ACT III

_An attic room, without windows, but with two sky-lights, under one
of which stands a bowl filled with rain-water. Down right, a door
thru a board partition into a sort of cubicle under the slanting
roof. Near it, a wobbly flower-table with a bottle and a smoking
oil-lamp on it. Upper right, a worn-out couch. Door centre; near it,
a chair without a seat. Down left, below the entrance door, a torn
gray mattress. None of the doors can shut tight._

_The rain beats on the roof. Schigolch in a long gray overcoat lies
on the mattress; Alva on the couch, wrapped in a plaid whose straps
still hang on the wall above him._

SCHIGOLCH. The rain's drumming for the parade.

ALVA. Cheerful weather for her first appearance! I dreamt just now we
were dining together at Olympia. Bianetta was still with us. The
table-cloth was dripping on all four sides with champagne.

SCHIGOLCH. Ya, ya. And I was dreaming of a Christmas pudding. (_Lulu
appears, back, barefoot, in a torn black dress, but with her hair
falling to her shoulders._) Where have you been? Curling your hair
first?

ALVA. She only does that to revive old memories.

LULU. If one could only get warmed, just a little, from one of you!

ALVA. Will you enter barefoot on your pilgrimage?

SCHIGOLCH. The first step always costs all kinds of moaning and
groaning. Twenty years ago it was no whit better, and what she has
learned since then! The coals only have to be blown. When she's been
at it a week, not ten locomotives will hold her in our miserable
attic.

ALVA. The bowl is running over.

LULU. What shall I do with the water?

ALVA. Pour it out the window. (_Lulu gets up on the chair and empties
the bowl thru the sky-light._)

LULU. It looks as if the rain would let up at last.

SCHIGOLCH. Your wasting the time when the clerks go home after
supper.

LULU. Would to God I were lying somewhere where no step would wake me
any more!

ALVA. Would I were, too! Why prolong this life? Let's rather starve
to death together this very evening in peace and concord! Is it not
the last stage now?

LULU. Why don't *you* go out and get us something to eat? You've
never earned a penny in your whole life!

ALVA. In this weather, when no one would kick a dog from his door?

LULU. But me! I, with the little blood I have left in my limbs, I am
to stop your mouths!

ALVA. I don't touch a farthing of the money!

SCHIGOLCH. Let her go, just! I long for one more Christmas pudding;
then I've had enough.

ALVA. And I long for one more beefsteak and a cigarette; then die! I
was just dreaming of a cigarette, such as has never yet been smoked!

SCHIGOLCH. She'll see us put an end to before her eyes, before doing
herself a little pleasure.

LULU. The people on the street will sooner leave cloak and coat in my
hands than go with me for nothing! If you hadn't sold my clothes, I
at least wouldn't need to be afraid of the lamp-light. I'd like to
see the woman who could earn anything in the rags I'm wearing on my
body!

ALVA. I have left nothing human untried. As long as I had money I
spent whole nights making up tables with which one couldn't help
winning against the cleverest card-sharps. And yet evening after
evening I lost more than if I had shaken out gold by the pailful.

Then I offered my services to the courtesans; but they don't take
anyone without the stamps of the courts, and they see at the first
glance if one's related to the guillotine or not.

SCHIGOLCH. Ya, ya.

ALVA. I spared myself no disillusionments; but when I made jokes,
they laughed at *me*, and when I behaved as respectable as I am, they
boxed my ears, and when I tried being smutty, they got so chaste and
maidenly that my hair stood up on my head for horror. He who has not
prevailed over society, they have no confidence in.

SCHIGOLCH. Won't you kindly put on your boots now, child? I don't
think I shall grow much older in this lodging. It's months since I
had any feeling in the ends of my toes. Toward midnight, I'll drink a
bit more down in the pub. The lady that keeps it told me yesterday I
seemed to really want to be her lover.

LULU. In the name of the three devils, I'll go down! (_She puts to
her mouth the bottle on the flower-table._)

SCHIGOLCH. So they can smell your stink a half-hour off!

LULU. I shan't drink it all.

ALVA. You won't go down. You're my woman. You shan't go down. I
forbid it!

LULU. What would you forbid your woman when you can't support
yourself?

ALVA. Whose fault is that? Who but my woman has laid me on the
sick-bed?

LULU. Am I sick?

ALVA. Who has trailed me thru the dung? Who has made me my father's
murderer?

LULU. Did *you* shoot him? He didn't lose much, but when I see you
lying there I could hack off both my hands for having sinned so
against my judgment! (_She goes out, into her room._)

ALVA. She infected me from her Casti-Piani. It's a long time since
she was susceptible to it herself!

SCHIGOLCH. Little devils like her can't begin putting up with it too
soon, if angels are ever going to come out of them.

ALVA. She ought to have been born Empress of Russia. Then she'd have
been in the right place. A second Catherine the Second! (_Lulu
re-enters with a worn-out pair of boots, and sits on the floor to put
them on._)

LULU. If only I don't go headfirst down the stairs! Ugh, how cold! Is
there anything in the world more dismal than a daughter of joy?

SCHIGOLCH. Patience, patience! She's only got to take the right road
into the business at the start.

LULU. It's all right with me! Nothing's wrong with me any more.

(_Puts the bottle to her lips._) That warms one! O accursed!

(_Exit._)

SCHIGOLCH. When we hear her coming, we must creep into my cubby-hole
awhile.

ALVA. I'm damned sorry for her! When I think back.... I grew up with
her in a way, you know.

SCHIGOLCH. She'll hold out as long as I live, anyway.

ALVA. We treated each other at first like brother and sister. Mama
was still living then. I met her by chance one morning when she was
dressing. Dr. Goll had been called for a consultation. Her
hair-dresser had read my first poem, that I'd had printed in
"Society": "Follow thy pack far over the mountains; it will return
again, covered with sweat and dust--"

SCHIGOLCH. Oh, ya!

ALVA. And then she came, in rose-colored muslin, with nothing under
it but a white satin slip--for the Spanish ambassador's ball. Dr.

Goll seemed to feel his death near. He asked me to dance with her, so
she shouldn't cause any mad acts. Papa meanwhile never turned his
eyes from us, and all thru the waltz she was looking over my
shoulder, only at him.... Afterwards she shot him. It is
unbelievable.

SCHIGOLCH. I've only got a very strong doubt whether anyone will bite
any more.

ALVA. I shouldn't like to advise it to anybody! (_Schigolch grunts._)
At that time, tho she was a fully developed woman, she had the
expression of a five-year-old, joyous, utterly healthy child. And she
was only three years younger than me then--but how long ago it is
now! For all her immense superiority in matters of practical life,
she let me explain "Tristan and Isolde" to her--and how entrancingly
she could listen! Out of the little sister who at her marriage still
felt like a school-girl, came the unhappy, hysterical artist's wife.

Out of the artist's wife came then the spouse of my blessed father,
and out of *her* came, then, my mistress. Well, so that is the way of
the world. Who will prevail against it?

SCHIGOLCH. If only she doesn't skid away from the gentlemen with
honorable intentions and bring us up instead some vagabond she's
exchanged her heart's secrets with.

ALVA. I kissed her for the first time in her rustling bridal dress.

But afterwards she didn't remember it.... All the same, I believe she
had thought of me even in my father's arms. It can't have been often
with him: he had his best time behind him, and she deceived him with
coachman and boot-black; but when she did give herself to him, then
_I_ stood before her soul. Thru that, too, without my realizing it,
she attained this dreadful power over me.

SCHIGOLCH. There they are! (_Heavy steps are heard mounting the
stairs._)

ALVA. (_Starting up._) I will not endure it! I'll throw the fellow
out!

SCHIGOLCH. (_Wearily picks himself up, takes Alva by the collar and
cuffs him toward the left._) Forward, forward! How is the young man
to confess his trouble to her with us two sprawling round here?

ALVA. But if he demands other things--low things--of her?

SCHIGOLCH. If, well, if! What more will he demand of her? He's only a
man like the rest of us!

ALVA. We must leave the door open.

SCHIGOLCH. (_Pushing Alva in, right._) Nonsense! Lie down!

ALVA. I'll hear it soon enough. Heaven spare him!

SCHIGOLCH. (_Closing the door, from inside._) Shut up!

ALVA. (_Faintly._) He'd better look out! (_Lulu enters, followed by
Hunidei, a gigantic figure with a smooth-shaven, rosy face, sky-blue
eyes, and a friendly smile. He wears a tall hat and overcoat and
carries a dripping umbrella._)

LULU. Here's where I live. (_Hunidei puts his finger to his lips and
looks at Lulu significantly. Then he opens his umbrella and puts it
on the floor, rear, to dry._) Of course, I know it isn't very
comfortable here. (_Hunidei comes forward and puts his hand over her
mouth._) What do you mean me to understand by that? (_Hunidei puts
his hand over her mouth, and his finger to his lips._) I don't know
what that means. (_Hunidei quickly stops her mouth. Lulu frees
herself._) We're quite alone here. No one will hear us. (_Hunidei
lays his finger on his lips, shakes his head, points at Lulu, opens
his mouth as if to speak, points at himself and then at the door._)
Herr Gott, he's a monster! (_Hunidei stops her mouth; then goes rear,
folds up his overcoat and lays it over the chair near the door; then
comes down with a broad smile, takes Lulu's head in both his hands
and kisses her on the forehead. The door, right, half opens._)

SCHIGOLCH. (_Behind the door._) He's got a screw loose.

ALVA. He'd better look out!

SCHIGOLCH. She couldn't have brought up anything drearier!

LULU. (_Stepping back._) I hope you're going to give me something!

(_Hunidei stops her mouth and presses a gold-piece in her hand, then
looks at her uncertain, questioningly, as she examines it and throws
it from one hand to the other._)

LULU. All right, it's good. (_Puts it into her pocket. Hunidei
quickly stops her mouth, gives her a few silver coins, and glances at
her commandingly._) Oh, that's nice of you! (_Hunidei leaps madly
about the room, brandishing his arms and staring upward in despair.

Lulu cautiously nears him, throws an arm round him and kisses him on
the mouth. Laughing soundlessly, he frees himself from her and looks
questioningly. She takes up the lamp and opens the door to her room.

He goes in smiling, taking off his hat. The stage is dark save for
what light comes thru the cracks of the door. Alva and Schigolch
creep out on all fours._)

ALVA. They're gone.

SCHIGOLCH. (_Behind him._) Wait.

ALVA. One can hear nothing here.

SCHIGOLCH. You've heard that often enough!

ALVA. I will kneel before her door.

SCHIGOLCH. Little mother's sonny! (_Presses past Alva, gropes across
the stage to Hunidei's coat, and searches the pockets. Alva crawls to
Lulu's door._) Gloves, nothing more! (_Turns the coat round, searches
the inside pockets, pulls a book out that he gives to Alva._) Just
see what that is. (_Alva holds the book to the light._)

ALVA. (_Wearily deciphering the title-page._) Warnings to pious
pilgrims and such as wish to be so. Very helpful. Price, 2 s. 6 d.

SCHIGOLCH. It looks to me as if God had left *him* pretty completely.

(_Lays the coat over the chair again and makes for the cubby-hole._)
There's nothing doing with these people. The country's best time's
behind it!

ALVA. Life is never as bad as it's painted. (_He, too, creeps back._)

SCHIGOLCH. Not even a silk muffler he's got and yet in Germany we
creep on our bellies before this rabble.

ALVA. Come, let's vanish again.

SCHIGOLCH. She only thinks of herself, and takes the first man that
runs across her path. Hope the dog remembers her the rest of his
life! (_They disappear, left, shutting the door behind them. Lulu
re-enters, setting the lamp on the table. Hunidei follows._)

LULU. Will you come to see me again? (_Hunidei stops her mouth. She
looks upward in a sort of despair and shakes her head. Hunidei,
putting his coat on, approaches her grinning; she throws her arms
around his neck; he gently frees himself, kisses her hand, and turns
to the door. She starts to accompany him, but he signs to her to stay
behind and noiselessly leaves the room. Schigolch and Alva
re-enter._)

LULU. (_Tonelessly._) How he has stirred me up!

ALVA. How much did he give you?

LULU. (_As before._) Here it is! All! Take it! I'm going down again.

SCHIGOLCH. We can still live like princes up here.

ALVA. He's coming back.

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 God, 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-class 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-assurance: 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._) God 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!

SCHIGOLCH. (_On his mattress._) Won't you turn up the lamp a little?

ALVA. Can a simple, natural man in the wilderness suffer so
unspeakably?!--God, God, what have I made of my life!

SCHIGOLCH. What's the beastly weather made of my ulster! When I was
five-and-twenty, I knew how to help myself!

ALVA. It has not cost everyone my sunny, glorious youth!

SCHIGOLCH. I guess it'll go out in a minute. Till they come back
it'll be as dark in here again as in mother's womb.

ALVA. With the clearest consciousness of my purpose I sought
intercourse with people who'd never read a book in their lives. With
self-denial, with exaltation, I clung to the elements, that I might
be carried to the loftiest heights of poetic fame. The reckoning was
false. I am the martyr of my calling. Since the death of my father I
have not written a single line!

SCHIGOLCH. If only they haven't stayed together! Nobody but a silly
boy will go with two, no matter what.

ALVA. They've not stayed together!

SCHIGOLCH. That's what I hope. If need be, she'll keep the creature
off from her with kicks.

ALVA. One, risen from the dregs, is the most celebrated man of his
nation; another, born in the purple, lies in the mud and cannot die!

SCHIGOLCH. Here they come!

ALVA. And what blessed hours of mutual joy in creation they had lived
thru with each other!

SCHIGOLCH. They can do that now, for the first time rightly.--We must
hide again.

ALVA. I stay here.

SCHIGOLCH. Just what do you pity them for?--Who spends his money has
his good reasons for it!

ALVA. I have no longer the moral courage to let my comfort be
disturbed for a miserable sum of money! (_He wraps himself up in his
plaid._)

SCHIGOLCH. Noblesse oblige! A respectable man does what he owes his
position. (_He hides, left. Lulu opens the door, saying "Come right
in, dearie," and there enters Prince Kungu Poti, heir-apparent of
Uahubee, in a light suit, white spats, tan button-boots, and a gray
tall hat. His speech, interrupted with frequent hiccoughs, abounds
with the peculiar African hiss-sounds._)

KUNGU POTI. God damn--it's dark on the stairs!

LULU. It's lighter here, sweetheart. (_Pulling him forward by the
hand._) Come on!

KUNGU POTI. But it's cold here, awful cold!

LULU. Have some brandy?

KUNGU POTI. Brandy? You bet--always! Brandy's good!

LULU. (_Giving him the bottle._) I don't know where there's a glass.

KUNGU POTI. Doesn't matter. (_Drinks._) Brandy! Lots of it!

LULU. You're a nice-looking young man.

KUNGU POTI. My father's the emperor of Uahubee. I've got six wives
here, two Spanish, two English, two French. Well--I don't like my
wives. Always I must take a bath, take a bath, take a bath....

LULU. How much will you give me?

KUNGU POTI. Gold! Trust me, you shall have gold! One gold-piece. I
always give gold-pieces.

LULU. You can give it to me later, but show it to me.

KUNGU POTI. I never pay beforehand.

LULU. But you can show it to me, thoh!

KUNGU POTI. Don't understand, don't understand! Come,
Ragapsishimulara! (_Seizing Lulu round the waist._) Come on!

LULU. (_Defending herself with all her strength._) Let me be! Let me
be! (_Alva, who has risen painfully from his couch, sneaks up to
Kungu Poti from behind and pulls him back by the collar._)

KUNGU POTI. (_Whirling round._) Oh! Oh! This is a murder-hole! Come,
my friend, I'll put you to sleep! (_Strikes him over the head with a
loaded cane. Alva groans and falls in a heap._) Here's a
sleeping-draught! Here's opium for you! Sweet dreams to you! Sweet
dreams! (_Then he gives Lulu a kiss; pointing to Alva._) He dreams of
you, Ragapsishimulara! Sweet dreams! (_Rushing to the door._) Here's
the door!! (_Exit._)

LULU. But I'll not stay here?!--Who can stand it here now!--Rather
down onto the street! (_Exit. Schigolch comes out._)

SCHIGOLCH.--Blood!--Alva!--He's got to be put away somewhere.

Hop!--Or else our friends 'll get a shock from him--Alva! Alva!--He
that isn't quite clear about it--! One thing or t'other; or it'll
soon be too late! I'll give him legs! (_Strikes a match and sticks it
into Alva's collar...._) He will have his rest. But no one sleeps
here.--(_Drags him by the head into Lulu's room. Returning, he tries
to turn up the light._) It'll be time for me, too, right soon now, or
they'll get no more Christmas puddings down there in the tavern. God
knows when she'll be coming back from her pleasure tour! (_Fixing an
eye on Lulu's picture._) She doesn't understand business! She can't
live off love, because her life is love.--There she comes. I'll just
talk straight to her once--(_Countess Geschwitz enters._) ... If you
want to lodge with us to-night, kindly take a little care that
nothing is stolen here.

GESCHWITZ. How dark it is here!

SCHIGOLCH. It gets much darker than this.--The doctor's already gone
to rest.

GESCHWITZ. She sent me ahead.

SCHIGOLCH. That was sensible.--If anyone asks for me, I'm sitting
downstairs in the pub.

GESCHWITZ. (_After he has gone._) I will sit behind the door. I will
look on at everything and not quiver an eye-lash. (_Sits on the
broken chair._) Men and women don't know themselves--they know not
what they are. Only one who is neither man nor woman knows them.

Every word they say is untrue, a lie. And they do not know it, for
they are to-day so and to-morrow so, according as they have eaten,
drunk, and loved, or not. Only the body remains for a time what it
is, and only the children have reason. The men and women are like the
animals: none knows what it does. When they are happiest they bewail
themselves and groan, and in their deepest misery they rejoice over
every tiny morsel. It is strange how hunger takes from men and women
the strength to withstand misfortune. But when they have fed full
they make this world a torture-chamber, they throw away their lives
to satisfy a whim, a mood. Have there ever once been men and women to
whom love brought happiness? And what is their happiness, save that
they sleep better and can forget it all? My God, I thank thee that
thou hast not made me as these. I am not man nor woman. My body has
nothing common with their bodies. Have I a human soul? Tortured
humanity has a little narrow heart; but I know I deserve nothing when
I resign all, sacrifice all.... (_Lulu opens the door, and Dr. Hilti
enters. Geschwitz, unnoticed, remains motionless by the door._)

LULU. (_Gaily._) Come right in! Come!--you'll stay with me all night?

DR. HILTI. (_His accent is very broad and flat._) But I have no more
than five shillings on me. I never take more than that when I go out.

LULU. That's enough, because it's you! You have such faithful eyes!

Come, give me a kiss! (_Dr. Hilti begins to swear, in the broadest
north-country vowels._) Please, don't say that.

DR. HILTI. By the de'il, 'tis the first time I've e'er gone with a
girrl! You can believe me. Mass, I hadn't thought it would be like
this!

LULU. Are you married?

DR. HILTI. Heaven and Hail, why do you think I am married?--No, I'm a
tutor; I read philosophy at the University. The truth is, I come of a
very old country family. As a student, I got just two shillings
pocket-money, and I could make better use of that than for girrls!

LULU. So you have never been with a woman?

DR. HILTI. Just so, yes! But I want it now. I got engaged this
evening to a country-woman of mine. She's a governess here.

LULU. Is she pretty?

DR. HILTI. Yaw, she's got a hundred thousand.--I am very eager, as it
seems to me....

LULU. (_Tossing back her hair._) I *am* in luck! (_Takes the lamp._)
Well, if you please, Mr. Tutor? (_They go into her room. Geschwitz
draws a small black revolver from her pocket and sets it to her
forehead._)

GESCHWITZ.--Come, come,--beloved! (_Dr. Hilti tears open the door
again.--_)

DR. HILTI. (_Plunging in._) Insane seraphs! Some one's lying in
there!

LULU. (_Lamp in hand, holds him by the sleeve._) Stay with me!

DR. HILTI. A dead man! A corpse!

LULU. Stay with me! Stay with me!

DR. HILTI. (_Tearing away._) A corpse is lying in there! Horrors!

Hail! Heaven!

LULU. Stay with me!

DR. HILTI. Where d's it go out? (_Sees Geschwitz._) And there is the
devil!

LULU. Please, stop, stay!

DR. HILTI. Devil, devilled devilry!--Oh, thou eternal--(_Exit._)

LULU. (_Rushing after him._) Stop! Stop!

GESCHWITZ. (_Alone, lets the revolver sink._) Better, hang! If she
sees me lie in my blood to-day she'll not weep a tear for me! I have
always been to her but the docile tool that could be used for the
heaviest labor. From the first day she has abhorred me from the
depths of her soul.--Shall I not rather jump from the bridge? Which
could be colder, the water or her heart? I would dream till I was
drowned.--Better, hang!-- --Stab?--Hm, there would be no use in
that-- --How often have I dreamt that she kissed me! But a minute
more; an owl knocks there at the window, and I wake up.-- --Better,
hang! Not water; water is too clean for me. (_Starting up._)
There!--There! There it is!--Quick now, before she comes! (_Takes the
plaid-straps from the wall, climbs on the chair, fastens them to a
hook in the door-post, puts her head thru them, kicks the chair away,
and falls to the ground._) Accursed life!--Accursed life!--Could it
be before me still??--Let me speak just once to thy heart, my angel!

But thou art cold!--I am not to go yet! Perhaps I am even to have
been happy once.--Listen to him, Lulu! I am not to go yet! (_She
drags herself before Lulu's picture, sinks to her knees and folds her
hands._) My adored angel! My love! My star!--Have mercy upon me, pity
me, pity me, pity me!

(_Lulu opens the door, and Jack enters--a thick-set man of elastic
movements, with a pale face, inflamed eyes, arched and heavy brows, a
drooping mustache, thin imperial and shaggy whiskers, and fiery red
hands with gnawed nails. His eyes are fixed on the ground. He wears a
dark overcoat and a little round felt hat. Entering, he notices
Geschwitz._)

JACK. Who is that?

LULU. That's my sister. She's crazy. I don't know how to get rid of
her.

JACK. Your mouth looks beautiful.

LULU. It's my mother's.

JACK. Looks like it. How much do you want? I haven't got much money.

LULU. Won't you spend the night with me here?

JACK. No, haven't got the time. I must get home.

LULU. You can tell them at home to-morrow that you missed the last
'bus and spent the night with a friend.

JACK. How much do you want?

LULU. I'm not after lumps of gold, but, well, a little something.

JACK. (_Turning._) Good night! Good night!

LULU. (_Holds him back._) No, no! Stay, for God's sake!

JACK. (_Goes past Geschwitz and opens the cubicle._) Why should I
stay here till morning? Sounds suspicious! When I'm asleep they'll
turn my pockets out.

LULU. No, I won't do that! No one will! Don't go away again for that!

I beg you!

JACK. How much do you want?

LULU. Then give me the half of what I said!

JACK. No, that's too much. You don't seem to have been at this long?

LULU. To-day is the first time. (_She jerks back Geschwitz, on her
knees still, half turned toward Jack, by the straps around her
neck._) Lie down and be quiet!

JACK. Let her alone! She isn't your sister. She is in love with you.

(_Strokes Geschwitz's head like a dog's._) Poor beast!

LULU. Why do you stare at me so all at once?

JACK. I got your measure by the way you walked. I said to myself:
That girl must have a well-built body.

LULU. How can you see things like that?

JACK. I even saw that you had a pretty mouth. But I've only got a
florin on me.

LULU. Well, what difference does that make! Just give that to me!

JACK. But you'll have to give me half back, so I can take the 'bus
to-morrow morning.

LULU. I have nothing on me.

JACK. Just look, thoh. Hunt thru your pockets!--Well, what's that?

Let's see it!

LULU. (_Showing him._) That's all I have.

JACK. Give it to me!

LULU. I'll change it to-morrow, and then give you half.

JACK. No, give it all to me.

LULU. (_Giving it._) In God's name! But now you come! (_Takes up the
lamp._)

JACK. We need no light. The moon's out.

LULU. (_Puts the lamp down._) As you say. (_She falls on his neck._)
I won't harm you at all! I love you so! Don't let me beg you any
longer!

JACK. Alright; I'm with you. (_Follows her into the cubby-hole. The
lamp goes out. On the floor under the two sky-lights appear two vivid
squares of moonlight. Everything in the room is clearly seen._)

GESCHWITZ. (_As in a dream._) This is the last evening I shall spend
with these people. I'm going back to Germany. My mother'll send me
the money. I'll go to a university. I must fight for woman's rights;
study law.... (_Lulu shrieks, and tears open the door._)

LULU. (_Barefoot, in chemise and petticoat, holding the door shut
behind her._) Help!

GESCHWITZ. (_Rushes to the door, draws her revolver, and pushing Lulu
aside, aims it at the door. As Lulu again cries "Help!"_) Let go!

(_Jack, bent double, tears open the door from inside, and runs a
knife into Geschwitz's body. She fires one shot, at the roof, and
falls with suppressed crying, crumpling up. Jack tears her revolver
from her and throws himself against the exit-door._)

JACK. God damn! I never saw a prettier mouth! (_Sweat drips from his
hairy face. His hands are bloody. He pants, gasping violently, and
stares at the floor with eyes popping out of his head. Lulu,
trembling in every limb, looks wildly round. Suddenly she seizes the
bottle, smashes it on the table, and with the broken neck in her hand
rushes upon Jack. He swings up his right foot and throws her onto her
back. Then he lifts her up._)

LULU. No, no!--Mercy!--Murder!--Police! Police!

JACK. Be still. You'll never get away from me again. (_Carries her
in._)

LULU. (_Within, right._) No!--No!--No!-- --Ah!--Ah!...

(_After a pause, Jack re-enters. He puts the bowl on the table._)

JACK. That *was* a piece of work! (_Washing his hands._) I *am* a
damned lucky chap! (_Looks round for a towel._) Not even a towel,
these folks here! Hell of a wretched hole! (_He dries his hands on
Geschwitz's petticoat._) This invert is safe enough from me! (_To
her._) It'll soon be all up with you, too. (_Exit._)

GESCHWITZ. (_Alone._) Lulu!--My angel!--Let me see thee once more! I
am near thee--stay near thee--forever! (_Her elbows give way._) O
cursed--!! (_Dies._)

CURTAIN.