CAROLINA. Until to-morrow then? ZURITA. Don Florencio! FLORENCIO. Thank you again for your charming article. It was admirable! Admirable! [_Zurita retires._] FLORENCIO. I see that you feel it deeply! you are touched. So am I. It is foolish to attempt to conceal it. CAROLINA. I don't know how to express it, but--I am upset. FLORENCIO. Don't forget the pictures, however, especially the one where the three of us were taken together on the second platform of the Eiffel tower. It was particularly good. CAROLINA. Yes, something out of the ordinary. Don't you think, perhaps, that our private affairs, our family life.... How do we know whether at this time, in our situation.... FLORENCIO. What are you afraid of? That is the woman of it. How narrow-minded! You ought to be above such pettiness after having been the wife of such an intelligent man. Every detail of the private life of the great has its interest for history. Those of us who knew him, who in a certain sense were his colaborers--you will not accuse me of immodesty--his colaborers in the great work of his life, owe it to history to see that the truth be known. CAROLINA. Nevertheless I hardly think I would print those letters--much less the verses. Do you remember what they said? FLORENCIO. Of course, I remember: "Like a moth on a pin I preserve all your kisses!..." Everybody makes allowances for poetry. Nobody is going to take seriously what he reads in a poem. He married you anyway. Why should any one object? CAROLINA. Stop, Florencio! What are you talking about? We are making ourselves ridiculous. FLORENCIO. Why should we make ourselves ridiculous? Although I shall certainly stand by you, whatever you decide, if for no other reason than that I am your husband, his widow's husband. Otherwise people might think that I wanted you to forget, that I was jealous of his memory; and you know that is not the case. You know how I admired him, how I loved him--just as he did me. Nobody could get along with him as well as I could; he was not easy to get along with, I do not need to tell you that. He had his peculiarities--they were the peculiarities of a great man--but they were great peculiarities. Like all great men, he had an exaggerated opinion of himself. He was horribly stubborn, like all strong characters. Whenever he got on one of his hobbies no power on earth could pry him off of it. It is only out of respect that I do not say he was pig-headed. I was the only one who had the tact and the patience to do anything with him; you know that well enough. How often you said to me: "Oh, Florencio! I can't stand it any longer!" And then I would reason with you and talk to him, and every time that you had a quarrel I was the one who consoled you afterward. CAROLINA. Florencio, you are perfectly disgusting! You have no right to talk like this.