Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 8).djvu/187

 they stir up right and wrong into one hotch-potch? Don't they call lies everything that I know to be the truth? But the maddest thing of all is to see crowds of grown men, calling themselves Liberals, go about persuading themselves and others that they are friends of freedom! Did you ever hear anything like it, Katrina?

Mrs. Stockmann. Yes, yes, no doubt. But

Petra enters from the sitting-room.

Mrs. Stockmann. Back from school already?

Petra. Yes; I have been dismissed.

Mrs. Stockmann. Dismissed?

Dr. Stockmann. You too!

Petra.

Mrs. Busk gave me notice, and so I thought it best to leave there and then.

Dr. Stockmann. You did perfectly right!

Mrs. Stockmann.

Who could have thought Mrs. Busk was such a bad woman!

Petra.

Oh mother, Mrs. Busk isn't bad at all; I saw clearly how sorry she was. But she dared not do otherwise, she said; and so I am dismissed.