Page:Plays by Jacinto Benavente - Third series (IA playstranslatedf03benauoft).pdf/41

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SCENE SECOND
The Open Country. Two roads, one of which is filled with thorns and stones. The other is carpeted with flowers.
The Prince, the Tutor, and Tony enter.


Prince. Where are we? You said that we should be in a village within an hour. And now you see… We are lost.

Tutor. Lost! Lost, indeed! I must consult the topographical map of the kingdom—the latest published by the Royal Geographical Society.

Tony. I told you that we were not taking the right road.

Tutor. But was I to trust myself to you rather than to the Royal Geographical Society?

Tony. You would have done better if you had trusted yourself to me, for I have been over that road more than a hundred times, night and day.

Tutor. Without knowing where you were going.

Tony. But I got there. And now who knows where we are?

Tutor. We have our choice here of two roads.

Tony. Say rather of one, for this is not a road, nor a trail, nor can it lead anywhere. It is a tangle full of briers and rocks. This is the road we ought to take. It is so clean and well kept that it must lead to some large city.

Prince. You are a fool. That is so as to tempt us to take it. Don't you know that in all the stories the good roads are the treacherous ones, which lead to the castle of some terrible ogre, who does not hesitate to swallow the poor trav-

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