er marry the
child in her boundless inexperience--

SCHOEN. Do you want me to grab you and--

LULU. Yes! What must I say to make you? Not for the world would I
change with the innocent kid now! Tho the girl loves you as no woman
has ever loved you yet!

SCHOEN. Silence, beast! Silence!

LULU. Marry her--and then she'll dance in her childish wretchedness
before =my= eyes, instead of I before hers!

SCHOEN. (Raising his fists.) God forgive me--

LULU. Strike me! Where is your riding-whip? Strike me on the legs--

SCHOEN. (Grasping his temples.) Away, away! (Rushes to the door,
recollects himself, turns around.) Can I go before the girl now, this
way? Home!

LULU. Be a man! Look yourself in the face once:--you have no trace of a
conscience; you are frightened at no wickedness; in the most
cold-blooded way you mean to make the girl that loves you unhappy; you
conquer half the world; you do what you please;--and you know as well
as I that--

SCHOEN. (Sunk in the chair, right centre, utterly exhausted.) Stop!

LULU. That you are too weak--to tear yourself away from me.

SCHOEN. (Groaning.) Oh! Oh! You make me weep.

LULU. This moment makes =me= I cannot tell you how glad.

SCHOEN. My age! My position!

LULU. He cries like a child--the terrible man of might! Now go so to
your bride and tell her what kind of a girl I am at heart--not a bit
jealous!

SCHOEN. (Sobbing.) The child! The innocent child!

LULU. How can the incarnate devil get so weak all of a sudden! But now
go, please. You are nothing more now to me.

SCHOEN. I cannot go to her.

LULU. Out with you. Come back to me when you have regained your
strength again.

SCHOEN. Tell me in God's name what I must do.

LULU. (Gets up; her cloak remains on the chair. Shoving aside the
costumes on the centre table.) Here is writing-paper--

SCHOEN. I can't write....

LULU. (Upright behind him, her arm on the back of his chair.) Write!
"My dear young lady...."

SCHOEN. (Hesitating.) I call her Adelheid ...

LULU. (With emphasis.) "My dear young lady ..."

SCHOEN. My sentence of death! (He writes.)

LULU. "Take back your promise. I cannot reconcile it with my
conscience--" (Schoen drops the pen and glances up at her entreatingly.)
Write conscience!--"to fasten you to my unhappy lot...."

SCHOEN. (Writing.) You are right. You are right.

LULU. "I give you my word that I am unworthy of your love--" (Schoen
turns round again.) Write love! "These lin