D. Julian. I should think so, since everybody is to be the principal personage of your play. You may imagine if they are anxious to be on good terms with you.
Teodora. A play?
D. Julian. Hush! 'Tis a mystery. Ask no questions. Neither title, nor characters, nor action, nor catastrophe-the sublime! Good-night, Ernest. Come, Teodora.
Ernest. Adieu, Don Julian.
Teodora. Till to-morrow.
Ernest. Good-night.
Teodora. [To Don Julian.] How preoccupied Mercedes was!
D. Julian. And Severo was in a rage.
Teodora. Why, I wonder.
D. Julian. How do I know? On the other hand, Pepito chattered enough for both.
Teodora. He always does, and nobody escapes his tongue.
D. Julian. He's a character for Ernest's play. [Exeunt Teodora, and Don Julian by right.]
SCENE IV
Ernest. Let Don Julian say what he will, I won't abandon the undertaking. That would be signal cowardice. Never retreat—always forward. [Rises and begins to walk about in an agitated way. Then approaches the balcony.] Protect me, night. In thy blackness, rather than in the azure clearness of day, are outlined the luminous shapes of inspiration. Lift your roofs, you thousand houses of this great town, as well for a poet in dire necessity as for the devil on two sticks
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