Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Second series (IA playsbyjacintobe00bena).pdf/57

. Apparently the laws of your Empire are not equally for all men. I have better reason than most to appeal to them, since you married me against my will.

. To a Prince who was worthy of your love.

. You have witnessed my sufferings, Baroness.

. Alas! Poor dear!

. The Prince was a brute, and you know it. You knew me, too; you knew that I could not be happy with such a man.

. The performance of duty is a gratification which we have always with us, as it depends wholly upon ourselves. Doubtless it is one of the subtler forms of happiness, but for that very reason appropriate to those of us who have been born into exalted station—whether through good or evil fortune.

. You are a man and a sovereign. It is easy for you to compensate yourself for whatever sacrifices you may make by noble deeds and glorious, victorious exploits. But love is the only motive of a woman's heart—without love, duty, ambition, sacrifice, the moral law, even religious faith, have no meaning; but with love she can accomplish all things without so much as a thought of duty, or obligation, or punishment, or reward, simply because it is love. Would you condemn me to live without love all my life? A woman might resign herself to living without being loved, but never to living without loving. How would it be possible to live? I could have done my duty by the Prince as his wife if he had not loved me; but that was not his only fault. He is a gross, contemptible person, as you know, incapable of inspiring one single regret, not even pity, which is the last refuge of the heart that struggles to maintain a show of love when love itself is gone.