ELFRIEDE--I am so deeply convinced of the moral significance of everything you say that the =utmost sacrifice= by which I could overcome my bourgeois helplessness would not be too great for me! CASTI-PIANI--No, no. I won’t agree to that! That would be horrible. Life is horrible enough. No, no, madam! Keep your fearful fingers off the one divine ray that pierces the shuddering night of our tortured earthly existence! What am I living for? Why do I take part in this civilization of ours? No, no! The one pure flower of heaven in life’s thorn-thicket, befouled with sweat and blood, shall not be trampled out under clumsy feet! Believe me, I beg you, that I would have shot a bullet through my head half a century ago if it had not been that above the wail shrieking to heaven from birth-pangs, woes of life and death-agonies, still gleamed this =one bright star=! ELFRIEDE--The utmost mental exertion fails to give me even an inkling of your meaning! What is that ray that pierces the night of our existence? What is the =one pure flower of heaven= that must not be trampled into the dirt? CASTI-PIANI--[_Taking_ ELFRIEDE’S _hand and whispering mysteriously_.] Sensual pleasure, gracious lady!--The laughing, sunny enjoyment of the senses! =Sensual joy is the ray=, the =flower of heaven=, because it is the one unclouded bliss, the one pure rapture undefiled, that earthly existence offers us. Believe me when I say that for half a century nothing has kept me in this world but selfless worship of this one full-throated laughing joy, this =sensual pleasure= that repays mankind for all the torments of existence! ELFRIEDE--I think somebody’s coming. CASTI-PIANI--Lisiska, probably! ELFRIEDE--Lisiska? Who is Lisiska? CASTI-PIANI--The girl who studied those books on the suppression of the white slave traffic in your house! In a moment you can convince yourself if I have said too much! We are prepared for such occasions, thank heaven. [_Takes her down right._] Sit down behind this screen. From here, even =you= can for once in your life watch the =clear, unsullied= bliss of two people whom the =joy of the senses= draws together! [ELFRIEDE _seats herself on the stool behind the screen, right_. CASTI-PIANI _goes to the centre door, glances out, and then retires behind the screen, left, and sits_. HERR KÖNIG _and_ LISISKA _enter, centre. He is a young man of twenty-five, in a gay sport-suit with knee-breeches._ LISISKA _is dressed in a simple white garment reaching to the calf, black stockings, patent-leather slippers, and a white bow in her loose black hair_.] HERR KÖNIG-- I have not come to while my time away, A sensualist in the circle of your charms, And will with gratitude and friendship pay If quickly sober’d I can leave your arms. LISISKA--