STROEBEL. My conscience?

HAUTEVILLE. Yes, if I tell you here, there will be no possibility
of a mistake, but everything must remain a mistake.

STROEBEL. I have patience with you, but I will not let you fool
me. Now get yourself together and consider every word. What must
remain a mistake?

HAUTEVILLE. Everything that has happened since Saturday night.

STROEBEL. All that must remain a mistake?

HAUTEVILLE. It simply must not have happened. No one broke into my
apartment. No one arrested me. No one compelled anyone to hide in
the wardrobe.

STROEBEL [shouts.] And no one ever saw such an insolent female.

HAUTEVILLE. This browbeating.

STROEBEL. It is meant for such as you.

HAUTEVILLE. [indignantly stopping her ears]. It reminds one so
much of the tin plates and the comb.

STROEBEL [angrily pacing the room]. I never heard anything like
it. Picture it! She makes insinuations as though we had something
to be afraid of. [He stops pacing and faces her.] You evidently