en hundred francs for a person whom he's never seen?

CASTI-PIANI. I took the liberty of sending him your pictures.

LULU. Those pictures that I gave you, you've sent to him?

CASTI-PIANI. You see he can value them better than I. The picture in
which you stand before the mirror as Eve he'll probably hang up at
the house-door, after you've got there.... And then there's one thing
more for you to notice: with Oikonomopulos in Cairo you'll be safer
from your blood-hounds than if you crept into a Canadian wilderness.
It isn't so easy to transport an Egyptian courtesan to a German
prison,--first, on account of the mere expense, and second, from fear
of coming too close to eternal Justice.

LULU. (_Proudly, in a clear voice._) What's your eternal Justice to
do with me! You can see as plain as your five fingers I shan't let
myself be locked up in any such amusement-place!

CASTI-PIANI. Then do you want me to whistle for the policeman?

LULU. (_In wonder._) Why don't you simply ask me for twelve hundred
marks, if you want the money?

CASTI-PIANI. I want for no money! And I also don't ask for it because
you're dead broke.

LULU. We still have thirty thousand marks.

CASTI-PIANI. In Jungfrau-stock! I never have anything to do with
stock. The Attorney-General pays in the national currency, and
Oikonomopulos pays in English gold. You can be on board early
to-morrow. The passage doesn't last much more than five days. In two
weeks at most you're in safety. Here you are nearer to prison than
anywhere. It's a wonder which I, as one of the secret police, cannot
understand, that you two have been able to live for a full year
unmolested. But just as I came on the track of your antecedents, so
any day, with your mighty consumption of men, one of my colleagues
may make the happy discovery. Then I may just wipe my mouth, and you
spend in prison the most enjoyable years of your life. If you will
kindly decide quickly. The train goes at 12.30. If we haven't struck
a bargain before eleven, I whistle up the policeman. If we have, I
pack you, just as you stand, into a carriage, drive you to the
station, and to-morrow escort you on board ship.

LULU. But is it possible you can be serious in all this?

CASTI-PIANI. Don't you understand that I can act now only for your
bodily rescue?

LULU. I'll go with you to America or to China, but I can't let myself
be sold of my own accord! That is worse than prison!

CASTI-PIANI. (_Drawing a le