STUDENT. Anything else?
YOUNG LADY. To get up on a ladder and tie on the cord which the chambermaid has torn from the window-shade.
STUDENT. Anything else?
YOUNG LADY. To sweep after her; to dust after her; to start the fire again, after she has merely thrown some wood into the fireplace! To watch the damper in the fireplace; to wipe every glass; to set the table over again; to open the wine-bottles; to see that the rooms are aired; to make over your bed; to rinse the water-bottle that is green with sediment; to buy matches and soap, which are always lacking; to wipe the chimneys and cut the wicks in order to keep the lamps from smoking and in order to keep them from going out when we have company, I have to fill them myself....
STUDENT. Music!
YOUNG LADY. Wait! The labour comes first—the labour of keeping the filth of life at a distance.
STUDENT. But you are wealthy, and you have two servants?
YOUNG LADY. What does that help? What would it help to have three? It is troublesome to live, and at times I get tired.... Think, then, of adding a nursery!
STUDENT. The greatest of joys....
YOUNG LADY. And the costliest.... Is life really worth so much trouble?