suppose I've nothing else to do than to hang on to the telephone
all day?...What's that? Not men enough to hold her! What do you
mean? [To the General.] She is there, sir.

STRAMMFEST. Tell them to send her up. I shall have to receive her
without even rising, without kissing her hand, to keep up
appearances before the escort. It will break my heart.

SCHNEIDEKIND [into the receiver]. Send her up...Tcha! [He hangs
up the receiver.] He says she is halfway up already: they
couldn't hold her.

The Grand Duchess bursts into the room, dragging with her two
exhausted soldiers hanging on desperately to her arms. She is
enveloped from head to foot by a fur-lined cloak, and wears a fur
cap.

SCHNEIDEKIND [pointing to the bench]. At the word Go, place your
prisoner on the bench in a sitting posture; and take your seats
right and left of her. Go.

The two soldiers make a supreme effort to force her to sit down.
She flings them back so that they are forced to sit on the bench
to save themselves from falling backwards over it, and is herself
dragged into sitting between them. The second soldier, holding on
tight to the Grand Duchess with one hand, produces papers with
the other, and waves them towards Schneidekind, who takes them
from him and passes them on to the General. He opens them and
reads them with a grave expression.