Part 2 (1/2)

Artful!

BRIQUET

What are you teaching her?

MANCINI

Everything. A student had been giving her lessons, but I threw him out yesterday. He had the nerve to fall in love with Consuelo and stood there miaowing at the door like a cat. Everything, Briquet, that you don't know--literature, mythology, orthography----

[_Two young actresses appear, with small fur coats thrown over their light dresses. They are tired and sit down in the corner._]

MANCINI

I do not wish my daughter----

ZINIDA

Artful!

BRIQUET

You are stupid, Mancini. What do you do it for? [_In a didactic tone_]

You are fearfully stupid, Mancini. Why does she need to learn? Since she is here she need never know anything about that life. Don't you understand? What is geography? If I were the government I would forbid artists to read books. Let them read the posters, that's enough.

[_During_ BRIQUET'S _speech, the two clowns and another actor enter. They sit down wearily._]

BRIQUET

Right now, your Consuelo is an excellent artist, but just as soon as you teach her mythology, and she begins to read, she'll become a nuisance, she'll be corrupted, and then she'll go and poison herself. I know those books, I've read 'em myself. All they teach is corruption, and how to kill oneself.

FIRST ACTRESS

I love the novels that come out in the newspaper.

BRIQUET

That shows what a foolish girl you are. You'll be done for in no time.

Believe me, my friends, we must forget entirely what is happening out there. How can we understand all that goes on there?

MANCINI

You are an enemy of enlightenment, you are an obscurantist, Briquet.

BRIQUET

And you are stupid. You are from out there. What has it taught you?

[_The actors laugh._] If you'd been born in a circus as I was, you'd know something. Enlightenment is plain nonsense--nothing else. Ask Zinida. She knows everything they teach out there--geography, mythology---- Does it make her any happier? You tell them, dear.

ZINIDA