CASTI-PIANI--In Jungfrau-stock! I never have anything to do with stock. The Attorney General pays in the imperial currency, and Oikonomopulos pays in English gold. You can be on board early to-morrow. The passage doesn’t last much more than five days. In two weeks at most you’re in safety. Here you are nearer to prison than anywhere. It’s a wonder which I, as one of the secret police, cannot understand, that you two have been able to live for a full year unmolested. But just as _I_ came on the track of your antecedents, so any day, with your mighty consumption of men, one of my colleagues may make the happy discovery. Then I may just wipe my mouth, and you spend the most enjoyable years of your life in prison. If you will kindly decide quickly. The train goes at 12:30. If we haven’t struck a bargain before eleven, I whistle up the policeman. If we have, I pack you, just as you stand, into a carriage, drive you to the station, and to-morrow night escort you on board ship. LULU--But is it possible you can be serious in all this? CASTI-PIANI--Don’t you understand that your bodily rescue is the only thing left me to do? LULU--I’ll go with you to America or to China, but I can’t let myself be sold of my own accord! That is worse than prison! CASTI-PIANI--[_Drawing a letter from his pocket._] Just read this effusion! I’ll read it to you. Here’s the postmark “Cairo,” so you won’t believe I work with forged documents. The girl is a Berliner, was married two years and to a man whom you would have envied her, a former comrade of mine. He travels now for some Hamburg colonial company.... LULU--[_Merrily._] Then perhaps he =visits= his wife occasionally? CASTI-PIANI--That is not incredible. But hear this impulsive expression of her feelings. My white-slave traffic seems to me absolutely no more honorable than the first judge you happened on would think it, but a cry of joy like this lets me feel a certain moral satisfaction for a moment. I am proud to earn my money by scattering happiness with full hands. [_Reads._] “Dear Mr. Meyer”--that’s my name as a white-slave trader--“when you go to Berlin, please go right away to the conservatory on the Potsdamer Strasse and ask for Gusti von Rosenkron--the most beautiful woman that I’ve ever seen anywhere--delightful hands and feet, naturally small waist, straight back, full body, big eyes and short nose--just the sort you like best. I have written to her already. She has no prospects with her singing. Her mother hasn’t a penny. Sorry she’s already twenty-two, but she’s pining for love. Can’t marry, because absolutely without means. I have spoken with Madame. They’d like to take another German, if she’s well educated and musical. Italians and Frenchwomen can’t compete with us;--not cultured enough. If you should see Fritz”--Fritz is the husband; he’s getting a divorce, of course,--“tell him it was all a bore. He didn’t know any better, neither did I.” Now come the exact details----