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 a 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! 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 must speak with each other very seriously here. SCHWARZ. What does she do? SCHÖN. First count on your fingers what you have to thank her for, and then-- SCHWARZ. What does she do--man!! SCHÖN. And then make yourself responsible for your faults, and no one else. SCHWARZ. With whom? With whom? SCHÖN. If we should shoot each other-- SCHWARZ. Since when, then? SCHÖN. (Evasive.) --I don't come here to make scandal, I come to save you from the scandal. SCHWARZ. You have misunderstood her. SCHÖN. (Embarrassed.) That will not do for me. 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 told me nothing about that. SCHÖN. She sold flowers in front of the Alhambra Café. Every evening between twelve and two she pressed 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 you have not to do with moral degeneracy. The girl is, on the contrary, of extraordinarily good disposition. SCHWARZ. She said she had grown up with an aunt.