Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Third series (IA playstranslatedf03benauoft).pdf/247

 that you know. These are all friends, relatives… Very proper indeed! Oh, this is more interesting! Actresses!

. Possibly three or four.

. Ah, La Platanito! Everybody seems to be mad over that girl. I hear she is charming—and startling, too, when she sings.

. If singing without a voice and without knowing how may be said to be startling.

. Unless the rest of the apartment is much worse, I should not call it depraved.

. What did you expect? When a man lives alone, his friends imagine…

. Exactly—that he has company.

. But then what would be the use of living alone? I did not desert a loving family to be free; all I wanted was peace, to draw a quiet breath.

. I know; your aunts have a different idea.

. I am living by myself precisely because we have different ideas. Now I hope your curiosity has been satisfied. It is my turn, and I am dreadfully curious. What can I do for you? What do you want? How did you ever manage to slip out alone?

. Doña Rosalia took me to call on Mercedes Santonja, and she left me there. Mercedes was in the secret, so I ran away from her house, and took a cab—it is waiting around the corner now—and here we are.

. Delighted! Although… Is this something really serious?

. Serious? Very serious?

. Because if it isn't serious, then it is very foolish. Nothing could be more serious than foolishness in a woman.

. I am not sure whether it is foolish or serious, but at least the consequences cannot be serious, that is certain.