Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 6).djvu/262

 Mrs. Holt.

Ah, there's more than enough of that sort of thing, unfortunately.

Mrs. Rummel.

Yes; last year we only escaped the railway by a hair's-breadth.

Mrs. Bernick.

Karsten managed to put a stop to that.

Rörlund.

Providentially, Mrs. Bernick! You may be sure your husband was an instrument in a higher hand when he refused to support that scheme.

Mrs. Bernick.

And yet the papers said such horrid things about him! But we are quite forgetting to thank you, my dear Doctor. It is really more than kind of you to sacrifice so much of your time to us.

Rörlund.

Oh, not at all; in holiday-time, you know

Mrs. Bernick.

Yes, yes; but it's a sacrifice, nevertheless.

Rörlund.

[Drawing his chair nearer.] Pray don't speak of it, dear lady. Do not all of you make sacrifices for a good cause? And do you not make them willingly and gladly? The Lapsed and Lost, for whom we are working, are like wounded soldiers on a battlefield; you, ladies, are the Red Cross Guild, the Sisters of Mercy, who pick lint for these unhappy sufferers, tie the bandages gently round the wounds, dress, and heal them