BOLZ (_to_ KÄMPE _and_ BELLMAUS). Do you hear that? On our paper? H'm!
'Tis much you ask, noble Roman!

SCHMOCK. I am sick of the _Coriolanus_. I would do any kind of work
you needed done. I want to be with respectable people, where one can
earn something and be treated decently.

BOLZ. What are you asking of us, slave of Rome? We to entice you away
from your party--never! We do violence to your political convictions?
Make you a renegade? We bear the guilt of your joining our party? No,
sir! We have a tender conscience. It rises in arms against your
proposition!

SCHMOCK. Why do you let that trouble you? Under Blumenberg I have
learned to write whichever way the wind blows. I have written on the
left and again on the right. I can write in any direction.

BOLZ. I see you have character. You would be a sure success on our
paper. Your offer does us honor, but we cannot accept it now. So
momentous an affair as your defection needs deep consideration.
Meanwhile you will have confided in no unfeeling barbarian. (_Aside to
the others_.) We may be able to worm something out of him. Bellmaus,
you have the tenderest heart of us three; you must devote yourself to
him today.

BELLMAUS. But what shall I do with him?

BOLZ. Take him into the restaurant, sit down in a corner with him,
pour punch into every hollow of his poor head until his secrets jump
out like wet mice. Make him chatter, especially about the elections.