Erdgeist (Earth-Spirit) Part 11

SCHIGOLCH. What is it now?

LULU. =Eve.=

SCHIGOLCH. Lept, hopped, skipped, jumped....

LULU. I'm listening.

SCHIGOLCH. (Gazing round.) This is the way I dreamt of it for you.

You've aimed straight for it. (Seeing Lulu sprinkling herself with perfume.) What's that?

LULU. Heliotrope.

SCHIGOLCH. Does that smell better than you?

LULU. (Sprinkling him.) That needn't bother you any more.

SCHIGOLCH. Who would have dreamt of this royal luxury before!

LULU. When I think back--Ugh!

SCHIGOLCH. (Stroking her knee.) How's it going with you, then? You still keep at the French?

LULU. I lie and sleep.

SCHIGOLCH. That's genteel. That always looks like something. And afterwards?

LULU. I stretch--till it cracks.

SCHIGOLCH. And when it has cracked?

LULU. What do you mind about that?

SCHIGOLCH. What do I mind about that? What do I mind? I'd rather live till the last trump and renounce all heavenly joys than leave my Lulu deprived of anything down here behind me. What do I mind about that?

It's my sympathy. To be sure, my better self =is= already transfigured--but I still have some sense for this world.

LULU. I haven't.

SCHIGOLCH. You're too well off.

LULU. (Shuddering.) Idiot....

SCHIGOLCH. Better than with the old dancing-bear?

LULU. (Sadly.) I don't dance any more.

SCHIGOLCH. For him it was time, too.

LULU. Now I am-- (Stops.)

SCHIGOLCH. Speak how it is with you, child! I believed in you when there was no more to be seen in you than your two big eyes. What are you now?

LULU. A beast....

SCHIGOLCH. That you--! And what kind of a beast? A fine beast! An elegant beast! A glorified beast! Then I'll let them bury me. We're through with prejudices--even with the one against the corpse-washer.

LULU. You needn't be afraid that you will be washed once more.

SCHIGOLCH. Doesn't matter, either. One gets dirty again.

LULU. (Sprinkling him.) It would call you back to life again!

SCHIGOLCH. We are mud.

LULU. I beg your pardon! I rub grease into myself every day and then powder on top of it.

SCHIGOLCH. Probably worth while, too, on the dressed-up mucker's account.

LULU. It makes the skin like satin.

SCHIGOLCH. As if it weren't just dirt all the same!

LULU. Thank you. I wish to be worth biting at!

SCHIGOLCH. We are. Give a big dinner down below there pretty soon. Keep open house.

LULU. Your guests will hardly over-eat themselves at it.

SCHIGOLCH. Patience, girl! Your wors.h.i.+ppers won't put you in alcohol, either. It's "schone Melusine" as long as it keeps buoyant. Afterwards?

They don't take it at the zoological garden. (Rising.) The gentle beasties might get stomach-cramps.

LULU. (Getting up.) Have you enough?

SCHIGOLCH. There's still enough left over to plant a juniper on my grave. I'll find my own way out. (Exit. Lulu follows him, and presently returns with Dr. Schon.)

SCHoN. What's your father doing here?

LULU. What's the matter?

SCHoN. If I were your husband that man would never come over my threshold.

LULU. You can speak intimately. He's not here. (Referring to Schwarz.)

SCHoN. Thank you, I'd rather not.

LULU. I don't understand.

SCHoN. I know that. (Offering her a seat.) I should like to speak with you just on that subject.