e!

SCHIGOLCH. We ought to have held the creature back by the throat.
She'll scare away everything that breathes with her aristocratic
death's head.

ALVA. She's flung me onto a sick-bed and larded me with thorns
outside and in!

SCHIGOLCH. And she's still got enough strength in her body to do the
same for ten men alright.

ALVA. No mortally wounded man'll ever find the stab of mercy welcomer
than I!

SCHIGOLCH. If she hadn't enticed the acrobat to my place that time,
we'd have him round our necks to-day too.

ALVA. I see it swinging above my head as Tantalus saw the branch with
the golden apples!

SCHIGOLCH. (_On his mattress._) Won't you turn up the lamp a little?

ALVA. Can a simple, natural man in the wilderness suffer so
unspeakably?!--God, God, what have I made of my life!

SCHIGOLCH. What's the beastly weather made of my ulster! When I was
five-and-twenty, I knew how to help myself!

ALVA. It has not cost everyone my sunny, glorious youth!

SCHIGOLCH. I guess it'll go out in a minute. Till they come back
it'll be as dark in here again as in mother's womb.

ALVA. With the clearest consciousness of my purpose I sought
intercourse with people who'd never read a book in their lives. With
self-denial, with exaltation, I clung to the elements, that I might
be carried to the loftiest heights of poetic fame. The reckoning was
false. I am the martyr of my calling. Since the death of my father I
have not written a single line!

SCHIGOLCH. If only they haven't stayed together! Nobody but a silly
boy will go with two, no matter what.

ALVA. They've not stayed together!

SCHIGOLCH. That's what I hope. If need be, she'll keep the creature
off from her with kicks.

ALVA. One, risen from the dregs, is the most celebrated man of his
nation; another, born in the purple, lies in the mud and cannot die!

SCHIGOLCH. Here they come!

ALVA. And what blessed hours of mutual joy in creation they had lived
thru with each other!

SCHIGOLCH. They can do that now, for the first time rightly.--We must
hide again.

ALVA. I stay here.

SCHIGOLCH. Just what do you pity them for?--Who spends his money has
his good reasons for it!

ALVA. I have no longer the moral courage to let my comfort be
disturbed for a miserable sum of money! (_He wraps himself up in his
plaid._)

SCHIGOLCH. Noblesse oblige! A respectable man does what he owes his
position. (_He hides, left. Lulu opens the door, saying "Come right
in, dearie