Wasner.  Listen to me, I beg of you.  Someone is involved in this who is very dear to you.  As soon as I received the information, I hastened to Police Headquarters immediately and wanted to intervene there as the representative of the Society for the Suppression of Vice.  But when I mentioned that name I was very formally thrown out.  On the steps, whom do you think I met but our mutual friend, Kommerzienrat Bolland!  He too had been in the Commissioner’s office and had the same bad luck.  I told him my troubles and he admitted to me that he also had been lured into the den of this Siren.

Beermann.  Kommerzienrat!

Wasner.  Unfortunately.  But that is something I can’t at all account for.  He hardly could have been led into temptation through a collection of documentary exhibits.

Beermann.  And what do you want of me now?

Wasner.  Our friend sends me to you.  He would have come himself but the shock threw him into a sickbed.  He entreats you urgently to call a meeting of the Executive Committee, immediately.  We have very influential people in our midst who must bring pressure to bear on the Department of the Interior in order to hush up this affair.

Beermann.  If only you had not written that anonymous letter.

Wasner.  I felt a moral duty to do it.

Beermann.  And now it is our moral duty to patch up this matter. [Betty enters on the left.]

Betty [hands Beermann a calling card].  The gentleman says it is very urgent.

Beermann [reads].  “Assessor Stroebel.” [Frightened; to Betty.] Tell him I am out of town. [Betty about to leave.] No, tell him I am sick—­or, Betty, show the gentleman up. [Betty goes out.]

Wasner.  At what time shall the Executive Committee meet?

Beermann [excited].  Oh, leave me alone with your Executive Committee.

Wasner.  You must not desert us in our hour of peril.  A leader’s fate is bound up with his followers according to German tradition.

Beermann [as before].  It is all your fault anyway.

Wasner.  Shall I then tell our sick friend that we cannot count on your support?

Beermann.  If I am so situated that I can, I will be over to see him in an hour.  I can’t promise you more now. [Assessor Stroebel enters on left and remains standing in the doorway.]

Stroebel [very seriously.] Herr Beermann, I must speak to you privately.

Beermann [confused].  You—­with me?  Well, since you must, I suppose you must.

Wasner.  Well, I am going. [Wasner exit left.] [Stroebel enters.  Wasner remains standing on the threshold.] The Executive Committee will be called to the sick bed of our friend.  We shall await our chairman. [He goes.  Stroebel and Beermann remain standing, silent, facing each other.]