SCHÖN--Pure Augean stable. That, the end of my life. Show me one corner that’s still clean! The pest in the house. The poorest day-laborer has his tidy nest. Thirty years’ work, and this my family circle, the home of my---- [_Glancing round._] God knows who is overhearing me again now! [_Draws a revolver from his breast pocket._] Man is, indeed, uncertain of his life! [_The cocked revolver in his right hand, he goes left and speaks at the closed window-curtains._] That, my family circle! The fellow still has courage! Shall I not rather shoot =myself= in the head? Against deadly enemies one fights, but the---- [_Throws up the curtains, but finds no one hidden behind them._] The dirt--the dirt.... [_Shakes his head and crosses right._] Insanity has already conquered my reason, or else--exceptions prove the rule! [_Hearing_ LULU _coming he puts the revolver back in his pocket_. LULU _comes down to him_.] LULU--Couldn’t you get away for this afternoon? SCHÖN--Just what did that Countess want? LULU--I don’t know. She wants to paint me. SCHÖN--Misfortune in human guise, paying her respects! LULU--Couldn’t you get away, then? I would so like to drive through the grounds with you. SCHÖN--Just the day when I must be at the Exchange. You know that I’m not free to-day. All my property is drifting on the waves. LULU--I’d sooner be dead and buried than let my life be embittered so by my property. SCHÖN--Who takes life lightly does not take death hard. LULU--As a child I always had the most horrible fear of death. SCHÖN--That is just why I married you. LULU--[_With her arms round his neck._] You’re in bad humor. You invent too many worries. For weeks and months I’ve seen nothing of you. SCHÖN--[_Stroking her hair._] Your light-heartedness should cheer up my old days. LULU--Indeed, you didn’t marry me at all. SCHÖN--Whom else did I marry then? LULU--I married you! SCHÖN--How does that alter anything? LULU--I was always afraid it would alter a great deal. SCHÖN--It has, indeed, crushed a great deal underfoot. LULU--But not one thing, praise God! SCHÖN--Of that I should be covetous. LULU--Your love for me. [SCHÖN’S _face twitches, he signs to her to go out in front of him. Both exeunt lower right_. COUNTESS GESCHWITZ _cautiously opens the rear door, ventures forth, and listens. Hearing voices approaching in the gallery above her, she starts suddenly._] GESCHWITZ--Oh, dear, there’s somebody----[_Hides behind the fire-screen._] SCHIGOLCH--[_Steps out from the curtains onto the stairs, turns back._] Has the youngster left his heart behind him in the Nightlight Café? RODRIGO--[_Between the curtains._] He is still too small for the great world, and can’t walk so far on foot yet. [_He disappears._]