Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 6).djvu/226

 The Chamberlain.

Ah, about Monsen—didn't it come upon you like a thunderbolt?

Lundestad.

Oh, you have often prophesied it, Chamberlain.

The Chamberlain.

H'm, h'm;—yes, to be sure I have. I prophesied it only the day before yesterday; he came here trying to get money out of me

Fieldbo.

It might have saved him.

Lundestad.

Impossible; he was too deep in the mire; and whatever is, is for the best.

The Chamberlain.

That is your opinion? Was it for the best, then, that you were beaten at the poll yesterday?

Lundestad.

I wasn't beaten; everything went just as I wanted. Stensgård is not a man to make an enemy of; he has got what we others have to whistle for.

The Chamberlain.

I don't quite understand what you mean?

Lundestad.

He has the power of carrying people away with him. And then he has the luck to be unhampered by either character, or conviction, or social position; so that Liberalism is the easiest thing in the world to him.