e as heavenly high above me as--as the sun is over
the abyss! (Kneeling.) Destroy me! I beg you, put an end to me! Put an
end to me!

LULU. Do you =love= me then?

ALVA. I will pay you with everything that was mine!

LULU. Do you love me?

ALVA. Do you love me--Mignon?

LULU. I? Not a soul.

ALVA. I love you. (Hides his face in her lap.)

LULU. (Both hands in his hair.) I poisoned your mother-- (Rodrigo
sticks his head out from the curtains, left, sees Schoen sitting in the
gallery and signs to him to watch Lulu and Alva. Schoen points his
revolver at Rodrigo; Rodrigo signs to him to point it at Alva. Schoen
cocks the revolver and takes aim. Rodrigo draws back behind the
curtains. Lulu sees him draw back, sees Schoen sitting in the gallery,
and gets up.) His father! (Schoen rises, lets the hangings fall before
him. Alva remains motionless on his knees. Pause.)

SCHOEN. (Holding a paper in his hand, takes Alva by the shoulder.) Alva!
(Alva gets up as though drunk with sleep.) A revolution has broken out
in Paris.

ALVA. To Paris ... let me go to Paris--

SCHOEN. In the editors' room they're beating their heads against the
wall. No one knows what he ought to write. (He unfolds the paper and
accompanies Alva out, rear. Rodrigo rushes out from the curtains toward
the stairs.)

LULU. (Barring his way.) You can't get out here.

RODRIGO. Let me through!

LULU. You'll run into his arms.

RODRIGO. He'll shoot me thru the head!

LULU. He's coming.

RODRIGO. (Stumbling back.) Devil, death and demons! (Lifts the
table-cloth.)

HUGENBERG. No room!

RODRIGO. Damned and done for! (Looks around and hides in the door-way,
right.)

SCHOEN. (Comes in, centre; locks the door; and goes, revolver in hand,
to the window down left, of which he throws up the curtains.) Where is
=he= gone?

LULU. (On the lowest step.) Out.

SCHOEN. Down over the balcony?

LULU. He's an acrobat.

SCHOEN. That could not be foreseen. (Turning against Lulu.) You who drag
me thru the muck of the streets to a tortured death!

LULU. Why did you not bring me up better?

SCHOEN. You destroying angel! You inexorable fate! To be a murderer
without drowning in filth; to take me on board like a released convict,
or hang me up over the morass! You joy of my old age! You hangman's
noose!

LULU. (In cold blood.) Oh, shut up, and kill me!

SCHOEN. Everything I possess I have made over to you, and asked nothing
but the respect that every se