LULU--[_Without wreath or basket, to_ ALVA.] You’re called for. I was three times before the curtain. [_To_ ESCERNY.] Dr. Schön is not in your box? ESCERNY--Not in mine. ALVA--[_To_ LULU.] Didn’t you see him? LULU--He is probably away again. ESCERNY--He has the furthest lower box on the left. LULU--It seems he is ashamed of me! ALVA--There wasn’t a good seat left for him. LULU--[_To_ ALVA.] Ask him, though, if he likes me better now. ALVA--I’ll send him up. ESCERNY--He applauded. LULU--Did he really? ALVA--Give yourself some rest. [_Exit._] LULU--I’ve got to change again now. ESCERNY--But your dresser isn’t here? LULU--I can do it quicker alone. Where did you say Dr. Schön was sitting? ESCERNY--I saw him in the left parquet-box farthest back. LULU--I’ve still five costumes now before me; dancing-girl, ballerina, queen of the night, Ariel, and Lascaris.... [_She goes behind the Spanish screen._] ESCERNY--Would you think it possible that at our first encounter I expected nothing more than to make the acquaintance of a young lady of the literary world?... [_He sits at the left of the centre table, and remains there to the end of the scene._] Have I perhaps erred in my judgment of your nature, or did I rightly interpret the smile which the thundering storms of applause called forth on your lips?--That you are secretly pained at the necessity of profaning your art before people of doubtful disinterestedness? [LULU _makes no answer_.] That you would gladly exchange the shimmer of publicity at every moment for a quiet, sunny happiness in distinguished seclusion? [LULU _makes no answer_.] That you feel you possess enough dignity and rank to fetter a man to your feet--in order to enjoy his utter helplessness?... [LULU _makes no answer_.] That in a comfortable, richly furnished villa you would feel in a more fitting place than here,--with unlimited means, to live completely as your =own mistress=? [LULU _steps forth in a short, bright, pleated petticoat and white satin bodice, black shoes and stockings, and spurs with bells at her heels_.] LULU--[_Busy with the lacing of her bodice._] If there’s just one evening I don’t go on, I dream the whole night that I’m dancing and feel the next day as if I’d been racked. ESCERNY--But what difference could it make to you to see before you instead of this mob =one= spectator, specially elect? LULU--That would make no difference. I don’t see anybody anyway. ESCERNY--A lighted summer-house--the splashing of the water near at hand.... I am forced in my exploring-trips to the practice of a quite inhuman tyranny---- LULU--[_Putting on a pearl necklace before the mirror._] A good school! ESCERNY--And if I now long to deliver myself unreservedly into the power of a woman, that is a natural need for relaxation.... Can you imagine a greater life-happiness for a woman than to have a man entirely in her power? LULU--[_Jingling her heels._] Oh, yes!