ALVA. I told you, didn't I, I was the basest villain. LULU. I see that! ALVA. I have no sense of honor, no pride.... LULU. You think I am your equal! ALVA. You?--you are as heavenly high above me as--as the sun is over the abyss! (Kneeling.) Destroy me! I beg you, put an end to me! Put an end to me! LULU. Do you =love= me then? ALVA. I will pay you with everything that was mine! LULU. Do you love me? ALVA. Do you love me--Mignon? LULU. I? Not a soul. ALVA. I love you. (Hides his face in her lap.) LULU. (Both hands in his hair.) I poisoned your mother-- (Rodrigo sticks his head out from the curtains, left, sees Schön sitting in the gallery and signs to him to watch Lulu and Alva. Schön points his revolver at Rodrigo; Rodrigo signs to him to point it at Alva. Schön cocks the revolver and takes aim. Rodrigo draws back behind the curtains. Lulu sees him draw back, sees Schön sitting in the gallery, and gets up.) His father! (Schön rises, lets the hangings fall before him. Alva remains motionless on his knees. Pause.) SCHÖN. (Holding a paper in his hand, takes Alva by the shoulder.) Alva! (Alva gets up as though drunk with sleep.) A revolution has broken out in Paris. ALVA. To Paris ... let me go to Paris-- SCHÖN. In the editors' room they're beating their heads against the wall. No one knows what he ought to write. (He unfolds the paper and accompanies Alva out, rear. Rodrigo rushes out from the curtains toward the stairs.) LULU. (Barring his way.) You can't get out here. RODRIGO. Let me through! LULU. You'll run into his arms. RODRIGO. He'll shoot me thru the head! LULU. He's coming. RODRIGO. (Stumbling back.) Devil, death and demons! (Lifts the table-cloth.) HUGENBERG. No room! RODRIGO. Damned and done for! (Looks around and hides in the door-way, right.) SCHÖN. (Comes in, centre; locks the door; and goes, revolver in hand, to the window down left, of which he throws up the curtains.) Where is =he= gone? LULU. (On the lowest step.) Out. SCHÖN. Down over the balcony? LULU. He's an acrobat. SCHÖN. That could not be foreseen. (Turning against Lulu.) You who drag me thru the muck of the streets to a tortured death! LULU. Why did you not bring me up better? SCHÖN. You destroying angel! You inexorable fate! To be a murderer without drowning in filth; to take me on board like a released convict, or hang me up over the morass! You joy of my old age! You hangman's noose! LULU. (In cold blood.) Oh, shut up, and kill me! SCHÖN. Everything I possess I have made over to you, and asked nothing but the respect that every servant pays to my house. Your credit is exhausted! LULU. I can answer for my reckoning still for years. (Coming forward from the stairs.) How do you like my new gown?