BEERMANN. I consider all this a very cheap kind of humor. I used to joke about these matters myself, but if you will only look upon this problem from a serious point of view, when your eyes are opened to the ... FRAU BEERMANN.... Your newly acquired ways of talking are quite unbearable. BEERMANN. Please, don't make a scene. FRAU BEERMANN. We have been married for twenty-six years; have been very fortunate with our own children. Why worry about other people? BEERMANN. You are not logical, my love. The mere fact that I brought up my children properly is all the more reason for my joining this movement.... FRAU BEERMANN. You didn't lose much sleep about their education. BEERMANN. Evidently I didn't neglect anything. FRAU LUND. I'm afraid you pride yourselves on a degree of willpower you never exercised. BEERMANN. Never exercised? My dear Frau Lund, what do you know about the temptations which confront us men. What does a woman know about them? FRAU LUND. The only thing we women don't know about is the manner in which these temptations terminate. BEERMANN. Our movement intends to do away with these very deceptions. We want to protect the traditions of the home which women treasure. FRAU LUND. No. We, women also treasure modesty. We dislike to see men pretend to have better morals than they actually have. BEERMANN. Seriously, Frau Lund. Public immorality must hurt you more. FRAU LUND. You are mistaken. It requires a genuine manly feeling to sympathize with misery. DR. WASNER. Misery and vice are different problems. FRAU LUND. They're not. And that is why we will never agree. FRAU BEERMANN. All the more reason why my husband should not set himself up as an example. He knows nothing of worry or care. BEERMANN. We can never subscribe to Frau Lund's principles. FRAU LUND. No principles, please! BOLLAND. Out of sheer opposition you will say that you hold different ones from us. FRAU LUND. No. I will say that I hold none at all. BOLLAND. and WASNER [together]. But, gnadige Frau! FRAU LUND. I can't help it. I lost them some place on my journey through life. I have learned that all your principles have loop holes through which people can conveniently slip out and take their friends along with them. So I had my choice of either surrendering them or dishonestly preaching them to others. DR. WASNER. Real principles of life are never given up. HAUSER [with sarcasm]. Cheers from the gallery! BOLLAND. Principles of morality are the laws of nature--they are her dictates. FRAU LUND. Is that the reason you have started your Society for the Suppression of Vice? Do you imagine your by-laws are stronger than the laws of nature? DR. WASNER. May I make just one remark? BEERMANN. What is it? DR. WASNER [stroking his beard]. In summing up the matter we can come to this decision: women have a beautiful privilege. Certain facts in life remain a closed book to them. We, men, unfortunately have to come into contact with them.