STIVER.
I hope you've changed your mind at last?
FALK.
Why so?
STIVER.
For obvious reasons. To betray
Communications made in confidence,
Is conduct utterly without defence.
They must not pass the lips.
FALK.
No, I've heard say
It is at times a risky game to play.
STIVER.
The very devil!
FALK.
Only for the great.
STIVER [zealously].
No, no, for all us servants of the state.
Only imagine how my future chances
Would dwindle, if the governor once knew
I keep Pegasus that neighs and prances
In office hours—and such an office, too!
From first to last, you know, in our profession,
The winged horse is viewed with reprobation:
But worst of all would be, if it got wind
That I against our primal law had sinn'd
By bringing secret matters to the light—
FALK.
That's penal, is it—such an oversight?
STIVER [mysteriously].
It can a servant of the state compel
To beg for his dismissal out of hand.
On us officials lies a strict command,
Even by the hearth to be inscrutable.
FALK.
O those despotical authorities,
Muzzling the—clerk that treadeth out the grain!