LULU--And if it’s the Chinese Emperor! SCHWARZ--One moment. [_Exit._] LULU--[_Visionary._] Thou? Thou? [_Closes her eyes._] SCHWARZ--[_Coming back._] A beggar, who says he was in the war. I have no small change on me. [_Taking up his palette and brushes._] It’s high time, too, that I should finally go to work. [_Goes out, right._ LULU _touches herself up before the glass, strokes back her hair, and goes out, returning leading in_ SCHIGOLCH.] SCHIGOLCH--I’d thought he was more of a swell--a little more glory to him. He’s sort of embarrassed. He quaked a little in the knees when he saw =me= in front of him. LULU--[_Shoving a chair round for him._] How can you beg from him, too? SCHIGOLCH--I’ve dragged my seventy-seven spring-times here just for that. You told me he kept at his painting in the mornings. LULU--He hadn’t got quite awake yet. How much do you need? SCHIGOLCH--Two hundred, if you have that much handy. Personally, I’d like three hundred. Some of my clients have evaporated. LULU--[_Goes to the writing-table and rummages in the drawers._] Whew, I’m tired! SCHIGOLCH--[_Looking round him._] This helped bring me, too. I’ve been wanting a long time to see how things were looking with you now. LULU--Well? SCHIGOLCH--It gives one cold shivers. [_Looking up._] Like with me fifty years ago. Instead of the loafing chairs we still had rusty old sabres then. Devil, but you’ve brought it pretty far! [_Scuffing._] Carpets.... LULU--[_Giving him two bills._] I like best to walk on them bare-footed. SCHIGOLCH--[_Scanning_ LULU’S _portrait_.] Is that you? LULU--[_Winking._] Pretty fine? SCHIGOLCH--If that’s the sort of thing. LULU--Have something sweet? SCHIGOLCH--What? LULU--[_Getting up._] Elixir de Spaa. SCHIGOLCH--That doesn’t help me---- Does he drink? LULU--[_Taking a decanter and glasses from a cupboard near the fireplace._] Not yet. [_Coming down-stage._] The cordial has such various effects! SCHIGOLCH--He comes to blows? LULU--He goes to sleep. [_She fills the two glasses._] SCHIGOLCH--When he’s drunk, you can see right into his insides. LULU--I’d rather not. [_Sits opposite_ SCHIGOLCH.] Talk to me. SCHIGOLCH--The streets keep on getting longer, and my legs shorter. LULU--And your harmonica? SCHIGOLCH--Wheezes, like me with my asthma. I just keep a-thinking it isn’t worth the trouble to make it better. [_They clink glasses._] LULU--[_Emptying her glass._] I’d been thinking that at last you were---- SCHIGOLCH--At last I was up and away? I thought so, too. But no matter how early the sun goes down, still we aren’t let lie quiet. I’m hoping for winter. Perhaps then my [_coughing_]--my--my asthma will invent some opportunity to carry me off. LULU--[_Filling the glasses._] Do you think they could have forgotten you up there? SCHIGOLCH--Would be possible, for it certainly isn’t going like it usually does. [_Stroking her knee._] Now you tell--not seen you a long time--my little Lulu.