STUDENT. May I ask your name?
HUMMEL. I am Mr. Hummel.
STUDENT. You are? Then I remember....
HUMMEL. Have you often heard my name mentioned at home?
STUDENT. I have.
HUMMEL. And not in a pleasant way, I suppose?
The STUDENT remains silent.
HUMMEL. That's what I expected.—You were told, I suppose, that I had ruined your father?—All who are ruined by ill-advised speculations think themselves ruined by those whom they couldn't fool. [Pause] The fact of it is, however, that your father robbed me of seventeen thousand crowns, which represented all my savings at that time.
STUDENT. It is queer how the same story can be told in quite different ways.
HUMMEL. You don't think that I am telling the truth?