Fontanares
Do you wish to ruin me?

Quinola
Do you wish to see me go to prison and your machine to the devil?

Fontanares
I do not.

Quinola
Permit me then to bring about the return of this grandfather? He will
be the first of his company to return from the West Indies.

SCENE SIXTH

The same persons and Monipodio.

Quinola
How goes it?

Monipodio
Your princess has received her letter.

Fontanares
What kind of a man is this Don Ramon?

Monipodio
He is an ass.

Quinola
Is he envious?

Monipodio
As three rejected play-writers. He makes himself out to be a wonderful
man.

Quinola
But does any one believe him?

Monipodio
They look upon him as an oracle. He scribbles off his treatises,
explaining that the snow is white because it falls from heaven, and he
maintains, in contradiction to Galileo, that the earth does not move.

Quinola
Do you not plainly see, senor, that I must rid you of this
philosopher? (To Monipodio) You come with me; you must be my servant.
(Exeunt.)

SCENE SEVENTH

Fontanares (alone)
What brain, even though it be encased in bronze, could stand the
strain of this search after money, while also making an inquiry into
the most jealously guarded secrets of nature? How can the mind,
engaged in such quests, have time for distrusting men, fighting them,
and combining others against them? It is no easy thing to see at once
what course had best be taken, in order to prevent Don Ramon from
stealing my glory, and Don Ramons abound on every side. I at last dare
to avow that my endurance is exhausted.

SCENE EIGHTH

Fontanares, Esteban, Girone and two workmen.

Esteban
Can any of you tell me where a person named Fontanares is hiding
himself?

Fontanares
He is not hiding himself. I am he; he is merely meditating in silence.
(Aside) Where is Quinola? He would know how to send them away
satisfied. (Aloud) What do you want?

Esteban
We want our money! We have been working without wages for three weeks;
the laborer lives from day to day.

Fontanares
Alas, my friends, I do not live at all!

Esteban
You are alone; you can pinch your belly. But we have wives and
children. At the present moment we have pawned everything.

Fontanares
Have confidence in me.

Esteban
Can we pay the baker with this confidence in you?

Fontanares
I am a man of honor.

Girone
Hark you! We also ar