The Marchioness
How dear you are going to cost me, fellow!
Quinola
You said to me just now, "my friend."
The Marchioness
Were you not my enemy?
Quinola
On account of that word I trust you, madame, and intend to tell you
everything. But here--do not laugh--you must promise--I wish--
The Marchioness
You wish?
Quinola
I wish--to speak to the king--at the moment when he passes on his way
to the chapel; I desire you to lend favor to my request.
The Marchioness
But what are you going to ask him?
Quinola
The most simple thing in the world--an audience for my master.
The Marchioness
Explain yourself, for time presses.
Quinola
Madame, I am the servant of a philosopher; and if the mark of genius
is poverty, we have a great deal too much genius, madame.
The Marchioness
To the point.
Quinola
Senor Alfonso Fontanares has come here from Catalonia to offer the
king our master the sceptre of the sea. At Barcelona he was taken for
a madman; here he is considered a sorcerer. When it becomes known what
he proposes, he is scoffed at in the antechambers. One wishes to
protest for the sake of ruining him; another, a philosopher, throws a
doubt on the existence of our secret, with the view of filching it;
others again make him a business proposition--capitalists who wish to
entangle him in their meshes. As things go at present we do not know
how they will turn out. No one certainly can deny the forces of
mechanics and geometry, but the finest theorems have very little
bodily nourishment in them, and the smallest of ragouts is better for
the stomach; but, really, science is not to blame for that.
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