LULU. Now there's some one tapping at the door. Who may that be?
SCHIGOLCH. Probably a good friend he's recommended us to. Come in! (Countess Geschwitz enters, in poor clothes, with a canvas roll in her hand.)
GESCHWITZ. (To Lulu.) If I've come at a bad time, I'll turn around again. The truth is, I haven't spoken to a living soul for ten days. I must just tell you right off, I haven't got any money. My brother never answered me at all.
SCHIGOLCH. Your ladyship would now like to stretch her feet out under our table?
LULU. (Tonelessly.) I'm going down again.
GESCHWITZ. Where are you going in this pomp?—However, I come not wholly empty-handed. I bring you something else. On my way here an old-clothes man offered me twelve shillings for it, but I could not force myself to part from it. You can sell it, though, if you want to.
SCHIGOLCH. What is it?
ALVA. Let us see it. (Takes the canvas and unrolls it. Visibly rejoiced.) Oh, by God, it's Lulu's portrait!
LULU. (Screaming.) Monster, you brought that here? Get it out of my sight! Throw it out of the window!
ALVA. (Suddenly with renewed life, deeply pleased.) Why, I should like to know? Looking on this picture I regain my self-respect. It makes my fate comprehensible to me. Everything we have endured gets clear as day. (In a somewhat elegiac strain.) Let him who feels secure in his middle-class position when he sees these blossoming pouting lips, these child-eyes, big and innocent, this rose-white body abounding in life,—let him cast the first stone at us!