Frau Lund.  I certainly would not.

Bolland [feeling in his side pocket].  At least read our “Appeal to the Public.”

Frau Lund [refusing].  No, thank you.

Bolland.  Every woman will rejoice when she reads it.

Frau Lund.  Do you think so?  How exceedingly amusing your societies are!  So, cards and bowling no longer offer sufficient entertainment.  You have to moralize.

Hauser.  I can’t help thinking of the notorious starvation freak at the circus who gets his meals on the sly everyday.

Dr. Wasner.  Of course, every conviction can be made ridiculous once it’s regarded as insincere.  You shouldn’t accuse without proof.

Hauser.  Herr Professor, politeness requires that each individual be regarded as the exception—­but not an entire club.

Bolland.  It is a pity, indeed, that a great movement like ours is disposed of by a few trifling remarks.  That embitters our task of curing the nation of social diseases.

Frau Lund.  Where did you get your Doctor’s license to cure?

Dr. Wasner.  It’s sad enough that the cure is left to only a few of us.

Hauser.  Well, I’ll remain a patient.  You’ll need a few anyway to keep up your business.

Beermann.  I consider all this a very cheap kind of humor.  I used to joke about these matters myself, but if you will only look upon this problem from a serious point of view, when your eyes are opened to the ...

Frau Beermann. ...  Your newly acquired ways of talking are quite unbearable.

Beermann.  Please, don’t make a scene.

Frau Beermann.  We have been married for twenty-six years; have been very fortunate with our own children.  Why worry about other people?

Beermann.  You are not logical, my love.  The mere fact that I brought up my children properly is all the more reason for my joining this movement. ...

Frau Beermann.  You didn’t lose much sleep about their education.

Beermann.  Evidently I didn’t neglect anything.

Frau Lund.  I’m afraid you pride yourselves on a degree of willpower you never exercised.

Beermann.  Never exercised?  My dear Frau Lund, what do you know about the temptations which confront us men.  What does a woman know about them?

Frau Lund.  The only thing we women don’t know about is the manner in which these temptations terminate.

Beermann.  Our movement intends to do away with these very deceptions.  We want to protect the traditions of the home which women treasure.

Frau Lund.  No.  We, women also treasure modesty.  We dislike to see men pretend to have better morals than they actually have.