"That idea has not troubled me as yet."
"You inherited from a friend who committed suicide a large fortune, which you use chiefly for the benefit of Socialist workmen?"
"I use it for the benefit of the poor, and those I certainly find more frequently among the Socialist workmen than among factory owners and householders."
"I'll thank you to remember that this is not the place for making bad jokes!" roared the magistrate.
"You are quite right," Wilhelm answered serenely. "I know nothing more unpleasant than bad jokes."
Schrotter looked as if he were going to embrace his friend. He had never seen him from this side.
"Did it never occur to you to put yourself in communication with the clergymen of your district, these gentlemen having far greater facilities for finding out deserving objects of charity than a private person?"
"I will answer that question when you have had the goodness to explain to me what connection it has with this man's denunciation."
The magistrate glared at him in a manner calculated to wither him on the spot, but only met a quiet, smiling face which he was incapable of intimidating.
"May I request you now," said Schrotter in his turn, "to ask the witness Patke if for the last few weeks he has not been a candidate for a post as detective on the political police staff?" Schrotter too had made a variety of inquiries since last Sunday, and had learned this fact.