SCHIGOLCH. Then let's just retire again, quick.

ALVA. He's after his prayer-book. Here it is. It must have fallen out of his coat.

LULU. (_Listening._) No, that isn't he. That's some one else.

ALVA. Some one's coming up. I hear it quite plainly.

LULU. Now there's some one tapping at the door. Who may that be?

SCHIGOLCH. Probably a good friend he's recommended us to. Come in!

(_Countess Geschwitz enters, in poor clothes, with a canvas roll in her hand._)

GESCHWITZ. (_To Lulu._) If I've come at a bad time, I'll turn around again. The truth is, I haven't spoken to a living soul for ten days.

I must just tell you right off, I haven't got any money. My brother never answered me at all.

SCHIGOLCH. Your ladyship would now like to stretch her feet out under our table?

LULU. (_Tonelessly._) I'm going down again.

GESCHWITZ. Where are you going in this pomp?--However, I come not wholly empty-handed. I bring you something else. On my way here an old-clothes man offered me twelve shillings for it, but I could not force myself to part from it. You can sell it, though, if you want to.

SCHIGOLCH. What is it?

ALVA. Let us see it. (_Takes the canvas and unrolls it. Visibly rejoiced._) Oh, by G.o.d, it's Lulu's portrait!

LULU. (_Screaming._) Monster, you brought that here? Get it out of my sight! Throw it out of the window!

ALVA. (_Suddenly with renewed life, deeply pleased._) Why, I should like to know? Looking on this picture I regain my self-respect. It makes my fate comprehensible to me. Everything we have endured gets clear as day. (_In a somewhat elegiac strain._) Let him who feels secure in his middle-cla.s.s position when he sees these blossoming pouting lips, these child-eyes, big and innocent, this rose-white body abounding in life,--let him cast the first stone at us!

SCHIGOLCH. We must nail it up. It will make an excellent impression on our patrons.

ALVA. (_Energetic._) There's a nail sticking all ready for it in the wall.

SCHIGOLCH. But how did you come upon this acquisition?

GESCHWITZ. I secretly cut it out of the wall in your house, there, after you were gone.

ALVA. Too bad the color's got rubbed off round the edges. You didn't roll it up carefully enough. (_Fastens it to a high nail in the wall._)

SCHIGOLCH. It's got to have another one underneath if it's going to hold. It makes the whole flat look more elegant.

ALVA. Let me alone; I know how I'll do it. (_He tears several nails out of the wall, pulls off his left boot, and with its heel nails the edges of the picture to the wall._)

SCHIGOLCH. It's just got to hang a while again, to get its proper effect. Whoever looks at that'll imagine afterwards he's been in an Indian harem.

ALVA. (_Putting on his boot again, standing up proudly._) Her body was at its highest point of development when that picture was painted. The lamp, kid dear! Seems to me it's got extraordinarily dark.

GESCHWITZ. He must have been an eminently gifted artist who painted that!

LULU. (_Perfectly composed again, stepping before the picture with the lamp._) Didn't you know him, then?

GESCHWITZ. No. It must have been long before my time. I only occasionally heard chance remarks of yours, that he had cut his throat from persecution-mania.

ALVA. (_Comparing the picture with Lulu._) The child-like expression in the eyes is still absolutely the same in spite of all she has lived thru since. (_In joyous excitement._) The dewy freshness that covered her skin, the sweet-smelling breath from her lips, the rays of light that beam from her white forehead, and this challenging splendor of young flesh in throat and arms--

SCHIGOLCH. All that's gone with the rubbish wagon. She can say with self-a.s.surance: That was me once! The man she falls into the hands of to-day 'll have no conception of what we were when we were young.

ALVA. (_Cheerfully._) G.o.d be thanked, we don't notice the continual decline when we see a person all the time. (_Lightly._) The woman blooms for us in the moment when she hurls the man to destruction for the rest of his life. That is her nature and her destiny.

SCHIGOLCH. Down in the street-lamp's shimmer she's still a match for a dozen walking spectres. The man who still wants to make connections at this hour looks out more for heart-qualities than mere physical good points. He decides for the pair of eyes from which the least thievery sparkles.

LULU. (_Now as pleased as Alva._) I shall see if you're right. Adieu.

ALVA. (_In sudden anger._) You shall not go down again, as I live!

GESCHWITZ. Where do you want to go?

ALVA. Down to fetch up a man.

GESCHWITZ. Lulu!

ALVA. She's done it once to-day already.

GESCHWITZ. Lulu, Lulu, where you go I go too.

SCHIGOLCH. If you want to put your bones up for sale, kindly get a district of your own!

GESCHWITZ. Lulu, I shall not stir from your side! I have weapons upon me.

SCHIGOLCH. Confound it all, her ladyship plots to fish with our bait!

LULU. You're killing me. I can't stand it here any more. (_Exit._)

GESCHWITZ. You need fear nothing. I am with you. (_Follows her._)

ALVA. (_Whimpering, throws himself on his couch. Schigolch swears, loudly and grumbling._) I guess there's not much more good to expect on this side!

SCHIGOLCH. We ought to have held the creature back by the throat.

She'll scare away everything that breathes with her aristocratic death's head.

ALVA. She's flung me onto a sick-bed and larded me with thorns outside and in!

SCHIGOLCH. And she's still got enough strength in her body to do the same for ten men alright.

ALVA. No mortally wounded man'll ever find the stab of mercy welcomer than I!

SCHIGOLCH. If she hadn't enticed the acrobat to my place that time, we'd have him round our necks to-day too.

ALVA. I see it swinging above my head as Tantalus saw the branch with the golden apples!