PRINCE. That's because you don't know yet how something else is going to hurt you.
JUDGE. What is that?
OLD LADY. No, don't! We don't want to know! Please!
PRINCE. Yes, I am going to tell. It begins with——
OLD LADY. [Puts her fingers in her ears and cries out] Mercy! Don't, don't, don't!
PRINCE. Yes, I will—and as my brother-in-law is curious, I'll tell it to him. The second letter is——
JUDGE. This uncertainty is worse than torture—Speak out, you devil, or I'll kill you!
PRINCE. Kill, ha ha! Everybody is immortal here, body and soul, what little there is left. However, the third letter is—and that's all you'll know!
MAN IN GREY. [A small, lean man with grey clothes, grey face, black lips, grey beard, and grey hands; he speaks in a very low voice] May I speak a word with you, madam?
OLD LADY. [Rising in evident alarm] What is it about?