Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 6).djvu/369

 Lona.

You will?

Bernick.

With Dina! As your wife? Here, in this town?

Johan.

Yes, just here; I will stay here to outface all these liars and backbiters. And that I may win her, you must set me free.

Bernick.

Have you considered that, if I plead guilty to the one thing, I plead guilty to the other as well? I can prove by our books, you say, that there was no embezzlement at all? But I cannot; our books were not so accurately kept in those days. And even if I could, what would be gained by it? Should I not figure, at best, as the man who, having once saved himself by falsehood, had let that falsehood, and all its consequences, run on for fifteen years, without taking a single step to retract it? You have forgotten what our society is, or you would know that that would crush me to the very dust.

Johan.

I can only repeat that I shall make Madam Dorf's daughter my wife, and live with her here, in this town.

Bernick.

[Wipes the perspiration from his forehead.] Hear me, Johan—and you, too, Lona. My position at this moment is not an ordinary one. I am so situated, that if you strike this blow you destroy me utterly, and not only me, but also a great and golden future for the community which was, after all, the home of your childhood.