RODRIGO--I’ll run for the police! I’ll give information! This scarecrow let herself be seen in tights? The padding alone would cost two months’ salary!--You’re the most perfidious swindler that ever had lodging in Ox-butter Hotel! ALVA--Kindly refrain from insulting the lady! RODRIGO--Insulting, you call that? For this gnawed bone’s sake I’ve worn myself away! I can’t earn my own living! I’ll be a clown if I can still stand firm under a broomstick! But let the lightning strike me on the spot if I don’t worm ten thousand marks a year for life out of your tricks and frauds! I can tell you that! A pleasant trip! I’m going for the police! [_Exit._] SCHIGOLCH--Run, run. LULU--He’ll take good care of himself! SCHIGOLCH--We’re rid of =him=!--And now some black coffee for the lady! ALVA--[_At the table left._] Here is coffee, ready to pour. SCHIGOLCH--I must look after the sleeping-car tickets. LULU--[_Brightly._] Oh, freedom! Thank God for freedom! SCHIGOLCH--I’ll be back for you in half an hour. We’ll celebrate our departure in the station-restaurant. I’ll order a supper that’ll keep us going till to-morrow.--Good morning, Doctor. ALVA--Good evening. SCHIGOLCH--Pleasant rest!--Thanks, I know every door-handle here. So long! Have a good time! [_Exit, centre._] LULU--I haven’t seen a room for a year and a half. Curtains, chairs, pictures.... ALVA--Won’t you drink it? LULU--I’ve swallowed enough black coffee these five days. Have you any brandy? ALVA--I’ve got some elixir de Spaa. LULU--That reminds one of old times. [_Looks round the hall while_ ALVA _fills two glasses_.] Where’s my picture gone? ALVA--I’ve got it in my room, so no one shall see it here. LULU--Bring it here, do! ALVA--Haven’t you got over your vanity even in prison? LULU--How anxious at heart you get when you don’t see yourself for months! One day I got a brand-new dust-pan. When I swept up at seven in the morning I held the back of it up before my face. Tin doesn’t flatter, but I took pleasure in it all the same.--Get the picture out of your room. Shall I come, too? ALVA--No, Heaven’s sake! You must spare yourself! LULU--I’ve been sparing myself long enough now! [ALVA _goes out, right, to get the picture_.] He has heart-trouble; but to have to plague one’s self with imagination fourteen months!... He kisses with the fear of death on him, and his two knees shake like a frozen vagabond’s. In God’s name!... In this room--if only I had not shot his father in the back! ALVA--[_Returns with the picture of_ LULU _in the Pierrot-dress_.] It’s covered with dust. I had leant it against the fireplace, face to the wall. LULU--You didn’t look at it all the time I was away? ALVA--I had so much business to attend to, with the sale of our paper and everything. Countess Geschwitz would have liked to have hung it up in her house, but she had to be prepared for search-warrants. [_He puts the picture on the easel._]