SCHMETTAU. We have already had a glimpse of each other today. BEERMANN. Yes, I remember. SCHMETTAU. You are the President of the Local Morality Club. Before we go further I must tell you that I do not at all agree with those views ... STROEBEL [interrupting with anxiety]. Herr Baron, may I call your attention to the fact that Herr Beermann, personally, is far above these narrow theories. SCHMETTAU. I am glad to hear it. Besides as theories they're not so bad. BEERMANN. As theories! That's what I say. SCHMETTAU. Well, there you are! STROEBEL. Herr Beermann is also the candidate of the local Conservative-Liberal Coalition. SCHMETTAU. Then he is certainly no stickler for high-flown notions. I should be right glad if we understood each other. And how far are you, gentlemen? STROEBEL. In principles we are agreed. BEERMANN. Absolutely. SCHMETTAU. Then we shall have no difficulty in finding the right solution. STROEBEL. I have taken Herr Beermann into our confidence. SCHMETTAU. That was a very disagreeable mishap, was it not? Very bad. Whoever has any patriotism can realize it. BEERMANN. Herr Baron was also ... SCHMETTAU. Locked in the closet. STROEBEL. Permit me to revert to the facts. I was just telling Herr Beermann that this Hauteville woman refuses to leave. She boasts that she has not the bail and even if she had it, she would not pay it. SCHMETTAU. Confound her! She controls the situation. STROEBEL. Now we come to the most difficult part of it. She says that if she is compelled to leave the city and is deprived of her livelihood, she wants proper damages for it. Of course I told the woman that this, to say the least, was an extortionate demand. Well then, she says, we will have a trial in court. BEERMANN. The fox! She knows well that's out of the question. SCHMETTAU. I am very grateful to you for these sentiments. STROEBEL. I asked what she considered proper damages. "Ten thousand marks," she says. I almost lost my senses. With the necessary bail that would make Fifteen thousand marks. SCHMETTAU. In the end perhaps that is not so gigantic. STROEBEL. Who is going to pay it? SCHMETTAU. Not we, of course. Our state is a poor paymaster. STROEBEL. Here is a fine mess, which I cannot solve--at least not I. Herr Beermann, you said yourself that your Society for the Suppression of Vice is vitally interested in the undisturbed maintenance of the popular belief in morality. For the members of your Society, it ought to be quite easy to collect that sum. I know of no other way. BEERMANN [with folded hands he stands in a pensive mood]. The Executive Committee is expecting its chairman. And I know of a professor who alone ought to pay an extra thousand for a letter he wrote. [To the others.] Gentlemen, briefly speaking, I will do it. On behalf of the society, I pledge this sum.