Gerardo. What do you want?
Duhring. Maestro—I—I—have—an opera.
Gerardo. How did you get in?
Duhring. I have been watching for two hours for a chance to run up the stairs unnoticed.
Gerardo. But, my dear good man, I have no time.
Duhring. Oh, I will not play the whole opera for you.
Gerardo. I haven't the time. My train leaves in forty minutes.
Duhring. You haven't the time! What should I say? You are thirty and successful. You have your whole life to live yet. Just listen to your part in my opera. You promised to listen to it when you came to this city.
Gerardo. What is the use? I am not a free agent—
Duhring. Please! Please! Please! Maestro! I stand before you an old man, ready to fall on my knees before you; an old man who has never cared for anything in the world but his art. For fifty years I have been a willing victim to the tyranny of art—