HAUSER. Formerly,--formerly.

BEERMANN. Now there is fusion.

FRAU LUND [to Frau Beermann]. You never told me that your husband
was in politics.

FRAU BEERMANN. He never was--up to two weeks ago.

FRAU LUND. How quickly things change! And of all the people ...
you!

BEERMANN. What's so startling in that?

FRAU LUND. You told me that you never even read the newspapers.

BOLLAND. We all are cordially grateful to Beermann that in an hour
of need he made this sacrifice.

FRAU LUND. The way you talk about the "hour of need" and
"sacrifice" Herr Kommerzienrat, it seems to me that you would have
been the better candidate.

BOLLAND. Oh, I am too pronouncedly Liberal.

HAUSER. And that's an incurable disease!

BOLLAND. At any rate it makes my nomination impossible. A man was
needed who was not known as a party-man.