Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Second series (IA playsbyjacintobe00bena).pdf/89

. Why, cousin! Really, have you no grudge against me?

. I thought you were avoiding me.

. A stupid misunderstanding has existed between us. Now we are imited by misfortune. We have both been banished for the same offense—for having dared to declare the independence of our hearts.

. Although mine was already free.

. Is that a reproach? Mine was bound to a tyrant whom another tyrant had imposed. I consider myself much more heroic than you. You are a Prince and I a Princess, but you had the advantage of being a single man. I had three tyrannies to overcome—my rank as Princess, marriage, and the disability of being a woman. I do not need to tell you what a valiant spirit I had in me.

. No, indeed. Your marriage was a mistake, an inexplicable caprice of the Emperor's. You must have suffered tortures. But you are happy now, as I am.

. Yes, very happy—as happy as you are. This is life at last, it is liberty, love, and they are well worth all the sacrifices which we have made to enjoy them. For my part, I regard them as negligible, absolutely negligible.

. So do I, I assure you; although it seems hardly fair to ask those whom we love to endure these privations with us.

. We cannot call ourselves rich. We expect nothing from the Emperor—in fact, I expect less than you do. My debts are already heavy, and my credit is becoming exhausted.

. Do not tell me.

. It occurred to me, perhaps, that the Comte de Toumerelles… Is he a close friend of yours?

. Of course; although I should scarcely