It
would amuse me, but I don't wish to have for a son-in-law any man of
such lofty dreams. Girls brought up in our families need no prodigies
for husbands, but men who are content to mind their business at their
own homes, and leave the affairs of the sun and moon alone. All that I
want is that my son-in-law should be the good father of his family.
Fontanares
Your daughter, senor, when she was but twelve years old, smiled on me
as Beatrice smiled on Dante. Child as she was, she saw in me at first
naught but a brother; since then, as we felt ourselves separated by
fortune, she has watched me as I formed that bold enterprise which
should bridge with glory the gulf that stood between us. It was for
her sake I went to Italy and studied with Galileo. She was the first
to applaud my work, the first to understand it. She had wedded herself
to my thought before it had occurred to her that one day she might wed
herself to me. It is thus she has become the whole world to me. Do you
now understand how I adore her?
Lothundiaz
It is just for that reason that I refuse to give her to you. In ten
years' time she would be deserted, that you might run after some other
discovery.
Marie
Is it possible, father, that a lover could prove false to a love which
has spurred him on to work such wonders?
Lothundiaz
Yes, when he can work them no longer.
Marie
If he should become a duke, grandee of Spain, and wealthy?
Lothundiaz
If! If! If! Do you take me for an imbecile? These ifs are the horses
that drag to the hospital all these sham world-discoverers.
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