Pierre:"I'm perfectly alright here."

Prospector:"I said, come along now!'

Pierre:"I'd better go Madame."

Countess:"No."

Pierre:"It's no use, please let go my hand!"

Countess:"Stay where you are." "I'm holding your hand because
I shall need your arm in a few minutes to take me home."
"I'm very easily frightened."

Prospector:"Madame, will you oblige me by letting my friend go?"

Countess:: I will not oblige you in any way."

Prospector:"Officer, Officer arrest this woman!"
"She refues to let this man go!"

Sergeant:"Why should she?"

Prospector:"It is against the law for a woman to detain a man on the street."

Irma:"Suppose it's her son whom she's found again after twenty years?"

Ragpicker:"Or her lost brother?" "The Countess is not so old."

Countess:"Thank you Ragpicker, thank you."

Prospector:"Officer, this is a clear case of disorderly conduct."

Irma:"He says the young man is in danger of his life."
"He mustn't go with him."

Prospector:"What does he know?"

Irma:"He knows everything."

Sergeant:"Countess, between ourselves, what are you holding him, 
for any way?"

Countess:"I'm holding him because I want to hold him." 
"He's the first man I've ever really held, and I'm enjoying it." 
"And I'm holding him because as long as I'm hold him he's free."

Prospector:"Pierre, I'm giving you fair warning!"

Countess:"And I'm holding him, because Irma wants me to hold him." \
"If I let him go, it will break her heart."

Irma:"Oh Countess!"

Sergeant pushing the Prospector:"All right, you." 
"You're blocking traffic."
"Nobody is holding you, move on!"

Roderick: "Ohh no!" "I couldn't do what he wanted."
'He wants to destroy the whole city." 
"It isn't funny, Countess".
"He can do it." 
"He is mad, but he is powerful, and he has friends."
"Their machines are already drawn up and waiting." 
"In three months'time you may see 
Paris covered by a forest of derricks and drills."

Countess:"But what are they looking for?"

Roderick: "They're looking for oil!" 
"They're convinced that Paris is
sitting on a lake of oil." 
"They want to bring the oil to the surface; 
they want to make war."

Countess:"Oh dear, let's forget about these horrible men." 
"The world is beautiful." "It's happy." "That's how God made it."
"No man can change it."

Waiter:"Oh Countess, if you only knew.........."

Countess:"If I only knew what?"

Waiter:"Shall we tell her now?"

Countess:"What is it you are hiding for me?"

Ragpicker:"Nothing, Countess." "It's you who are hiding."

Waiter:"You tell her." "You've been a pitchman, you can talk."
"All, tell her all, tell her!"

Countess:"You're frightening me, my friends." "Go on." "I'm listening."

"You may not believe it, but right this minute, 
the highest-priced shops in Paris are selling clothes that were thrown away thirty years ago." 
"They're selling them for new; that's how good they were."

Countess:"Well?"

Ragpicker:"Countess, there was a time when garbage was a pleasure." "A garbage can was not what it is now." "If it is smelled a little strange, it was because it was a little confused; there was everything there, sardines, cologne, iodine, roses."
"An amateur might jump to a wrong conclusion, but to a professional, it was the smell of God's plenty."

Countess:"Well?"

Ragpicker:"Countess, the world has changed."
Countess:"Nonsense." "How could it change?" 
"The people are the same, I hope!"

Ragpicker:"No, Countess the people are not the same." 
"The people are different." "There has been an invasion 
from another planet, an infiltration." 
"The world isn't beautiful any more, it's not happy!"

Countess:"Not happy?" "Is that true?" 
"Why didn't you tell me this before?"
Ragpicker:"Because you live in a dream, Countess." 
"And we don't like to disturb you."

Countess:"But how could it have happened?"

Ragpicker:"Countess, there was a time when you could walk around Paris and all the people
you met were just like yourself." 
"A little cleaner. may be, or dirtier, perhaps, or angry, 
or smiling, but you knew them."

"They were you." 
"Well, Countess twenty years ago, one day on the street, 
I saw a face in the crowd."
"A face, you might say without a face." 
"The eyes empty, the expression not human, not a human face."
"It saw me staring and when it looked back at me with its gelatine eyes, I shuddered, because I knew that to make room for this one, one of us must have left the earth."
"A while after I saw another, another........"

Countess:"What work do they do?"
Ragpicker:"They do any work." 
"Little by little the pimps have taken over the world."

Countess:"Is this true, Roderick?"
Roderick:"I'm afraid it is true!" 
"They have all the power and all the money 
and they are greedy for more."

Countess:"They're greedy?
All:"Yes, Countess."

Countess:"Ah, then, my friends, they're lost."
"If they're greedy, they're stupid."
"If they're greedy..........don't worry, I know exactly what to do!"
"Irma, do you have any kerosene in the house?" 
Irma: "Yes, I'll put some in a bottle for you."

Countess:"Thank you, Irma."

Roderick:"Anything I can do to help you, Countess."

Countess:"There is a great deal you can do." 
"There are all the things that need to be done in a room that no man has been in for twenty years...." "See you later my friends."

Roderick offering his arm:"Permit me."

Countess:"Thank you, my boy."