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Dialogue Following Song No. 7
- TERESA.
- Now come and talk it over, like a sensible boy. (They sit - he at her feet.) Come,
tell me all about it. You know you used always to confide your little troubles to
me.
- ALFREDO.
- I've nothing to say, except that I'm over head and ears in love with you.
- TERESA.
- Now, first of all, you musn't say "you"; it's too personal. Say, "I'm over head and
ears in love with Teresa!"
- ALFREDO.
- Well, so I am.
- TERESA.
- Poor boy! Well, I can quite understand it, for, with all her faults, she's far and
away the nicest girl hereabouts. Now, look at it sensibly. If you, a plain young
man, married a conspicuous beauty (for, after all's said and done, that's what it
comes to), you would be under a perpetual disadvantage from sheer force of
contrast; and as for jealousy - well, I've known Teresa since she was quite a
little girl, and take my word for it, she would keep you on chronic tenterhooks.
Now, if you married a thoroughly plain girl - like Elvino's niece Ultrice, for
instance - (ULTRICE enters and overhears what follows.) who couldn't possibly,
under any circumstances, give you the least uneasiness on the score of her
personal attractions - you might count on being as happy as two thoroughly
unattractive little birds could reasonably expect to be.
- ALFREDO.
- Ultrice! What do I want with Ultrice? She follows me everywhere. She worries
my life out.
- TERESA.
- Ultrice is quite a good sort of girl; and as to her personal appearance, why, you'd
get used even to that in a couple of years!
ULTRICE comes forward.
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