My son Philip. And this is Miss ...
LOLO
Charlotta Langhuber.
PRINCE (_to Philip_)
Better known as Miss Pallestri.
PHILIP
Oh, Miss Pallestri! Then I have already had the pleasure....
PRINCE
What?
PHILIP
You see, I have Miss Pallestri in my collection.
PRINCE
What ... what sort of collection is that?
LOLO
There must be some kind of mistake here, Your Highness. I can not recall....
PHILIP
Of course, you can"t, for I don"t suppose you could feel that I was cutting out your picture from a newspaper at Krems?
LOLO
No, thank heaven!
PHILIP
It was one of our amus.e.m.e.nts at school, you know. There was one who cut out all the crimes and disasters he could get hold of.
LOLO
What a dreadful fellow that must have been!
PHILIP
And there was one who went in for historical personalities, like North Pole explorers and composers and that kind of people. And I used to collect theatrical ladies. Ever so much more pleasant to look at, you know. I have got two hundred and thirteen--which I"ll show you sometime, papa. Quite interesting, you know. With a musical comedy star from Australia among the rest.
LOLO
I didn"t know Your Highness had a son--and such a big one at that.
PHILIP
Yes, I have been hiding my light under a bushel so far.
PRINCE
And now you are trying to make up for it, I should say.
LOLO
Oh, please let him, Your Highness. I prefer young people like him to be a little _vif_.
PHILIP
So you are going to retire to private life, Miss Pallestri? That"s too bad. Just when I might have the pleasure at last of seeing you on those boards that signify the world....
LOLO
That"s awfully kind of Your Highness, but unfortunately one hasn"t time to wait for the youth that"s still growing. And the more mature ones are beginning to find my vintage a little out of date, I fear.
PRINCE
They say that you are about to be married.
LOLO
Yes, I am about to enter the holy state of matrimony.
PHILIP
And who is the happy man, if I may ask?
LOLO
Who is he? Why, he is waiting outside now--with that carriage.
MIZZIE
Why--a coachman?
LOLO
But, Countess--a coachman, you say?! Only in the same manner as when your papa himself--beg your pardon!--happens to be taking the bay out for a spin at times. Cab owner, that"s what my fiance is--and house owner, and a burgess of Vienna, who gets on the box himself only when it pleases him and when there is somebody of whom he thinks a whole lot. Now he is driving for a certain Baron Radeiner--whom he has just brought out here to see your father, Countess. And I am having my doubts about that Baron Radeiner.
PHILIP