ESCHERICH--[_Writes._] Per-secu-tion--mania. [_The bell rings in the corridor._] CURTAIN ACT III SCENE--_A theatrical dressing-room, hung with red. Door upper right. Across upper left corner, a Spanish screen. Centre, a table set endwise, on which dance costumes lie. Chair on each side of this table. Lower right, a smaller table, with a chair. Lower left, a high, very wide, old-fashioned arm-chair. Above it, a tall mirror, with a make-up stand before it holding puff, rouge, etc., etc._ ALVA _is at lower right, filling two glasses with red wine and champagne_. ALVA--Never since I began to work for the stage have I seen the public so wildly enthusiastic. LULU--[_Voice from behind the screen._] Don’t give me too much red wine. Will he see me to-day? ALVA--Father? LULU--Yes. ALVA--I don’t know if he’s in the theater. LULU--Doesn’t he want to see me at all? ALVA--He has so little time. LULU--His =bride= occupies him. ALVA--Speculations. He gives himself no rest. [SCHÖN _enters_.] You? We’re just speaking of you. LULU--Is he there? SCHÖN--You’re changing? LULU--[_Peeping over the Spanish screen, to_ SCHÖN.] You write in all the papers that I’m the most gifted danseuse who ever trod the stage, a second Taglioni and I don’t know what else--and you haven’t once found me gifted enough to convince yourself of the fact. SCHÖN--I have so much to write. You see, I was convincing to others: there are hardly any seats left.--You must keep rather more in the proscenium. LULU--I must first accustom myself to the light. ALVA--She has kept strictly to her part. SCHÖN--[_To_ ALVA.] You must get more out of your performers! You don’t know enough yet about the technique. [_To_ LULU.] What do you come as now? LULU--As a flower-girl. SCHÖN--[_To_ ALVA.] In tights? ALVA--No. In a skirt to the ankles. SCHÖN--It would have been better if you hadn’t bothered with symbolism. ALVA--I look at a dancer’s feet. SCHÖN--The point is, what the public looks at. A vision like =her= has no need, praise God, of your symbolic mummery. ALVA--The public doesn’t look as if it were being bored! SCHÖN--Of course not; because I have been working the press in her favor for the last six months. Has the Prince been here? ALVA--Nobody’s been here. SCHÖN--Well, that’s what you get for letting a dancer come on thru two acts in raincoats. ALVA--Who is the Prince? SCHÖN--Shall we see each other afterwards? ALVA--Are you alone? SCHÖN--With acquaintances. At Peter’s? ALVA--At twelve? SCHÖN--At twelve. [_Exit._] LULU--I’d given up hoping that he’d ever come. ALVA--Don’t let yourself be misled by his grumpy growls. If you’ll only be careful not to spend all your strength before the last number begins--[LULU _steps out in a classical, sleeveless dress, white with a red border, a bright wreath in her hair and a basket of flowers in her hands_.]