Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Second series (IA playsbyjacintobe00bena).pdf/66

. Yes, this is a pleasure trip. How are you getting on? Are you still with the Comte? What million is he in now? In Paris, the report is that he is down to his last.

. Very likely, at the rate he is going. If he spent it on himself, it would not be so bad; but the trouble is he likes to see it spent.

. As blasé as ever, I suppose?

. He has reached the limit. Nothing excites or stirs his interest in the least. Everybody here lives off him, including his secretary, Chantel.

. I remember that fellow. He is clever.

. No more than the rest. The Comte buys carriages and automobiles which he never even sees; his friends and his friends' friends ride in them and show themselves off. He deals out thousand-franc notes by the handful, so that others can play, who lose, naturally. He never goes near a table himself. If you tell him that a play is good, he sends his friends, and then forbids them to mention it afterward. At one time dress was his hobby, but now he leaves all that sort of thing to his secretary.

. Has he slipped you along, too, to the secretary?

. No, he still loves me. I am the only person who can do anything with him, as you will discover when we return to Paris; I shall be Comtesse de Tournerelles. I should like to see more of you here, very naturally, but my friends are rather select; I cannot afford to take any chances.

. Who are your friends?

. My dear, with art and religion a woman enters any society. Christians and artists will receive anybody, and thank you for the opportunity. Although one must be a little discreet, and careful to keep up appearances.

. So you have gone in for religion?

. No, I am reserving that for my old age; for the