Chapter IX: Act II

SCENE--_A very ornamental parlor. Entrance-door rear, left. Curtained
entrances right and left, steps leading up to the right one. On
the back wall over the fireplace_, LULU’S _Pierrot picture in a
magnificent frame. Right, above the steps, a tall mirror; facing
it, right centre, a chaise longue. Left, an ebony writing-table.
Centre, a few chairs around a little Chinese table._

LULU _stands motionless before the mirror, in a green silk
morning-dress. She frowns, passes a hand over her forehead, feels
her cheeks, and draws back from the mirror with a discouraged,
almost angry, look. Frequently turning round, she goes left, opens
a cigarette-case on the writing-table, lights herself a cigarette,
looks for a book among those that are lying on the table, takes
one, and lies down on the chaise longue opposite the mirror. After
reading a moment, she lets the book sink, and nods seriously to
herself in the glass; then resumes reading._ SCHWARZ _enters,
left, palette and brushes in hand, and bends over_ LULU, _kisses
her on the forehead, and goes up the steps, right_.

SCHWARZ--[_Turning in the doorway._] Eve!

LULU--[_Smiling._] At your orders?

SCHWARZ--Seems to me you look extra charming to-day.

LULU--[_With a glance at the mirror._] Depends on what you expect.

SCHWARZ--Your hair breathes out a morning freshness....

LULU--I’ve just come out of the water.

SCHWARZ--[_Approaching her._] I’ve an awful lot to do to-day.

LULU--You tell yourself you have.

SCHWARZ--[_Lays his palette and brushes down on the carpet, and sits on the edge of the couch._] What are you reading?

LULU--[_Reads._] “Suddenly she heard an anchor of refuge come nodding up the stairs.”

SCHWARZ--Who under the sun writes so absorbingly?

LULU--[_Reading._] “It was the postman with a money-order.” [HENRIETTE, _the servant, comes in, upper left, with a hat-box on her arm and a little tray of letters which she puts on the table_.]

HENRIETTE--The mail. I’m going to take your hat to the milliner, madam. Anything else?

LULU--No. [SCHWARZ _signs to her to go out, which she does, slyly smiling_.]

SCHWARZ--What were all the things you dreamt about last night?

LULU--You’ve asked me that twice already this morning.

SCHWARZ--[_Rises, takes up the letters._] News makes me tremble. Every day I fear the world may go to pieces. [_Giving_ LULU _a letter_.] For you.

LULU--[_Sniffs at the paper._] Madame Corticelli. [_Hides it in her bosom._]

SCHWARZ--[_Skimming a letter._] My Sama-queca-dancer sold--for fifty thousand marks!

LULU--Who’s that from?

SCHWARZ--Sedelmeier in Paris. That’s the third picture since our marriage. I hardly know how to escape my good fortune!

LULU--[_Pointing to the letters._] There are more there.

SCHWARZ--[_Opening an engagement announcement._] See. [_Gives it to_ LULU.]

LULU--[_Reads._] “Sir Henry von Zarnikow has the honor to announce the engagement of his daughter, Charlotte Marie Adelaide, to Doctor Ludwig Schön.”

SCHWARZ--[_As he opens another letter._] At last! He’s been an eternal while evading a public engagement. I can’t understand it--a man of his standing and influence. What can be in the way of his marriage?

LULU--What is that that you’re reading?

SCHWARZ--An invitation to take part in the international exhibition at St. Petersburg. I have no idea what to paint for it.

LULU--Some entrancing girl or other, of course.

SCHWARZ--Will you be willing to pose for it?

LULU--God knows there are other pretty girls enough in existence!

SCHWARZ--But with no other model--tho she be as racy as hell--can I so fully show the depth and range of my powers.

LULU--Then I must, I suppose. Mightn’t it go as well, perhaps, lying down?

SCHWARZ--Really, I’d like best to leave the composition to your taste. [_Folding up the letters._] Don’t let’s forget to congratulate Schön to-day, anyway. [_Goes left and shuts the letters in the writing-table._]

LULU--But we did that a long time ago.

SCHWARZ--For his bride’s sake.

LULU--You can write to him again if you want.

SCHWARZ--And now to work! [_Takes up his brushes and palette, kisses_ LULU, _goes up the steps, right, and turns around in the doorway_.] Eve!

LULU--[_Lets her book sink, smiling._] Your pleasure?

SCHWARZ--[_Approaching her._] I feel every day as if I were seeing you for the very first time.

LULU--You’re a terror.

SCHWARZ--You make me one. [_He sinks on his knees by the couch and caresses her hand._]

LULU--[_Stroking his hair._] You’re using me up fast.

SCHWARZ--You are mine. And you are never more ensnaring than when you ought for God’s sake to be, just once, real ugly for a couple of hours! Since I’ve had you, I have had nothing further. I’ve lost hold of myself entirely.

LULU--Don’t be so passionate! [_Bell rings in the corridor._]

SCHWARZ--[_Pulling himself together._] Confound it!

LULU--No one at home!

SCHWARZ--Perhaps it’s the art-dealer----

LULU--And if it’s the Chinese Emperor!

SCHWARZ--One moment. [_Exit._]

LULU--[_Visionary._] Thou? Thou? [_Closes her eyes._]

SCHWARZ--[_Coming back._] A beggar, who says he was in the war. I have no small change on me. [_Taking up his palette and brushes._] It’s high time, too, that I should finally go to work. [_Goes out, right._ LULU _touches herself up before the glass, strokes back her hair, and goes out, returning leading in_ SCHIGOLCH.]

SCHIGOLCH--I’d thought he was more of a swell--a little more glory to him. He’s sort of embarrassed. He quaked a little in the knees when he saw =me= in front of him.

LULU--[_Shoving a chair round for him._] How can you beg from him, too?

SCHIGOLCH--I’ve dragged my seventy-seven spring-times here just for that. You told me he kept at his painting in the mornings.

LULU--He hadn’t got quite awake yet. How much do you need?

SCHIGOLCH--Two hundred, if you have that much handy. Personally, I’d like three hundred. Some of my clients have evaporated.

LULU--[_Goes to the writing-table and rummages in the drawers._] Whew, I’m tired!

SCHIGOLCH--[_Looking round him._] This helped bring me, too. I’ve been wanting a long time to see how things were looking with you now.

LULU--Well?

SCHIGOLCH--It gives one cold shivers. [_Looking up._] Like with me fifty years ago. Instead of the loafing chairs we still had rusty old sabres then. Devil, but you’ve brought it pretty far! [_Scuffing._] Carpets....

LULU--[_Giving him two bills._] I like best to walk on them bare-footed.

SCHIGOLCH--[_Scanning_ LULU’S _portrait_.] Is that you?

LULU--[_Winking._] Pretty fine?

SCHIGOLCH--If that’s the sort of thing.

LULU--Have something sweet?

SCHIGOLCH--What?

LULU--[_Getting up._] Elixir de Spaa.

SCHIGOLCH--That doesn’t help me---- Does he drink?

LULU--[_Taking a decanter and glasses from a cupboard near the fireplace._] Not yet. [_Coming down-stage._] The cordial has such various effects!

SCHIGOLCH--He comes to blows?

LULU--He goes to sleep. [_She fills the two glasses._]

SCHIGOLCH--When he’s drunk, you can see right into his insides.

LULU--I’d rather not. [_Sits opposite_ SCHIGOLCH.] Talk to me.

SCHIGOLCH--The streets keep on getting longer, and my legs shorter.

LULU--And your harmonica?

SCHIGOLCH--Wheezes, like me with my asthma. I just keep a-thinking it isn’t worth the trouble to make it better. [_They clink glasses._]

LULU--[_Emptying her glass._] I’d been thinking that at last you were----

SCHIGOLCH--At last I was up and away? I thought so, too. But no matter how early the sun goes down, still we aren’t let lie quiet. I’m hoping for winter. Perhaps then my [_coughing_]--my--my asthma will invent some opportunity to carry me off.

LULU--[_Filling the glasses._] Do you think they could have forgotten you up there?

SCHIGOLCH--Would be possible, for it certainly isn’t going like it usually does. [_Stroking her knee._] Now you tell--not seen you a long time--my little Lulu.

LULU--[_Jerking back, smiling._] Life is beyond me!

SCHIGOLCH--What do you know about it? You’re still so young!

LULU--That you call me Lulu.

SCHIGOLCH--Lulu, isn’t it? Have I ever called you anything else?

LULU--I haven’t been called Lulu since man can remember.

SCHIGOLCH--Some other kind of name?

LULU--Lulu sounds to me quite antediluvian.

SCHIGOLCH--Children! Children!

LULU--My name now is----

SCHIGOLCH--As if the principle wasn’t always the same!

LULU--You mean----

SCHIGOLCH--What is it now?

LULU--=Eve=.

SCHIGOLCH--Leapt, hopped, skipped, jumped....

LULU--That’s what I answer to.

SCHIGOLCH--[_Gazing round._] This is the way I dreamt it for you. It’s your natural bent. [_Seeing_ LULU _sprinkling herself with perfume_.] What’s that?

LULU--Heliotrope.

SCHIGOLCH--Does that smell better than you?

LULU--[_Sprinkling him._] That needn’t bother you any more.

SCHIGOLCH--Who would have dreamt of this royal luxury before!

LULU--When I think back--Ugh!

SCHIGOLCH--[_Stroking her knee._] How’s it going with you, then? You still keep at the French?

LULU--I lie and sleep.

SCHIGOLCH--That’s genteel. That always looks like something. And afterwards?

LULU--I stretch--till it cracks.

SCHIGOLCH--And when it has cracked?

LULU--What do you mind about that?

SCHIGOLCH--What do I mind about that? What do I mind? I’d rather live till the last trump and renounce all heavenly joys than leave my Lulu deprived of anything down here behind me. What do I mind about that? It’s my sympathy. To be sure, my better self =is= already transfigured--but I still have some understanding of this world.

LULU--I haven’t.

SCHIGOLCH--You’re too well off.

LULU--[_Shuddering._] Idiot....

SCHIGOLCH--Better than with the old dancing-bear?

LULU--[_Sadly._] I don’t dance any more.

SCHIGOLCH--He got his call all right.

LULU--Now I am---- [_Stops._]

SCHIGOLCH--Speak out from your heart, child! I believed in you when there was no more to be seen in you than your two big eyes. What are you now?

LULU--A beast....

SCHIGOLCH--The deuce you---- And what kind of a beast? A fine beast! An elegant beast! A glorified beast!--Well, let them bury me quickly! We’re through with prejudices--even with the one against the corpse-washer.

LULU--You needn’t be afraid that you will be washed once more.

SCHIGOLCH--Doesn’t matter, either. One gets dirty again.

LULU--[_Sprinkling him._] It would call you back to life again!

SCHIGOLCH--We are mud.

LULU--I beg your pardon! I rub grease into myself every day and then powder on top of it.

SCHIGOLCH--Probably worth while, too, on the dressed-up mucker’s account.

LULU--It makes the skin like satin.

SCHIGOLCH--As if it weren’t just dirt all the same!

LULU--Thank you. I wish to be worth nibbling at!

SCHIGOLCH--We are. Give a big dinner down below there pretty soon. Keep open house.

LULU--Your guests will hardly overeat themselves at it.

SCHIGOLCH--Patience, girl! Your worshippers won’t put you in alcohol, either. It’s “schöne Melusine” as long as it keeps reacting. Afterwards? They don’t take it at the zoölogical garden. [_Rising._] The gentle beasties might get stomach-cramps.

LULU--[_Getting up._] Have you enough?

SCHIGOLCH--Enough and some to spare for planting a juniper on my grave.--I’ll find my own way out. [_Exit._ LULU _follows him, and presently returns with_ DR. SCHÖN.]

SCHÖN--What’s your father doing here?

LULU--What’s the matter?

SCHÖN--If I were your husband that man would never cross my threshold.

LULU--You can be intimate with me. He’s not here. [_Referring to_ SCHWARZ.]

SCHÖN--Thank you, I’d rather not.

LULU--I don’t understand.

SCHÖN--I know you don’t. [_Offering her a seat._] That is just the point I’d like to speak to you about.

LULU--[_Sitting down uncertainly._] Then why didn’t you yesterday?

SCHÖN--Please, nothing now about yesterday. I did tell you two years ago.

LULU--[_Nervously._] Oh, yes,--hm!

SCHÖN--Please be kind enough to cease your visits to my house.

LULU--May I offer you an elixir----

SCHÖN--Thanks. No elixir. Have you understood me? [LULU _shakes her head_.] Good. You have the choice. You force me to the most extreme measures:--either act in accordance with your station----

LULU--Or?

SCHÖN--Or--you compel me--I may have to turn to that person who is responsible for your behavior.

LULU--How can you imagine that----?

SCHÖN--I shall request your husband, himself to keep watch over your doings. [LULU _rises, goes up the steps, right_.] Where are you going?

LULU--[_Calls thru the curtains._] Walter!

SCHÖN--[_Springing up._] Are you mad?

LULU--[_Turning round._] Aha!

SCHÖN--I have made the most superhuman efforts to raise you in society. You can be ten times as proud of your name as of your intimacy with me.

LULU--[_Comes down the steps and puts her arm around_ SCHÖN’S _neck_.] Why are you still afraid, now that you’re at the zenith of your hopes?

SCHÖN--No comedy! The zenith of my hopes? I am at last engaged: I have still to hope that I may bring my bride into a clean house.

LULU--[_Sitting._] She has developed delightfully in the two years!

SCHÖN--She no longer looks thru one so earnestly.

LULU--She is now, for the first time, a woman. We can meet each other wherever seems suitable to you.

SCHÖN--We shall meet each other nowhere but in the presence of your husband!

LULU--You don’t believe yourself what you say.

SCHÖN--Then =he= must believe it, at least. Go on and call him! Thru his marriage to you, thru all that I’ve done for him, he has become my friend.

LULU--[_Rising._] Mine, too.

SCHÖN--And that way I’ll cut down the sword over my head.

LULU--You have, indeed, put chains upon me. But I owe my happiness to you. You will get friends by the crowd as soon as you have a pretty young wife again.

SCHÖN--You judge women by yourself! He’s got the sense of a child or he would have tracked out your doublings and windings long ago.

LULU--I only wish he would! Then, at last he’d get out of his swaddling-clothes. He puts his trust in the marriage contract he has in his pocket. Trouble is past and gone. One can now give oneself and let oneself go as if one were at home. That isn’t the sense of a =child=! It’s banal! He has no education; he sees nothing; he sees neither me nor himself; he is blind, blind, blind....

SCHÖN--[_Half to himself._] When =his= eyes open!

LULU--Open his eyes for him! I’m going to ruin. I’m neglecting myself. He doesn’t know me at all. What am I to him? He calls me darling and little devil. He would say the same to any piano-teacher. He makes no pretensions. Everything is all right, to him. That comes from his never in his life having felt the need of intercourse with women.

SCHÖN--If that’s true!

LULU--He admits it perfectly openly.

SCHÖN--A man who has painted them, rags and tags and velvet gowns, since he was fourteen.

LULU--Women make him anxious. He trembles for his health and comfort. But he isn’t afraid of =me=!

SCHÖN--How many girls would deem themselves God knows how blessed in your situation.

LULU--[_Softly pleading._] Seduce him. Corrupt him. You know how. Take him into bad company--you know the people. I am nothing to him but a woman, just woman. He makes me feel so ridiculous. He will be prouder of me. He doesn’t know any differences. I’m thinking my head off, day and night, how to shake him up. In my despair I dance the can-can. He yawns; and drivels something about obscenity.

SCHÖN--Nonsense. He is an artist, though.

LULU--At least he believes he is.

SCHÖN--That’s the chief thing!

LULU--When _I_ pose for him.... He believes, too, that he’s a famous man.

SCHÖN--We =have= made him one.

LULU--He believes everything. He’s as diffident as a thief, and lets himself be lied to, till one loses all respect! When we first got to know each other I made him believe I had never loved before--[SCHÖN _falls into an easy-chair_.] Otherwise he would really have taken me for some sort of reprobate!

SCHÖN--You make God knows what exorbitant demands on =legitimate= relations!

LULU--I make no exorbitant demands. Often I even dream still of Goll.

SCHÖN--He was, at any rate, not banal!

LULU--He is there, as if he had never been away. Only he walks as tho in his socks. He isn’t angry with me; he’s awfully sad. And then he is fearful, as tho he were there without the permission of the police. Otherwise, he feels at ease with us. Only he can’t quite get over my having thrown away so much money since----

SCHÖN--You yearn for the whip once more?

LULU--Maybe. I don’t dance any more.

SCHÖN--Teach him to do it.

LULU--A waste of trouble.

SCHÖN--Out of a hundred women, ninety educate their husbands to suit themselves.

LULU--He loves me.

SCHÖN--That’s fatal, of course.

LULU--He loves me----

SCHÖN--That is an unbridgeable abyss.

LULU--He doesn’t know me, but he loves me! If he had anything approaching a true idea of me, he’d tie a stone around my neck and sink me in the sea where it’s deepest.

SCHÖN--Let’s finish this. [_He gets up._]

LULU--As you say.

SCHÖN--I’ve married you off. Twice I have married you off. You live in luxury. I’ve created a position for your husband. If that doesn’t satisfy you, and he laughs in his sleeve at it,--I don’t indulge in ideal expectations, but--leave me out of the game, out of it!

LULU--[_Resolutely._] If I belong to any person on this earth, I belong to you. Without you I’d be--I won’t say where. You took me by the hand, gave me food to eat, had me dressed,--when I was going to steal your watch. Do you think that can be forgotten? Anybody else would have called the police. You sent me to school, and had me learn manners. Who but you in the whole world has ever had any kindness for me? I’ve danced and posed, and was glad to be able to earn my living that way. But =love= at command, I can’t!

SCHÖN--[_Raising his voice._] Leave =me= out! Do what you will. I haven’t come to raise a row; I’ve come to shake myself free of it. My engagement is costing me sacrifices enough! I had imagined that with a healthy young husband--and a woman of your years can hope for none better--you would, at last, have been contented. If you are under obligations to me, don’t throw yourself a third time in my way! Am I to wait yet longer before putting my pile in security? Am I to risk letting the final success of all my concessions during the last two years slip from me? What good is it to me to have you married, when you can be seen going in and out of my house at every hour of the day?--Why the devil didn’t Dr. Goll stay alive just one year more! With him you were in safe keeping. Then I’d have had my wife long since under my roof!

LULU--And what would you have had then? The kid gets on your nerves. The child is too uncorrupted for you. She’s been much too carefully brought up. What should I have against your marriage? But you’re making a big mistake if you think that your imminent marriage warrants you in expressing your contempt of me!

SCHÖN--Contempt?--I shall soon give the child the right idea. If anything is contemptible, it’s your intrigues!

LULU--[_Laughing._] Am I jealous of the child? That never once entered my head.

SCHÖN--Then why talk about the child? The child is not even a whole year younger than you are. Leave me my freedom to live what life I still have. No matter how the child’s been brought up, she’s got her five senses just like you.... [SCHWARZ _appears, right, brush in hand_.]

SCHWARZ--What’s the matter here?

LULU--[_To_ SCHÖN.] Well? Go on. Talk.

SCHWARZ--What’s the matter with you two?

LULU--Nothing that touches you----

SCHÖN--[_Sharply._] Quiet!

LULU--He’s had enough of me. [SCHWARZ _leads her off, to the right_.]

SCHÖN--[_Turning over the leaves in one of the books on the table._] It had to come out--I must have my hands free at last!

SCHWARZ--[_Coming back._] Is that any way to jest?

SCHÖN--[_Pointing to a chair._] Please.

SCHWARZ--What is it?

SCHÖN--Please.

SCHWARZ--[_Seating himself._] Well?

SCHÖN--[_Seating himself._] You have married half a million....

SCHWARZ--Is it gone?

SCHÖN--Not a penny.

SCHWARZ--Explain to me the peculiar scene....

SCHÖN--You have married half a million----

SCHWARZ--No one can make a crime of that.

SCHÖN--You have created a name for yourself. You can work unmolested. You need to deny yourself no wish----

SCHWARZ--What have you two got against me?

SCHÖN--For six months you’ve been revelling in all the heavens. You have a wife whom the world envies you, and she deserves a man whom she can respect----

SCHWARZ--Doesn’t she respect me?

SCHÖN--No.

SCHWARZ--[_Depressed._] I come from the dark depths of society. She is above me. I cherish no more ardent wish than to become her equal. [_Offers_ SCHÖN _his hand_.] Thank you.

SCHÖN--[_Pressing it, half embarrassed._] Don’t mention it.

SCHWARZ--[_With determination._] Speak!

SCHÖN--Keep a little more watch on her.

SCHWARZ--I--on her?

SCHÖN--We are not children! We don’t trifle! We live!--She demands that she be taken seriously. Her value gives her a perfect right to be.

SCHWARZ--What does she do, then?

SCHÖN--You have married half a million!

SCHWARZ--[_Rises; beside himself._] She----?

SCHÖN--[_Takes him by the shoulder._] No, that’s not the way! [_Forces him to sit._] We have a very grave matter here to discuss.

SCHWARZ--What does she do?

SCHÖN--First count over on your fingers all you have to thank her for, and then----

SCHWARZ--What does she do--man!

SCHÖN--And then make yourself responsible for your failings,--no one else.

SCHWARZ--With whom? With whom?

SCHÖN--If we should shoot each other----

SCHWARZ--Since when, then?

SCHÖN--[_Evasive._] --I have not come here to make a scandal, but to rescue you =from= scandal.

SCHWARZ--[_Shaking his head._] You have misunderstood her.

SCHÖN--[_Embarrassed._] That gets us nowhere. I can’t see you go on living in blindness. The girl deserves to be a respectable woman. Since I have known her she has improved as she developed.

SCHWARZ--Since you have known her? Since when have you known her then?

SCHÖN--Since about her twelfth year.

SCHWARZ--[_Bewildered._] She never told me that.

SCHÖN--She used to sell flowers in front of the Alhambra Café. Every evening between twelve and two she would press in among the guests, bare-footed.

SCHWARZ--She told me nothing of that.

SCHÖN--She did right there. I’m telling you, so you may see that hers is not a case of moral degeneracy. The girl is, on the contrary, of extraordinarily good disposition.

SCHWARZ--She said she had grown up with an aunt.

SCHÖN--That was the woman I gave her to. She was her best pupil. The mothers used to make her an example to their children. She has the feeling for duty. It is simply and solely your mistake if you have till now neglected to appeal to the best in her.

SCHWARZ--[_Sobbing._] O God!----

SCHÖN--[_With emphasis._] No O God! Of the happiness you have enjoyed nothing can be changed. The past is past. You overrate yourself against your better knowledge if you persuade yourself you will lose. You stand to gain. But with “O God” nothing is gained. I have never done you a greater kindness: I speak out plainly and offer you my help. Don’t show yourself unworthy of it!

SCHWARZ--[_From now on more and more broken up._] When I first knew her, she told me she had never loved before.

SCHÖN--When a widow says =that=---- It does her credit that she chose you for a husband. Make the same claims on yourself and your happiness is without a blot.

SCHWARZ--She says he had her wear short dresses.

SCHÖN--But he married her! That was her master-stroke. How she brought the man to it is beyond me. But you must know by now. You are enjoying the fruits of her diplomacy.

SCHWARZ--Where did Dr. Goll get to know her? How?

SCHÖN--Through me! It was after my wife’s death, when I was making the first advances to my present fiancée. She thrust herself between us. She had set her heart on becoming my wife.

SCHWARZ--[_As if seized with a horrible suspicion._] And then when her husband died?

SCHÖN--You married half a million!

SCHWARZ--[_Wailing._] Oh, to have stayed where I was! To have died of hunger!

SCHÖN--[_Superior._] Do you think, then, that _I_ make no compromises? Who is there that does not compromise? You have married half a million. You are to-day one of our foremost artists. Such things can’t be done without money. You are not the man to sit in judgment on her. You can’t possibly treat an origin like Mignon’s according to the notions of bourgeois society.

SCHWARZ--[_Quite distraught._] Whom are you speaking of?

SCHÖN--Of her father! You’re an artist, I say: your ideals are on a different plane from those of a wage-worker.

SCHWARZ--I don’t understand a word of all that.

SCHÖN--I am speaking of the inhuman conditions out of which, thanks to her good management, the girl has developed into what she is!

SCHWARZ--Who?

SCHÖN--Who? Your wife.

SCHWARZ--=Eve=?

SCHÖN--I called her Mignon.

SCHWARZ--I thought her name was Nellie?

SCHÖN--Dr. Goll called her so.

SCHWARZ--I called her Eve----

SCHÖN--What her real name is I don’t know.

SCHWARZ--[_Absently._] Perhaps she knows.

SCHÖN--With a father like hers, she is, with all her faults, an utter miracle. I don’t understand you----

SCHWARZ--He died in a madhouse----

SCHÖN--He was here just now!

SCHWARZ--Who was here?

SCHÖN--Her father.

SCHWARZ--Here--in my home?

SCHÖN--He squeezed by me as I came in. And there are the two glasses still.

SCHWARZ--She says he died in the madhouse.

SCHÖN--[_Encouragingly._] Let her feel your authority! Only make her render you unconditional obedience, and she asks no more. With Dr. Goll she was in heaven, and there was no joking him.

SCHWARZ--[_Shaking his head._] She said she had never loved----

SCHÖN--But start with yourself. Pull yourself together!

SCHWARZ--She has sworn----

SCHÖN--You can’t expect a sense of duty in her before you know your own task.

SCHWARZ--By her mother’s grave!

SCHÖN--She never knew her mother, let alone the grave. Her mother hasn’t got a grave.

SCHWARZ--I don’t fit in society. [_He is in desperation._]

SCHÖN--What’s the matter?

SCHWARZ--Pain--horrible pain!

SCHÖN--[_Gets up, steps back; after a pause._] Guard her for yourself, because she’s yours.--The moment is decisive. To-morrow she may be lost to you.

SCHWARZ--[_Pointing to his breast._] Here, here.

SCHÖN--You have married half----[_Reflecting._] She is lost to you if you let this moment slip!

SCHWARZ--If I could weep! Oh, if I could cry out!

SCHÖN--[_With a hand on his shoulder._] You’re suffering----

SCHWARZ--[_Getting up, apparently quiet._] You are right, quite right.

SCHÖN--[_Gripping his hand._] Where are you going?

SCHWARZ--To speak with her.

SCHÖN--Right! [_Accompanies him to the door, left. Coming back._] That was tough work. [_After a pause, looking right._] He had taken her into the studio before, tho...? [_A fearful groan, left. He hurries to the door and finds it locked._] Open! Open the door!

LULU--[_Stepping thru the hangings, right._] What’s----

SCHÖN--Open it!

LULU--[_Comes down the steps._] That is horrible.

SCHÖN--Have you an ax in the kitchen?

LULU--He’ll open it right off----

SCHÖN--I can’t kick it in.

LULU--When he’s had his cry out.

SCHÖN--[_Kicking the door._] Open! [_To_ LULU.] Bring me an ax.

LULU--Send for the doctor----

SCHÖN--You are not yourself.

LULU--It serves you right. [_Bell rings in the corridor._ SCHÖN _and_ LULU _stare at each other. Then_ SCHÖN _slips up-stage and stands in the doorway_.]

SCHÖN--I mustn’t let myself be seen here now.

LULU--Perhaps it’s the art-dealer. [_The bell rings again._]

SCHÖN--But if we don’t answer it---- [LULU _steals toward the door; but_ SCHÖN _holds her_.] Stop. It sometimes happens that one is not just at hand--[_He goes out on tiptoe._ LULU _turns back to the locked door and listens_. SCHÖN _returns with_ ALVA.] Please be quiet.

ALVA--[_Very excited._] A revolution has broken out in Paris!

SCHÖN--Be quiet.

ALVA--[_To_ LULU.] You’re as pale as death.

SCHÖN--[_Rattling at the door._] Walter! Walter! [_A death-rattle is heard behind the door._]

LULU--God pity you.

SCHÖN--Haven’t you brought an ax?

LULU--If there’s one there---- [_Goes slowly out, upper left._]

ALVA--He’s just keeping us in suspense.

SCHÖN--A revolution has broken out in Paris?

ALVA--Up in the office the editors are tearing their hair. Not one of them knows what to write about it. [_The bell rings in the corridor._]

SCHÖN--[_Kicking against the door._] Walter!

ALVA--Shall I run against it?

SCHÖN--I can do that. Who may be coming now? [_Standing up._] That’s what it is to enjoy life and let others take the consequences!

LULU--[_Coming back with a kitchen-ax._] Henriette has come home.

SCHÖN--Shut the door behind you.

ALVA--Give it here. [_Takes the ax and pounds with it between the jamb and the lock._]

SCHÖN--You must hold it nearer the end.

ALVA--It’s cracking-- [_The lock gives_; ALVA _lets the ax fall and staggers back. Pause._]

LULU--[_To_ SCHÖN, _pointing to the door_.] After you. [SCHÖN _flinches, drops back_.] Are you getting--dizzy? [SCHÖN _wipes the sweat from his forehead and goes in_.]

ALVA--[_From the couch._] Ghastly!

LULU--[_Stopping in the doorway, finger on lips, cries out sharply._] Oh! Oh! [_Hurries to_ ALVA.] I can’t stay here.

ALVA--Horrible!

LULU--[_Taking his hand._] Come.

ALVA--Where to?

LULU--I can’t be alone. [_Goes out with_ ALVA, _right_. SCHÖN _comes back, a bunch of keys in his hand, which shows blood. He pulls the door to, behind him, goes to the writing-table, opens it, and writes two notes._]

ALVA--[_Coming back, right._] She’s changing her clothes.

SCHÖN--She has gone?

ALVA--To her room. She’s changing her clothes. [SCHÖN _rings_. HENRIETTE _comes in_.]

SCHÖN--You know where Dr. Bernstein lives?

HENRIETTE--Of course, Doctor. Right next door.

SCHÖN--[_Giving her one note._] Take that over to him, please.

HENRIETTE--In case the doctor is not at home?

SCHÖN--He is at home. [_Giving her the other note._] And take this to police headquarters. Take a cab. [HENRIETTE _goes out_.] I am judged!

ALVA--My blood has congealed.

SCHÖN--[_Toward the left._] The fool!

ALVA--He waked up to something, perhaps?

SCHÖN--He has been too much absorbed in himself. [LULU _appears on the steps, right, in dustcoat and hat_.]

ALVA--Where are you going now?

LULU--Out. I see it on all the walls.

SCHÖN--Where are his papers?

LULU--In the desk.

SCHÖN--[_At the desk._] Where?

LULU--Lower right-hand drawer. [_She kneels and opens the drawer, emptying the papers on the floor._] Here. There is nothing to fear. He had no secrets.

SCHÖN--Now I can just withdraw from the world.

LULU--[_Still kneeling._] Write a pamphlet about him. Call him Michelangelo.

SCHÖN--What good’ll that do? [_Pointing left._] There lies my engagement.

ALVA--That’s the curse of your game!

SCHÖN--Shout it through the streets!

ALVA--[_Pointing to_ LULU.] If you had treated that girl fairly and justly when my mother died----

SCHÖN--My engagement is bleeding to death there!

LULU--[_Getting up._] I shan’t stay here any longer.

SCHÖN--In an hour they’ll be selling extras. I dare not go across the street!

LULU--Why, what can you do to help it?

SCHÖN--That’s just it! They’ll stone me for it!

ALVA--You must get away--travel.

SCHÖN--To leave the scandal a free field!

LULU--[_By the couch._] Ten minutes ago he was lying here.

SCHÖN--This is the reward for all I’ve done for him! In one second he wrecks my whole life for me!

ALVA--Control yourself, please!

LULU--[_On the couch._] There’s no one here but us!

ALVA--But look at =us=!

SCHÖN--[_To_ LULU.] What do you want to tell the police?

LULU--Nothing.

ALVA--He didn’t want to remain a debtor to his destiny.

LULU--He always had thoughts of death immediately.

SCHÖN--He had thoughts that an ordinary human can only dream of.

LULU--He had paid dearly for it.

ALVA--He had what we don’t have!

SCHÖN--[_Suddenly violent._] I know your motives! I have no cause to consider you! If you try every means to prevent having any brothers and sisters, that’s all the more reason why I should get more children.

ALVA--You’ve a poor knowledge of men.

LULU--You get out an extra yourself!

SCHÖN--[_With passionate indignation._] He had no moral sense! [_Suddenly controlling himself again._] Paris in revolution----?

ALVA--Our editors act as though they’d been struck. Everything has stopped dead.

SCHÖN--That’s got to help me over this!--Now if only the police would come. The minutes are worth more than gold. [_The bell rings in the corridor._]

ALVA--There they are---- [SCHÖN _starts to the door_. LULU _jumps up_.]

LULU--Wait, you’ve got blood----

SCHÖN--Where?

LULU--Wait, I’ll wipe it. [_Sprinkles her handkerchief with heliotrope and wipes the blood from_ SCHÖN’S _hand_.]

SCHÖN--It’s your husband’s blood.

LULU--It leaves no trace.

SCHÖN--Monster!

LULU--You will marry me, all the same. [_The bell rings in the corridor._] Only have patience, children. [SCHÖN _goes out and returns with_ ESCHERICH, _a reporter_.]

ESCHERICH--[_Breathless._] Allow me to--to introduce myself----

SCHÖN--You’ve run?

ESCHERICH--[_Giving him his card._] From police headquarters. A suicide, I understand.

SCHÖN--[_Reads._] “Fritz Escherich, correspondent of the ‘News and Novelties.’” Come along.

ESCHERICH--One moment. [_Takes out his notebook and pencil, looks around the parlor, writes a few words, bows to_ LULU, _writes, turns to the broken door, writes_.] A kitchen-ax. [_Starts to lift it._]

SCHÖN--[_Holding him back._] Excuse me.

ESCHERICH--[_Writing._] Door broken open with a kitchen-ax. [_Examines the lock._]

SCHÖN--[_His hand on the door._] Look before you, my dear sir.

ESCHERICH--Now if you will have the kindness to open the door---- [SCHÖN _opens it_. ESCHERICH _lets book and pencil fall, clutches at his hair_.] Merciful Heaven! God!

SCHÖN--Look it all over carefully.

ESCHERICH--I can’t look at it!

SCHÖN--[_Snorting scornfully._] Then what did you come here for?

ESCHERICH--To--to cut up--to cut up his throat with a razor!

SCHÖN--Have you seen it all?

ESCHERICH--That must feel----

SCHÖN--[_Draws the door to, steps to the writing-table._] Sit down. Here is paper and pen. Write.

ESCHERICH--[_Mechanically taking his seat._] I can’t write----

SCHÖN--[_Behind his chair._] Write! Persecution--mania....

ESCHERICH--[_Writes._] Per-secu-tion--mania. [_The bell rings in the corridor._]

CURTAIN