PUNTSCHU--How have I given up the game? How have I got cold feet? The gentleman has merely to lay plain cash! Is this my banking-office I’m in? He can proffer me his trash to-morrow morning! HEILMANN--Trash you call that? The stock to my knowledge is at 210! PUNTSCHU--Yesterday it was at 210, you’re right. To-day, it’s just nowhere. And to-morrow you’ll find nothing cheaper or more tasteful to paper your stairs with. ALVA--But how is that possible? Then we =would= be down and out! PUNTSCHU---Well, what am _I_ to say, who have lost my whole fortune in it! To-morrow morning I shall have the pleasure of taking up the struggle for an assured existence for the thirty-sixth time! MAGELONE--[_Pressing forward._] Am I dreaming or do I really understand the Jungfrau-stock has fallen? PUNTSCHU--Fallen even lower than you! Tho you can use ’em for curl-paper. MAGELONE--O God in Heaven! Ten years’ work! [_Falls in a faint._] KADIDIA--Wake up, Mama! Wake up! BIANETTA--Say, Mr. Puntschu, where will you eat this evening, since you’ve lost your whole fortune? PUNTSCHU--Wherever you like, young lady! Take me where you will, but quickly! Here it’s getting quite alarming. [_Exeunt_ PUNTSCHU _and_ BIANETTA.] HEILMANN--[_Squeezing up his stock and flinging it to the ground._] That is what one gets from this pack! LUDMILLA--Why did you speculate on the Jungfrau too? But just send a few little notes on the company here to the German police, and you may still win something in the end. HEILMANN--I’ve never tried that yet, but if you want to help me----? LUDMILLA--Let’s go to an all-night restaurant. Do you know the Five-footed Calf? HEILMANN--I’m very sorry---- LUDMILLA--Or the Sucking Lamb, or the Smoking Dog? They’re all right near here. We’ll be all by ourselves there, and before dawn we’ll have a little article ready. HEILMANN--Don’t you sleep? LUDMILLA--Oh, of course; but not at night. [_Exeunt_ HEILMANN _and_ LUDMILLA.] ALVA--[_Who has been trying to resuscitate_ MAGELONE.] Ice-cold hands! Ah, what a splendid woman! We must undo her waist. Come, Kadidia, undo your mother’s waist! She’s so fearfully tight-laced. KADIDIA--[_Without stirring._] I’m afraid. [LULU _enters lower left in a jockey-cap, red jacket, white leather breeches and riding boots, a riding cape over her shoulders_.] LULU--Have you any cash, Alva? ALVA--[_Looking up._] Have you gone crazy? LULU--In two minutes the police’ll be here. We are denounced. You can stay, of course, if you’re eager to! ALVA--[_Springing up._] Merciful Heaven! [_Exeunt_ ALVA _and_ LULU.] KADIDIA--[_Shaking her mother, in tears._] Mama, Mama! Wake up! They’ve all run away! MAGELONE--[_Coming to herself._] And youth gone! And my best days behind me! Oh, this life! KADIDIA--But I’m young, Mama! Why shouldn’t I earn any money? I don’t want to go back to the convent! Please, Mama, keep me with you!