PUNTSCHU--I am perfectly sure of my affairs, my dearie! ALVA--[_Who has come back from the card-room, to_ MAGELONE.] I can guarantee your fears are absolutely unfounded. I paid very dear for my Jungfrau-stock and haven’t regretted it a minute. They’re going up steadily from day to day. There never was such a thing before. MAGELONE--All the better, if you’re right. [_Taking_ PUNTSCHU’S _arm_.] Come, my friend, let’s try our luck now at baccarat. [_All go out, rear, except_ GESCHWITZ _and_ RODRIGO, _who scribbles something on a piece of paper and folds it up, then notices_ GESCHWITZ.] RODRIGO--Hm, madam Countess---- [GESCHWITZ _starts and shrinks_.] Do I look as dangerous as that? [_To himself._] I must make a bon mot. [_Aloud._] May I perhaps make so bold---- GESCHWITZ--You can go to the devil! CASTI-PIANI--[_As he leads_ LULU _in_.] You will allow me a word or two. LULU--[_Not noticing_ RODRIGO, _who presses his note into her hand_.] Oh, as many as you like. RODRIGO--[_As he bows and goes out, rear._] I beg you will excuse me.... CASTI-PIANI--[_To_ GESCHWITZ.] Leave us alone! LULU--[_To_ CASTI-PIANI.] Have I vexed you again somehow? CASTI-PIANI--[_Since_ GESCHWITZ _does not stir_.] Are you deaf? [GESCHWITZ, _sighing deeply, goes out, rear_.] LULU--Just say straight out how much you want. CASTI-PIANI--With money you can no longer serve me. LULU--What makes you think that we have no more money? CASTI-PIANI--You handed out the last bit of it to me yesterday. LULU--If you’re sure of that then I suppose it’s so. CASTI-PIANI--You’re down to bedrock, you and your writer. LULU--Then why all these words?--If you want to have me for yourself you need not first threaten me with execution. CASTI-PIANI--I know that. But I’ve told you more than once that you are not the sort I fall for. I haven’t plundered you because you loved me, but loved you in order to fleece you. Bianetta is more to my taste from top to bottom than you. You set out the choicest lot of sweetmeats, and when one has frittered his time away at them he finds he’s hungrier than before. You’ve loved too long, even for our relations here. With a healthy young man, you only ruin his nervous system. But you’ll fit all the more perfectly in the position I have sought out for you. LULU--You’re crazy! Have I commissioned you to find a position for me? CASTI-PIANI--I told you, though, that I was an employment-agent. LULU--You told me you were a police spy.