Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 8).djvu/113

 Look here, Mr. Aslaksen, this is what I wanted to ask you: won't you take personal charge of the article?

Aslaksen.

Certainly I will.

Dr. Stockmann.

Be as careful as if it were gold. No printers' errors; every word is important. I shall look in again presently; perhaps you'll be able to let me see a proof.—Ah! I can't tell you how I long to have the thing in print—to see it launched

Billing.

Yes, like a thunderbolt!

Dr. Stockmann.

and submitted to the judgment of every intelligent citizen. Oh, you have no idea what I have had to put up with to-day. I've been threatened with all sorts of things. I was to be robbed of my clearest rights as a human being

Billing.

What! Your rights as a human being!

Dr. Stockmann.

I was to humble myself, and eat the dust; I was to set my personal interests above my deepest, holiest convictions

Billing.

Strike me dead, but that's too outrageous

Hovstad.

Oh, what can you expect from that quarter?