LULU. But then swear! SCHIGOLCH. Haven't I always kept my word to you? LULU. Swear that you'll look after him! SCHIGOLCH. I'll look after him. LULU. Swear it to me! Swear it to me! SCHIGOLCH. (_Puts his hand on her ankle._) By everything that's holy! To-night, if he comes-- LULU. By everything that's holy!--How cool that is! SCHIGOLCH. How hot this is! LULU. Drive straight home. They'll come in half-an-hour! Take a carriage! SCHIGOLCH. I'm going. LULU. Quick! Please!-- --All-powerful-- SCHIGOLCH. Why do you stare at me so again already? LULU. Nothing--.... SCHIGOLCH. Well? Is your tongue frozen on you? LULU. My garter's broken. SCHIGOLCH. What if it is? Is that all? LULU. What does that augur? SCHIGOLCH. What does it? I'll fasten it for you if you'll keep still. LULU. That augurs misfortune! SCHIGOLCH. (_Yawning._) Not for you, child. Cheer up, I'll look after him! (_Exit. Lulu puts her left foot on a foot-stool, fastens her garter, and goes out into the card-room. Then Rodrigo is cuffed in from the dining-room, lower left, by Casti-Piani._) RODRIGO. You can treat me decently anyway! CASTI-PIANI. (_Still perfectly unemotional._) Whatever would induce me to do that? I will know what you said to her here a little while ago. RODRIGO. Then you can be very fond of me! CASTI-PIANI. Will you bandy words with me, dog? You demanded that she go up in the lift with you! RODRIGO. That's a shameless, perfidious lie! CASTI-PIANI. She told me so herself. You threatened to denounce her if she didn't go with you.--Shall I shoot you on the spot? RODRIGO. The shameless hussy! As if anything like that could occur to me!--Even if I should want to have her, God knows I don't first need to threaten her with prison! CASTI-PIANI. Thank you. That's all I wanted to know. (_Exit, upper left._) RODRIGO. Such a hound! A fellow I could throw up onto the roof so he'd stick like a Limburger cheese!--Come back here, so I can wind your guts round your neck. That would be even better! LULU. (_Enters, lower left; merrily._) Where were you? I've been hunting for you like a pin. RODRIGO. I've shown *him* what it means to start anything with me! LULU. Whom? RODRIGO. Your Casti-Piani! What made you tell him, you slut, that I wanted to seduce you?! LULU. Did you not ask me to give myself to my deceased husband's son for twenty thousand in Jungfrau shares? RODRIGO. Because it's your duty to take pity on the poor young fellow! You shot away his father before his nose in the very best years of life! But your Casti-Piani will think it over before he comes into my sight again. I gave him one in the basket that made the tripes fly to heaven like Roman candles. If you've got no better substitute for me, then I'm sorry ever to have had your favor! LULU. Lady Geschwitz is in the fearfullest case. She twists herself up in fits. She's at the point of jumping into the water if you let her wait any longer. RODRIGO. What's the beast waiting for?