SCHWARZ--[_Steps to the platform._] Permit me.... LULU--What do you want? SCHWARZ--I’ll show you. LULU--You mustn’t. SCHWARZ--You are nervous.... [_Tries to seize her hand._] LULU--[_Throws the crook in his face._] Let me alone! [_Hurries to the entrance door._] You’re a long way yet from getting me. SCHWARZ--You can’t understand a joke. LULU--Oh, yes, I can. I understand everything. Just you leave me be. You’ll get nothing at all from me by force. Go to your work. You have no right to molest me. [_Flees behind the ottoman._] Sit down behind your easel! SCHWARZ--[_Trying to get around the ottoman._] As soon as I’ve punished you--you wayward, capricious---- LULU--But you must have me, first! Go away. You can’t catch me. In long clothes I’d have fallen into your clutches long ago--but in the Pierrot! SCHWARZ--[_Throwing himself across the ottoman._] I’ve got you! LULU--[_Hurls the tiger-skin over his head._] Good night! [_Jumps over the platform and climbs up the step-ladder._] I can see away over all the cities of the earth. SCHWARZ--[_Unrolling himself from the rug._] This old skin! LULU--I reach up into heaven, and stick the stars in my hair. SCHWARZ--[_Clambering after her._] I’ll shake it till you fall off! LULU--If you don’t stop, I’ll throw the ladder down. [_Climbing higher._] Will you let go of my legs? God save the Poles! [_Makes the ladder fall over, jumps onto the platform, and as_ SCHWARZ _picks himself up from the floor, throws the Spanish screen down on his head. Hastening down-stage, by the easels._] I told you that you weren’t going to get me. SCHWARZ--[_Coming forward._] Let us make peace. [_Tries to embrace her._] LULU--Keep away from me, or---- [_She throws the easel with the finished picture at him, so that both fall crashing to the floor._] SCHWARZ--[_Screams._] Merciful Heaven! LULU--[_Up-stage, right._] You knocked the hole in it yourself! SCHWARZ--I am ruined! Ten weeks’ work, my journey, my exhibition! Now there is nothing more to lose! [_Plunges after her._] LULU--[_Springs over the ottoman, over the fallen step-ladder, and over the platform, down-stage._] A grave! Don’t fall into it! [_She stamps thru the picture on the floor._] She made a new man out of him! [_Falls forward._] SCHWARZ--[_Stumbling over the Spanish screen._] I am merciless now! LULU--[_Up-stage._] Leave me in peace now. I’m getting dizzy. O Gott! O Gott!... [_Comes forward and sinks down on the ottoman._ SCHWARZ _locks the door; then seats himself next to her, grasps her hand, and covers it with kisses--then pauses, struggling with himself._ LULU _opens her eyes wide_.] LULU--He may come back. SCHWARZ--How d’you feel? LULU--As if I had fallen into the water.... SCHWARZ--I love you. LULU--One time, I loved a student. SCHWARZ--Nellie---- LULU--With four-and-twenty scars---- SCHWARZ--I love you, Nellie. LULU--My name isn’t Nellie. [SCHWARZ _kisses her_.] It’s Lulu. SCHWARZ--I would call you Eve.