The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, Volume 1 (of 3)Le Sage, Alain René
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The Adventures of Gil Blas of Santillane, Volume 1 (of 3)
Le Sage, Alain René
Adventure and adventurers -- Fiction; Blas, Gil (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
I was exactly in the same mind with Aurora respecting the
extravagance of her scheme. Yet, unreasonable as it might seem to
reflecting persons like myself, there was no occasion for me to play
the schoolmaster. On the contrary, I began to practice all the arts
of a thorough-bred special pleader, and undertook to magnify this
hair-brained pursuit into a piece of incomparable wit and spirit,
without the least tincture of imprudence. This was highly gratifying
to my mistress. Lovers like to have their rampant fancies tickled.
We no longer considered this rash enterprise in any other light than
as a play, of which the characters were to be properly cast, and the
business dramatically arranged. The actors were chosen out of our
own domestic establishment, and the parts distributed without secret
jealousy or open rupture, but then we were not players by profession.
It was determined that Dame Ortiz should personate Aurora's aunt,
under the name of Donna Kimena de Guzman, with a valet and
waiting-maid by way of attendance; and that Aurora, with the swashing
outside of a gay spark, was to take me for her valet-de-chambre, with
one of her women disguised as a page, to be more immediately about
her person. The drama thus filled up, we returned to Madrid, where
we understood Don Lewis still to be, though it was not likely to be
long till his departure for Salamanca. We got up with all possible
haste the dresses and decorations of our wild comedy. When they were
in complete order, my mistress had them packed up careftdly, that
they might come out in all their gloss and newness on the rising of
the curtain. Then, leaving the care of her family to her steward,
she began her journey in a coach, drawn by four mules, and travelled
towards the kingdom of Leon with those of her household who had some
part to play in the piece.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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