Prince.
Precisely. I brought it with me on your account. You will find in it an interesting report of a meeting of Socialist electors. Do me the favour to read the passage which they have thoughtfully marked for our benefit.
von Berkelwitz (reading).
"It is seldom that the honourable gentlemen of the Right, the self-constituted guardians of public morality, give us an opportunity to see what goes on behind the scenes, in the gilded saloons to which the man in the street may not presume to penetrate"--confound their insolence!--"it is not often that we get a hint of what goes on behind their silken bed-curtains"--h'm, I wish they could see what I sleep on!
Prince.
Go on.
von Berkelwitz (reading).
"But now and then a happy accident yields us an edifying glimpse of their private histories. And, if I might venture to speak openly, I could give you such a glimpse into the private life of the honourable member from Lengenfeld, and into his relations with the friend whose seat in the Reichstag he has taken--the confiding friend who, instead of keeping watch in his own house, has been travelling from place to place, canvassing for the honourable member. (Laughter. Prolonged cheering.)" Lengenfeld? Lengen--why, that is Völkerlingk's district. (Brachtmann nods affirmatively.)
von Berkelwitz.
And the friend--the friend who----? (He breaks off, and points vaguely to the room. Brachtmann nods again.) The deuce!