Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Third series (IA playstranslatedf03benauoft).pdf/206

 where you have been, and it isn't the first time, either. This has been going on for some days.

. Do you mean to scold me?

. Scold you? No, but I tell you you are doing wrong. Besides, I can't permit it.

. Why not? I am happy. I feel much stronger than I did. You must have noticed…

. Does mamma know?

. Oh, don't be so suspicious! Of course she does; I told her. It isn't any secret; it's not a crime, anyway.

. Is she willing to allow you to go out alone into the streets, to expose yourself to insult, to a thousand coarse remarks?

. Nothing of the kind. Nobody ever speaks to me.

. Why should you give lessons, and subject yourself to the whims and exactions of strangers?

. Nonsense! They are nice people, who don't like to send their little daughters to school, and prefer a governess in the house. The essonslessons [sic] I give are not very profound; only reading writing, sewing, and, then, I tell stories. I never saw children who were so fond of stories. I have exhausted all I ever knew, so that I've had to learn others, and sometimes even to make them up. All the same, my pupils are very fond of me. It is so easy to please children.

. Do you suppose that I will sit here and consent

. To what? To my leading a life that is no longer altogether useless? Can't I contribute something, though it may be very little, toward relieving the anxiety of my mother as to what will become of me, as to what will become of us both?

. Yes, and to add to mine. You know I am right. Do you want me to feel that I am an egotist, who hasn't hesitated to sacrifice you, when you have sacrificed yourselves