caught sight of me and
greet me blushingly. I cannot conceal from you that, however much I
felt the loss to art, I was delighted that Clotilde was going to be
married. A woman always needs the protection of a man. And there is no
question that so far as outward appearance went, they were worthy of
one another. Inocencio certainly was a most attractive young fellow.

"At the theater they talked of nothing else than of this wedding,
which was still in the bud. Everybody was delighted, because Clotilde
is the only actress, since the beginning of the world, who took it
into her head to attempt what until now was regarded as impossible, to
make herself beloved by her companions.

"I observed, nevertheless,--for you know that I am an observant
person: it is the only quality that I possess, that of observation, a
thing to which the authors of today attach no importance. Today, in
the drama, everything is so much dried leaves, a lot of moonshine,
which, they let filter down through the foliage of the trees, a lot of
description of dawn and twilight, and a lot of other similar
pastry-shop stuff. That's all there is to it! When any fledgling
author comes to me with nonsense of that sort, I say to him: 'Get down
to the facts! Get down to the facts!' The facts are the drama, which
doesn't exist in the great part of the above-mentioned."

"Aren't you exciting yourself, Don Jeronimo?"

"Well, as I was telling you, I observed that as the rehearsals
progressed the ascendency of Inocencio over our young friend
increased. The tone in which he addressed her was no longer the humble
and courteous tone of earlier days; he corrected her frequently in her
manner of delivery, he dictated the attitudes and gestures which she
should adopt, and sometimes, when the actress did not quite understand
his wishes, he allowed himself to address her publicly in rather
severe terms, and the way he looked at her was severer still. Our poet
was already thundering and lightning like a true lord and master.

"Clotilde accepted it with good grace. She, who had always been so
haughty, even towards the most distinguished authors, stretched out
and shrank back like soft wax in the hands of that insignificant
jackanapes. You ought to have seen the humility with which she
accepted his suggestions, and the distress which his censures caused
her. All the time that the rehearsal lasted she kept her eyes steadily
fixed upon him, watching like a submissive slave t