena).pdf/329

. Not so fast! She is going… later. And she will not go alone.

. Not alone, do you say?

. Once more you are unjust, selfish, cruel, because you are—a man! Do you think that María Antonia has done wrong? You do believe it, don't you? And you are outraged. I tell you that even if she has, I understand it, I excuse it, and I shall say to her: You did right, you did perfectly right! Do you hear?

. An easy thing for you to say, since she is not your daughter.

. Another lie. If she were, all the more reason why I should say to her: You did right, you did perfectly right, my daughter!

. Yes, and doubtless you have said it already; you have excused her in advance, and encouraged her. I suspected it…

. Why not add that I set her the example? Be as extreme as you like. This is one of those decisive days in which life presents us with the balance of many years. It contains everything—all our words, all our deeds, however insignificant; life forgets nothing. This is a day of reckoning for you, and it was time. It comes to us when we least expect it, almost always in some roundabout way, as a blessing, perhaps, or filling us with alarm. There are men who toil all their lives, apparently without result, until, as they are giving up in despair, a legacy drops from heaven, or it may be the lottery—something which seems to be chance, but it is life which pays. There are others who commit terrible crimes, yet live on prosperously and rich during many years; but one day sorrow comes—the death of a loved child, or it may be a