HENRIETTE--The mail. I’m going to take your hat to the milliner, madam. Anything else? LULU--No. [SCHWARZ _signs to her to go out, which she does, slyly smiling_.] SCHWARZ--What were all the things you dreamt about last night? LULU--You’ve asked me that twice already this morning. SCHWARZ--[_Rises, takes up the letters._] News makes me tremble. Every day I fear the world may go to pieces. [_Giving_ LULU _a letter_.] For you. LULU--[_Sniffs at the paper._] Madame Corticelli. [_Hides it in her bosom._] SCHWARZ--[_Skimming a letter._] My Sama-queca-dancer sold--for fifty thousand marks! LULU--Who’s that from? SCHWARZ--Sedelmeier in Paris. That’s the third picture since our marriage. I hardly know how to escape my good fortune! LULU--[_Pointing to the letters._] There are more there. SCHWARZ--[_Opening an engagement announcement._] See. [_Gives it to_ LULU.] LULU--[_Reads._] “Sir Henry von Zarnikow has the honor to announce the engagement of his daughter, Charlotte Marie Adelaide, to Doctor Ludwig Schön.” SCHWARZ--[_As he opens another letter._] At last! He’s been an eternal while evading a public engagement. I can’t understand it--a man of his standing and influence. What can be in the way of his marriage? LULU--What is that that you’re reading? SCHWARZ--An invitation to take part in the international exhibition at St. Petersburg. I have no idea what to paint for it. LULU--Some entrancing girl or other, of course. SCHWARZ--Will you be willing to pose for it? LULU--God knows there are other pretty girls enough in existence! SCHWARZ--But with no other model--tho she be as racy as hell--can I so fully show the depth and range of my powers. LULU--Then I must, I suppose. Mightn’t it go as well, perhaps, lying down? SCHWARZ--Really, I’d like best to leave the composition to your taste. [_Folding up the letters._] Don’t let’s forget to congratulate Schön to-day, anyway. [_Goes left and shuts the letters in the writing-table._] LULU--But we did that a long time ago. SCHWARZ--For his bride’s sake. LULU--You can write to him again if you want. SCHWARZ--And now to work! [_Takes up his brushes and palette, kisses_ LULU, _goes up the steps, right, and turns around in the doorway_.] Eve! LULU--[_Lets her book sink, smiling._] Your pleasure? SCHWARZ--[_Approaching her._] I feel every day as if I were seeing you for the very first time. LULU--You’re a terror. SCHWARZ--You make me one. [_He sinks on his knees by the couch and caresses her hand._] LULU--[_Stroking his hair._] You’re using me up fast. SCHWARZ--You are mine. And you are never more ensnaring than when you ought for God’s sake to be, just once, real ugly for a couple of hours! Since I’ve had you, I have had nothing further. I’ve lost hold of myself entirely. LULU--Don’t be so passionate! [_Bell rings in the corridor._] SCHWARZ--[_Pulling himself together._] Confound it! LULU--No one at home! SCHWARZ--Perhaps it’s the art-dealer----