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THE SPANISH STUDENT.

ACT I.

SCENE I. The COUNT OF LARA'S Chambers. Night. The COUNT in his dressing-gown, smoking and conversing with DON CARLOS.

Lara. You were not at the play to-night, Don Carlos;

How happened it?

Don C.

I had engagements elsewhere

Pray who was there?

Lara.
The house was crowded; and the busy fans
Among the gayly-dressed and perfumed ladies
Fluttered like butterflies among the flowers.
There was the Countess of Medina Celi;
The Goblin Lady with her Phantom Lover,
Her Lindo Don Diego; Doña Sol,

Why, all the town and court.

And Doña Serafina, and her cousins.

Don C. What was the play?

Lara.

It was a dull affair;

One of those comedies in which you see,

As Lope says,23 the history of the world,

Brought down from Genesis to the Day of Judgment. There were three duels fought in the first act,

Y

Three gentlemen receiving deadly wounds,

Laying their hands upon their hearts, and saying,
"Oh, I am dead!" a lover in a closet,

An old hidalgo, and a gay Don Juan,
A Doña Inez with a black mantilla,
Followed at twilight by an unknown lover,
Who looks intently where he knows she is not!
Don C. Of course, the Preciosa danced to-night?
Lara. And never better. Every footstep fell
As lightly as a sunbeam on the water.

I think the girl extremely beautiful.

Don C. Almost beyond the privilege of woman! I saw her in the Prado yesterday.

Her step was royal,-queen-like,—and her face
As beautiful as a saint's in Paradise.

Lara. May not a saint fall from her Paradise,
And be no more a saint?

Don C.

Why do you ask?

Lara. Because I have heard it said this angel fell, And, though she is a virgin outwardly,

Within she is a sinner; like those panels
Of doors and altar-pieces the old monks
Painted in convents, with the Virgin Mary
On the outside, and on the inside Venus!

Don C. You do her wrong; indeed, you do her wrong!

She is as virtuous as she is fair.

Lara. How credulous you are! Why look you, friend,

There's not a virtuous woman in Madrid,

In this whole city! And would you persuade me
That a mere dancing-girl, who shows herself,
Nightly, half-naked, on the stage, for money,
And with voluptuous motions fires the blood

Of inconsiderate youth, is to be held
A model for her virtue?

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Don C. Nay, not to be won at all!
The only virtue that a Gipsy prizes
Is chastity. That is her only virtue.
Dearer than life she holds it. I remember
A Gipsy woman, a vile, shameless bawd,
Whose craft was to betray the young and fair;
And yet this woman was above all bribes.
And when a noble lord, touched by her beauty,—
The wild and wizard beauty of her race,-
Offered her gold to be what she made others,
She turned upon him, with a look of scorn,
And smote him in the face!

Lara.

And does that prove

That Preciosa is above suspicion ?

Don C. It proves a nobleman may be repulsed When he thinks conquest easy. I believe That woman, in her deepest degradation, Holds something sacred, something undefiled, Some pledge and keepsake of her higher nature, And, like the diamond in the dark, retains Some quenchless gleam of the celestial light! Lara. Yet Preciosa would have taken the gold. Don C. (rising). I do not think so.

Lara.

I am sure of it. But why this haste? Stay yet a little longer,

And fight the battles of your Dulcinea.

Don C. "T is late. I must begone, for if I stay You will not be persuaded.

Lara.

Yes; persuade me.

Don C No one so deaf as he who will not hear! Lara. No one so blind as he who will not see! Don C. And so good night. I wish you pleasant

dreams,

And greater faith in woman.

Lara

[Exit.

Greater faith!

I have the greatest faith; for I believe
Victorian is her lover. I believe

That I shall be to-morrow; and thereafter
Another, and another, and another,

Chasing each other through her zodiac,

As Taurus chases Aries

Enter FRANCISCO with a casket.

Well, Francisco,

What speed with Preciosa ?

Fran.

None, my lord.

She sends your jewels back, and bids me tell you
She is not to be purchased by your gold

Lara. Then I will try some other way to win her. Pray, dost thou know Victorian ?

Fran.

Yes, my lord;

I saw him at the jeweller's to-day.
Lara. What was he doing there?
Fran.

A golden ring, that had a ruby in it.
Lara. Was there another like it?
Fran.

I could not choose between them

Lara.

I saw him buy

One so like it

It is well.

To-morrow morning bring that ring to me

Do not forget. Now light me to my bed. [Exeunt.

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