Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Second series (IA playsbyjacintobe00bena).pdf/90

 presume to accept favors of such a nature, in spite of his repeated offers.

. Then you are making a great mistake; everybody is convinced that you do. Nobody puts any other interpretation upon your intimacy.

. The explanation is very simple. I should be intolerably selfish if I were to attempt to isolate poor Elsa altogether, yet what society is open to us now? In this democracy of money and vice, which are the two great democratizers, the only possible selection lies among those whose money and vices are relieved by some touch of imagination, some suggestion of art. The Comte is one of these. Besides, he is a thoroughly fine fellow, large-hearted, incapable by nature of the slightest indelicacy.

. Then you believe that he is a person who can be relied upon thoroughly?

. Beyond question.

. Naturally you are in a position to know. The Comte is anxious to meet me. I trust that you will accommodate him at the very first opportunity.

. At once. It will be a great pleasure to him. He tells me that he owes you an explanation.

. It is wholly unnecessary. I shall be enchanted to meet him.

. Perhaps he is not far away.

. Your Highness! Your Highness! We totter upon the verge of a precipice; I feel very much as I should if I were to discover you looping the loop. My reason will be unable to support these terrible blows. Who is this? Herr Rosmer… Another calamity! He could not have appeared at a worse time. When he learns that you have spoken to your cousin, that he has promised to present the Comte de Tournerelles