GESCHWITZ. No longer living?
SCHÖN. (Down left, with a deep voice.) He had enough.
LULU. You're in bad temper. (Schön controls himself.)
GESCHWITZ. (Getting up.) I must go, Mrs. Schön. I can't stay any longer. This evening we have life-class, and I have still so much to get ready for the ball. Good-bye, Dr. Schön. (Exit, up-stage. Lulu accompanies her. Schön looks around him.)
SCHÖN. Pure Augean stable. That, the end of my life. They ought to show me a corner that's still clean. The pest in the house. The poorest day-laborer has his tidy nest. Thirty years' work, and this my family circle, the circle of my people— (Glancing round.) God knows who is overhearing me again now! (Draws a revolver from his breast pocket.) Man is, indeed, uncertain of his life! (The cocked revolver in his right hand, he goes left and speaks at the closed window curtains.) That, my family circle! The fellow still has courage! Shall I not rather shoot myself in the head? Against deadly enemies one fights, but the— (Throws up the curtains, but finds no one hidden behind them.) The dirt—the dirt.... (Shakes his head and crosses right.) Insanity has already conquered my reason, or else—exceptions prove the rule! (Hearing Lulu coming he puts the revolver back in his pocket. Lulu comes down right.)
LULU. Couldn't you get away for this afternoon?
SCHÖN. Just what did that Countess want?
LULU. I don't know. She wants to paint me.
SCHÖN. Misfortune in human guise, that waits upon one.
LULU. Couldn't you get away, then? I would so like to drive thru the grounds with you.