Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Third series (IA playstranslatedf03benauoft).pdf/102

. What's the matter? Hurry up? Too damn hot! Waiter! Give him some beer. And I want some beer.

. Madame says elephants must not drink beer.

. Madame says too much so as not to pay for the beer. I pay for the beer. A bottle for me, a barrel for the elephants!

. Ruhu! Ruhu! One of the elephants has broken loose. He has smashed the bars of his cage. Two hundred francs! And the worst of it is, he won't perform.

. He will, he will perform. Poor beast! He do no harm. He is a gentle animal.

. If you don't hurry and do something to the brute

. Nero harm no one. You don't know him. I know him. Wait! He is the gentlest of the seven.

. And don't drink so much. The people see how you are, and so do the elephants.

. What do they see? I know what they see; and I know what the elephants see. I drink, oh, I drink! But I know what I drink.

. Ma andate al diavolo! Damn rascal!

. You are not angry, Mr. Jacob?

. That Hindu savage costs me twelve thousand francs besides the feed of his animals! And don't his animals feed! And the public will have none of them; seen once, seen for always. A fine piece of business! Bah! Business? People see the audience, then they see me; they say: "Ah! Mr. Jacob! Fortunate man! Theatre full, receipts enormous, le maximum tous les soirs." But they don't see behind the scenes; they don't know what artists are; they don't understand management, business