he embraces
her. Both leave on the left. The_ COLONEL _follows_.]

ADELAIDE (_sweetly_).

Before asking you, Mr. von Senden, to interest yourself in the editing
of the newspaper, I beg you to read through this correspondence which
I received as a contribution to my columns.

SENDEN (_takes a glance at them_).

Miss Runeck, I don't know whose indiscretion--

ADELAIDE.

Fear none on my part. I am a newspaper proprietor, and (_with, marked
emphasis_) shall keep editorial secrets.

[SENDEN _bows_.]

May I ask
for the deed, Judge? And will you gentlemen be kind enough to ease the
mind of the vendor as to the outcome of the transaction?

[_Mutual
bows_. SENDEN _and_ SCHWARZ _leave_.]

ADELAIDE (_after a short pause_).

Now, Mr. Bolz, what am I going to do about you?

BOLZ.

I am prepared for anything. I am surprised at nothing any more. If
some one should go straight off and spend a capital of a hundred
millions in painting negroes white with oil-colors, or in making
Africa four-cornered, I should not let it astonish me. If I wake up
tomorrow as an owl with two tufts of feathers for ears and a mouse in
my beak, I will say, "All right," and remember that worse things have
happened.

ADELAIDE.

What is the matter with you, Conrad? Are you displeased with me?

BOLZ.

With you? You have been generous as ever; only too generous. And it
would all have been fine, if only this whole scene had been
impossible. That fellow Senden!

ADELAIDE.

We have seen the last of him! Conrad, I'm one of the party!

BOLZ.

Hallelujah! I hear countless angels blowing on their trumpets! I'll
stay with the _Union_!

ADELAIDE.

About that I am no longer the one to decide. For I have still a
confession to make to you. I, too, am not the real owner of the
newspaper.

BOLZ.

You are not? Now, by all the gods, I am at my wit's end. I'm beginning
not to care who this owner is. Be he man, will-of-the-wisp, or the
devil Beelzebub in person, I bid him defiance.

ADELAIDE.

He is a kind of a will-of-the-wisp, a little something of a devil, and
from top to toe a great rogue. For, Conrad, my friend, beloved of my
youth, it is you yourself.

[_Hands him the deed_.]

BOLZ (_stupefied for a moment, reads_).

"Ceded to Conrad Bolz"--correct! So that would be a sort of gift.
Can't be accepted, much too little!

[_Throws the paper aside_.]
Prudence be gone!

[_Falls on his knees before_ ADELAIDE.]

Here I
kneel, Adel