So, it is you to whom we are indebted for this scandal.
[Angrily.] Do you fully realize what you have accomplished? How
many respectable fathers of families you have brought to the very
verge of despair?
WASNER. I know it.
BEERMANN. You don't.
WASNER. I came here for that very reason.
BEERMANN [not understanding him]. What?
WASNER. I came here to request you on behalf of the others to call
tonight, a meeting of the Executive Committee. The Society must do
everything in its power to keep this case out of court.
BEERMANN. Why the devil did you write that anonymous letter?
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.
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