Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Third series (IA playstranslatedf03benauoft).pdf/86

. I am in for five thousand francs.

. It seems incredible. You have been foolish in more senses than one.

. Not a word of it to anybody.

. No, everybody knows it already. Don't imagine that everybody hears from me what I hear from everybody.

. But do they know?

. Oh! I should not bother. The same thing happened to Lady Seymour with one of her grooms. Now she envelops herself in the British flag, without condescending to notice you during the entire evening. We become impossible socially, not because of what people know about us, but because of what they imagine we may know about them.

. Precisely. We ought always to say what we know about everybody, not out of malice, but in the interest of truth and good feeling. All of us are made of the same clay. Virtue consists merely of those vices which one does not possess. If it had been virtuous not to eat apples, and I had been Eve, man would never have fallen. I cannot abide the sight of apples; although I do not complain of those that eat them. No doubt they have good reasons.

. They seem good to them.

. [Rising] It is growing late; it is time to retire. [To ] Will you lunch with us to-morrow?

. Without fail. And we shall write to the Emperor.

. [To a ] Her Highness's carriage. Gentlemen, her Highness retires.

. Good evening to all. It has been pleasant to meet old friends.—My lady, I may count you among them.

. Your Highness compliments me to say so.

. Countess… [To ] My dear artist,