It's been a few days since the competition, and Victor is still in high spirits. He's got to get up early the next morning to prepare for the competition. He asks his assistant, Luise, if she remembers him from when he was a kid. Luise tells him that she remembers her mother, who hasn't been playing for a long time, and that she even remembers the day she was born. He tells her to knock on the door as he's coming in. He says that he'll show her his results, and he thanks her for all her hard work. He admits that he wishes the competition never came, since he feels that his dreams of becoming a famous musician were all false images in his head. He also tells her that the patron of the competition will be there, but he'd have to come because of his work. Luis's patron has also selected her clothes for the day, and she's a little jealous because she thinks that he must have found someone else.