Leonardo.—Yes, Uncle. Again.
General.—You can't possibly agree for one minute!
Leonardo.—They are children of the same parents.
General.—But neither one of them is Able!
Leonardo.—Able is the one who dies . . . in the Bible . . .
General.—I don't want to hear any more talk. It is a book that is full of hidden meanings
(Don Antonio, in hunting dress, enters from the garden. They greet him silently, and he returns their greetings in the same manner. He puts his gun up and seats himself without speaking.)
General.—And Clara?
Leonardo.—We are at the threshold . . .
Francesca.—We wait from minute to minute.
General.—Awaiting the unforeseen is a martyrdom.
Leonardo.—Still, we always wait, every instant of our lives . . .
Battista (Interrupting).—I have waited for two hours for my cup of coffee.
Leonardo.— . . . for something unforeseen and inevitable . . .
General.—And you, what are you doing over there? Why are you talking? Your voice annoys me. It seems a bad omen.
Leonardo.—Uncle, you offend my modesty . . .
General.—Who is up there with Clara?
Francesca.—The doctor and the nurse.
General.—And no one else?
Malvina.—No one else.
General.—Come here, Malvina.
Malvina.—What is the matter, General? Can't you rest?
General.—And who could? With this uncertainty that hangs over our heads. . . . (A pause, Malvina leaves the General's side.) Don't you see? We are here awaiting our sentence. Of life or death. And it all depends upon a cast of the dice. Upon chance. And what, after all, is chance? No one knows. And in the meantime it is our master. It is torture . . . Where are you, Malvina? Come here, come here! (Malvina returns to the General's side. He strokes her hair with a nervous hand.)
Don Antonio.—You would do better to trust, tranquilly, in the good God.
General—Sometimes your good God deceives us without
