HAUSER. Don't spoil my good impression of you! I am on the point of admiring you. [He laughs again.] Let me apologize. I always held you as a wishy-washy bourgeois and now you go and pull this thing off.
BEERMANN. You had better give me some advice. I have not had a quiet moment since I took the book. I want to destroy it but how can I? If I tear it up the pieces will be found.
HAUSER. Burn it.
BEERMANN. Where? There is no fire in the house, except in the kitchen range. If I hide it, I shall always have to run to and fro to see if it is there, and I feel less safe if I have it on my person. Then I have always a feeling as though that thing were bulging out my pocket; and the police must be missing it by this time.
HAUSER. Oh, tear out the page on which your name appears and send it back anonymously.
BEERMANN. Impossible. My name appears on almost every second page.
HAUSER. Oh ... so.
BEERMANN. What shall I do when the police ask me for the book?
HAUSER. There is only one way; you know nothing about it.
BEERMANN. But they will be dead certain that I have it.