LULU--[_Jerking back, smiling._] Life is beyond me! SCHIGOLCH--What do you know about it? You’re still so young! LULU--That you call me Lulu. SCHIGOLCH--Lulu, isn’t it? Have I ever called you anything else? LULU--I haven’t been called Lulu since man can remember. SCHIGOLCH--Some other kind of name? LULU--Lulu sounds to me quite antediluvian. SCHIGOLCH--Children! Children! LULU--My name now is---- SCHIGOLCH--As if the principle wasn’t always the same! LULU--You mean---- SCHIGOLCH--What is it now? LULU--=Eve=. SCHIGOLCH--Leapt, hopped, skipped, jumped.... LULU--That’s what I answer to. SCHIGOLCH--[_Gazing round._] This is the way I dreamt it for you. It’s your natural bent. [_Seeing_ LULU _sprinkling herself with perfume_.] What’s that? LULU--Heliotrope. SCHIGOLCH--Does that smell better than you? LULU--[_Sprinkling him._] That needn’t bother you any more. SCHIGOLCH--Who would have dreamt of this royal luxury before! LULU--When I think back--Ugh! SCHIGOLCH--[_Stroking her knee._] How’s it going with you, then? You still keep at the French? LULU--I lie and sleep. SCHIGOLCH--That’s genteel. That always looks like something. And afterwards? LULU--I stretch--till it cracks. SCHIGOLCH--And when it has cracked? LULU--What do you mind about that? SCHIGOLCH--What do I mind about that? What do I mind? I’d rather live till the last trump and renounce all heavenly joys than leave my Lulu deprived of anything down here behind me. What do I mind about that? It’s my sympathy. To be sure, my better self =is= already transfigured--but I still have some understanding of this world. LULU--I haven’t. SCHIGOLCH--You’re too well off. LULU--[_Shuddering._] Idiot.... SCHIGOLCH--Better than with the old dancing-bear? LULU--[_Sadly._] I don’t dance any more. SCHIGOLCH--He got his call all right. LULU--Now I am---- [_Stops._] SCHIGOLCH--Speak out from your heart, child! I believed in you when there was no more to be seen in you than your two big eyes. What are you now? LULU--A beast.... SCHIGOLCH--The deuce you---- And what kind of a beast? A fine beast! An elegant beast! A glorified beast!--Well, let them bury me quickly! We’re through with prejudices--even with the one against the corpse-washer. LULU--You needn’t be afraid that you will be washed once more. SCHIGOLCH--Doesn’t matter, either. One gets dirty again. LULU--[_Sprinkling him._] It would call you back to life again! SCHIGOLCH--We are mud. LULU--I beg your pardon! I rub grease into myself every day and then powder on top of it. SCHIGOLCH--Probably worth while, too, on the dressed-up mucker’s account. LULU--It makes the skin like satin. SCHIGOLCH--As if it weren’t just dirt all the same! LULU--Thank you. I wish to be worth nibbling at! SCHIGOLCH--We are. Give a big dinner down below there pretty soon. Keep open house. LULU--Your guests will hardly overeat themselves at it.