Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 6).djvu/187

 Bastian.

Hypocrisy!

Stensgård.

Yes; you are lying to yourself, at any rate. You talk in one breath of town-contracts and of love. Why not call a spade a spade? There's something sordid about all this; I will have nothing to do with it.

Bastian.

But listen!

Stensgård.

Do your dirty work yourself, I say! [To Fieldbo, who enters from the right.] Well, how goes the election?

Fieldbo.

Excellently for you, it appears. I saw Lundestad just now; he said you were getting all the votes.

Stensgård.

Am I indeed?

Fieldbo.

But what good will they do you? Since you're not a man of property

Stensgård.

[Between his teeth.] Isn't it confounded!

Fieldbo.

Well, you can't do two things at once. If you win on the one side, you must be content to lose on the other. Good-bye! [Goes out by the back,

Bastian.

What did he mean by winning and losing?