who has proved my salvation. Ah, if I had only met him before, instead of all those worthless scamps who have compromised my reputation!
Imperia. Who is he?
Rinaldi. He is not a man of the sort one meets every day. His is a primitive spirit, a simple soul. You know him.
Imperia. I?
Rinaldi. Haven't you seen the seven elephants at the circus?
Imperia. But my dear Countess!
Rinaldi. Well, he is the elephant-driver. Are you laughing at me?
Imperia. I thought that you said you were done with frivolity.
Rinaldi. Surely you do not imply that this is frivolity? But you are not acquainted with my plans.
Imperia. Then explain them to me! Talk, make me understand. Would to God they were never so fantastic, so extravagant and strange, dreams, fantasies, anything to take me out of myself, to make me forget this reality which is shutting in around me. If you only knew! There are dreams, horrible nightmares with all the appearance of truth, which escape from our sleep and enter our lives. I have dreamed, I am sure that I have dreamed, something which now I seem to have seen, to have heard, but which cannot be, no, which cannot have been. That is the reason I want to hear you talk, to listen to your extravagances, follies, dreams, madness, until all becomes confused and lost in illusion, and we cannot tell whether we are dreaming among visions or waking among facts which are real.
Rinaldi. But there is nothing visionary about my plans, they are practical. I am setting my house in order, I am devoting myself to my affairs. Luckily, a unique opportunity
