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Dialogue Following Song No. 6
- ALFREDO.
- What shabby things a man will do when he's eaten up with jealousy! But what a
comfort those shabby things are to him! To prevent Teresa joining the Tamorras
with the other girls, I was mean enough to bribe a farm girl to lock her in her
room! I'm disgusted with myself for having stooped to such a contemptible act.
Still, I'm very glad I did it.
Enter TERESA.
- ALFREDO.
- Teresa! You here?
- TERESA.
- Didn't expect me, I fancy?
- ALFREDO.
- No - I --
- TERESA.
- Locked me in my room, didn't you/ Well, I escaped through the window.
- ALFREDO.
- Never thought of the window! However, you are too late - the Tamorras have
gone. Ah! forgive me; I couldn't bear the thought of your spending the day with
them.
- TERESA.
- My dear Alfredo, now do you really think I am the sort of girl who would throw
herself away upon a contemptible outlaw? Why, I'd much sooner marry you!
- ALFREDO (delighted).
- You would? My darling! (Putting his arms round her.)
- TERESA.
- Infinitely. Don't.
- ALFREDO.
- Why not?
- TERESA.
- It's a liberty.
- ALFREDO.
- But after the tender avowal you have just made, surely I may be permitted --
- TERESA.
- My dear Alfredo, you jump at conclusions. I said I would rather throw myself
away on a respectable young farmer than on a contemptible outlaw. But I haven't
the smallest intention of throwing myself away on either.
- ALFREDO.
- Teresa, have some pity on me; I am so desperately in love with you. I have
founded my hopes of happiness upon you, for you are the very air I breathe, the
very sunlight of my life!
- TERESA.
- You are, of course, quite at liberty to profit by any light I may happen to emit; but
without wishing to say a word that would hurt your feelings, it is only right to tell
you that I look a great deal higher than a mere clod-hopper. For you do hop clods,
you know.
- ALFREDO.
- I have certainly hopped some in my time.
- TERESA.
- It's not my own idea. To be quite candid with you, I have often wondered what
people can see in me to admire. Personally, I have a poor opinion of my
attractions. They are not at all what I would have chosen if I had had a voice in
the matter. But the conviction that I am a remarkably attractive girl is so generally
entertained that, in common modesty, I feel bound to yield to the pressure of
popular sentiment, and to look upon myself as an ineffective working minority.
- ALFREDO.
- But you used to like me.
- TERESA.
- Decidedly. Personally, I entertain a great admiration for you. I think you
extremely good-looking.
- ALFREDO (delighted).
- Teresa!
- TERESA.
- But the general opinion on the subject of your good looks is so entirely against me
that (again regarding myself as an ineffective working minority) I feel bound to
yield to the pressure of popular prejudice, and admit that you cannot be as good-
looking as I feel sure you are.
- ALFREDO (despondingly).
- Perhaps not.
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