Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Second series (IA playsbyjacintobe00bena).pdf/65



. Of course it is chance, but the same thing has happened two years in succession. As I was beginning to win, I saw you. It is the first time that anything has come my way this season. Did you run down from Paris?

. Jaunting around.

. When did you arrive? I always look over the lists.

. Since my hit in the pantomime "The Queen of Sheba," at the Olympia last winter, I have changed my name. You were in Italy at the time; it was a popular departure, fully equal to your sensation in "Le Bain de la Parisienne," only mine was more fully undress, especially at the end before Solomon. That rascally Flo-Flo invented a light effect__

. I should have returned from Italy if I had known it. How were the notices?

. Wonderful! Lorraine wrote me two columns of insults; I can never thank him enough. Since then nobody thinks of me but as the Queen of Sheba.

. I seem to recall the name; I wondered who that new one could be.

. Well, it was I; only it was nothing new.

. Are you alone? 41