Emilia. The same time? I think of you all the time.
Julio. I have time for nothing else.
Teresa. Does it take those children forever to say goodby? Emilia!
Emilia. Coming, mamma.
All go out at the rear. Presently Doña Carmen, Luisa, and Julio re-enter.
Carmen. Aren't you going to the theatre? What is the matter? A lovers' quarrel?
Julio. No, mamma. I suppose you think I have nothing to do but run after Emilia? She has gone to the theatre with her cousins this evening. I have met them, but only casually.
Carmen. Yes, you must seem insignificant enough to them, just as you do to her mother.
Julio. That may be, mamma; I ask no questions, it is nothing to me, anyhow. You are simply impossible.
Carmen. I can't even open my mouth. You always take offense.
Luisa. Julio! [A pause] Emilia's dress was lovely.
Julio. She makes all her own clothes.
Carmen. Who ever heard of an unmarried woman who didn't make her own clothes? When she marries, something seems to happen; she immediately forgets how.
Julio. Oh, mother! As a mother-in-law, you will be terrible!
Carmen. I suppose I am nothing more than a mother-in-law to you already. I am no longer your mother?
Julio. No, mother, don't you say such things. The mother-in-law will stick out, though. When a mother once becomes a mother-in-law, she is a mother-in-law even to her own children.
Luisa. Emilia is such a sweet girl.
