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THE MAKROPOULOS SECRET
act iii

Kolonaty

With the Makropoulos secret. Somewhere here is a formula for a three-hundred-year life. Can we get hold of it?

Prus

She has it in her bosom.

Kolonaty

Good! Gentlemen, it is a thing of unimaginable importance. What shall we do with it?

Gregor

Nothing at all. The formula belongs to me. I am her heir.

Kolonaty

Keep your mouth shut! As long as she is alive, you are not her heir; and she can live for another three hundred years, if she wants to. Don’t you see, we must get hold of it.

Gregor

By trickery?

Kolonaty

Why not? This is something of such importance—for us and for everybody, that—hm. Gentlemen, you understand me? Ought we to let her keep it? What? Should she alone or, at best, some such good-for-nothing as Bombita have the advantage of it? Who will get it?

Gregor

First of all, we must help her.

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