WASNER. This very feeling would have made me feel still more guilty. [Beermann shrugs his shoulders nervously.] But now I come to the reason for my being here. My information had results ... This creature was arrested and today after dinner my false friend comes to tell me that he had not been careful, had mentioned to her my name, and I am certainly indexed in the book she kept. This book was found in her place by the police.
BEERMANN [jumping up]. What's her name?
WASNER. Hauteville.
BEERMANN. 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?