IDA (embracing her).

If only she will hurry up!

ADELAIDE (holding her).

Hush!  Some man might hear us! [Enter KORB.] What is it, old friend?

KORB.

Miss Adelaide, out there is Mr. Bellmaus, the friend—­

ADELAIDE.

Very well, and he wishes to speak to me?

KORB.

Yes.  I myself advised him to come to you; he has something to tell you.

ADELAIDE.

Bring him in here! [Exit KORB.]

IDA.

Let me go away; my eyes are red with weeping.

ADELAIDE.

Well go, dear.  In a few minutes I will rejoin you. (Exit IDA.)

He too!  The whole Union—­one after the other!

Enter BEULMAUS.

BELLMAUS (shyly, bowing repeatedly).

You permit me, Miss Runeck!

ADELAIDE (kindly).

I am glad to receive your visit, and am curious about the interesting disclosures you have to make to me.

BELLMAUS.

There is no one to whom I would rather confide what I have heard, Miss Runeck, than to you.  Having learned from Mr. Korb that you are a subscriber to our newspaper I feel sure—­

ADELAIDE.

That I deserve, too, to be a friend of the editors.  Thank you for the good opinion.

BELLMAUS.

There is this man Schmock!  He is a poor fellow who has been little in good society and was until now on the staff of the Coriolanus.

ADELAIDE.  I remember having seen him.

BELLMAUS.

At Bolz’s request I gave him a few glasses of punch.  He thereupon grew jolly and told me of a great plot that Senden and the editor of the Coriolanus have hatched between them.  These two gentlemen, so he assures me, had planned to discredit Professor Oldendorf in the Colonel’s eyes and so drove the Colonel into writing articles for the Coriolanus.

ADELAIDE.

But is the young man who made you these revelations at all trustworthy?

BELLMAUS.

He can’t stand much punch, and after three glasses he told me all this of his own accord.  In general I don’t consider him very reputable.  I should call him a good fellow, but reputable—­no, he’s not quite that.

ADELAIDE (indifferently.)

Do you suppose this gentleman who drank the three glasses of punch would be willing to repeat his disclosures before other persons?

BELLMAUS.

He said he would, and spoke of proofs too.

ADELAIDE (aside).

Aha! (Aloud.) I fear the proofs won’t amount to much.  And you have not spoken of it to the professor or Mr. Bolz?

BELLMAUS.

Our professor is very much occupied these days, and Bolz is the jolliest man in the world; but his relations with Mr. von Senden being already strained I thought—­