Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Second series (IA playsbyjacintobe00bena).pdf/80

 When everybody from the man who loves me, for whom I have renounced my rank, my position, without so much as one regret, down to the humblest servant and the shopkeeper who waits upon me to sell me some trinket, and the beggar who follows me down the street, when everybody insists upon reminding me that I am Princess of Suavia, neither in my actions nor in my appearance nor in my expenditures can I cease to be so. The honors which the government of Suavia denies me officially, the world returns to me privately, for its own advantage. It is utterly useless to say: "I am merely a woman, like any other woman, who is in love, who wishes to be happy, to be forgotten, without being responsible for her conduct to anybody." Immediately the world is up in arms: "No, Your Highness! It is impossible! To us you are always the Princess—Princess Helena of Suavia!" The Emperor assured me that I had forfeited popular respect through my foolishness, but I have never been so much respected, nor treated with so much consideration, nor so beprincessed as now. That is why I could not help being pleased when that roué took me for a disreputable woman, and I showed it. For the first time in my life I found out what I really looked like.

. Have pity on my poor nerves! I never listened to such conversation. Surely you did not imagine that anybody was going to forget who you are? If we did, you would be the last person to thank us for it. Being treated like a princess is not what you object to; it is the difficulty of making both ends meet while you submit to the process.

. It may be so. It is impossible to continue as we are doing now.

. Although the crisis will be a passing one. The Emperor cannot afford to permit his niece

. When it is a question of spending money, the Emperor cannot afford anything.