Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 6).djvu/347

 Lona.

Oh, no; I daresay I shall manage to bear all the ridicule; I have a broad back.

Bernick.

And Johan will not ask me either—he has promised me that.

Lona.

But you yourself, Karsten? Is there not something within you that longs to get clear of the lie?

Bernick.

You would have me voluntarily sacrifice my domestic happiness and my position in society!

Lona.

What right have you to stand where you are standing?

Bernick.

For fifteen years I have every day earned a clearer right—by my whole life, by all I have laboured for, by all I have achieved.

Lona.

Yes, you have laboured for much and achieved much, both for yourself and others. You are the richest and most influential man in the town; they have to bow before your will, all of them, because you are held to be a man without stain or flaw—your home is a model, your life is a model. But all this magnificence, and you yourself along with it, stand on a trembling quicksand. A moment may come, a word may be spoken—and, if you do not save yourself in time, you and all your grandeur go to the bottom.