Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Third series (IA playstranslatedf03benauoft).pdf/171

 you how far it will go in Madrid? Of course you don't know what it means to support a family.

. Oh, yes, I do; perfectly. There were five of us at home. I never was able to understand how anybody could support us.

. Julio has no conception of what his poor sister and I have been through so that he might not want. We sew, we cook, we wash, we iron, and on top of that my poor Luisa takes in sewing to help out with her pocket-money, at the cost of her health. Naturally, as he always finds things in their places, his clothes cared for, his shirts done up more neatly than if they had been sent out to a laundry, and all his favorite dishes on the table, such as he could not possibly expect from any hired cook, he takes it as a matter of course. How could we do all this if we didn't tend to everything ourselves? He will find a great difference when he marries a young lady who is no better off than he is, because the girl simply will not bring him one penny. Her mother's income is as modest as mine, although she has relatives who have means, and they help out occasionally, but what does that amount to? On the other hand, she is not accustomed to this life, as I am, or my daughter. Anybody can see it. Isn't it pure madness to marry under such circumstances?

. Yes, Doña Carmen, pure madness; to marry without money is always pure madness. When a man is in Julio's position and can live at home with you and be comfortable, it is unthinkable. Take me, after years of landladies, buffeted about from boarding-house to boarding-house, and yet even I have never considered it. You can make up your mind when I do, that it will be with my eyes open, and in full possession of my faculties.

. You have common sense, you understand life;