CASTI-PIANI--The life of man is tenfold death =before= death. Not merely for me. For you! For everything that breathes! For the ordinary man, life consists of pains, aches and tortures which his =body= suffers. And if a man struggles up to a higher plane, in the hope of escaping the sufferings of the body, then for him life consists of pains, aches and tortures which the soul endures and beside which the torments of the body were a kindness. How =horrible= this life is is shown by mankind’s having had to think out a Being that consisted of nothing but goodness, but love, but kindness,--and by all humanity’s having to pray daily, hourly to this Being, in order to endure its life at all! ELFRIEDE--[_Caressing him._] When you marry me, pains of the body and soul-pains alike will have an end! You need not plague yourself any longer with all these frightful questions. My mama has a private fortune of sixty thousand marks, and after all their twenty-five years of happy married life, Papa hasn’t an inkling of it. Doesn’t the prospect lure you, of marrying me and having sixty thousand marks cash suddenly at your disposal? CASTI-PIANI--[_Pushing her off nervously._] You don’t understand how to caress, young lady! You act like an ass that’s trying to be a setter. Your hands irritate me! That’s not because you haven’t learnt anything. It’s because of your having sprung from the enslaved love-life of conventional society. There’s nothing thoroughbred in your body. You lack the necessary delicacy! Delicacy, modesty, shame! You lack the feeling for the =effect= of your caresses, a feeling that every thoroughbred child is born with. ELFRIEDE--[_Springing up._] And you dare to tell me that in this house? CASTI-PIANI--[_Rising simultaneously._] That I dare tell you in this house! ELFRIEDE--In this house? That I lack the necessary delicacy, the necessary =shame=?! CASTI-PIANI--That you lack the necessary delicacy and sense of shame! In this house of ill-fame I tell you that! Get it into your head, once and for all, with what =fine tact= these creatures apply themselves to their defamed calling! The girl most lately come into this house knows more about the soul of man than the most famous professor of psychology in the most renowned university. You, young lady, would assuredly experience the same disappointments here as you have always had. The woman who is created for the love-market can be recognized at the first glance. Her frank and regular features shine with =innocent rapture= and blissful =innocence=.--[_Regarding_ ELFRIEDE.] In =your= face, with all due respect, I can find no trace of either rapture or innocence. ELFRIEDE--[_Hesitating._] Don’t you believe, my lord, that with my iron will, my energy, and my insuperable enthusiasm for the beautiful, I might yet acquire the delicacy and the fine tact of which you speak? CASTI-PIANI--No, no, madam!--please, no! Get rid of those notions on the spot!