CURT. This is terrible! No, I don't want to have any finger in that mess!
ALICE. Ha-ha! You cannot hit an enemy.
CURT. Formerly I could, but I can do so no longer.
ALICE. Why?
CURT. Because I have discovered—that justice is done anyhow.
ALICE. And you could wait for that? Then your son would already have been taken away from you. Look at my gray hairs—just feel how thick it still is, for that matter—He intends to marry again, and then I shall be free—to do the same—I am free! And in ten minutes he will be under arrest down below, right under us—[stamps her foot on the floor] right under us—and I shall dance above his head—I shall dance "The Entry of the Boyars"—[makes a few steps with her arms akimbo] ha-ha-ha-ha! And I shall play on the piano so that he can hear it. [Hammering on the piano] Oh, the tower is opening its gates, and the sentry with the drawn sabre will no longer be guarding me, but him—Malbrough s'en va-t-en guerre! Him, him, him, the sentry is going to guard!
CURT. [Has been watching her with an intoxicated look in his eyes] Alice, are you, too, a devil?
ALICE. [Jumps up on a chair and pulls down the wreaths] These we will take along when we depart—the laurels of triumph! And fluttering ribbons! A little dusty, but eternally green—like my youth—I am not old, Curt?
CURT. With shining eyes] You are a devil!
ALICE. In "Little Hell"—Listen! Now I shall fix my hair —[loosens her hair], dress in two minutes—go to the Quartermaster in two minutes—and then, up in the air with the fortress!