Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 8).djvu/191

 Dr. Stockmann.

You'd better not take your oath of it, Katrina. A bad name may act like a pin-scratch in the lung. And that confounded word—I can't get rid of it; it has sunk deep into my heart; and there it lies gnawing and sucking like an acid. And no magnesia can cure me.

Petra. Pooh; you should only laugh at them, father.

Horster. People will think differently yet, Doctor.

Mrs. Stockmann.

Yes, Thomas, that's as certain as that you are standing here.

Dr. Stockmann.

Yes, perhaps, when it is too late. Well, as they make their bed so they must lie! Let them go on wallowing here in their pig-sty, and learn to repent having driven a patriot into exile. When do you sail, Captain Horster?

Horster.

Well—that's really what I came to speak to you about

Dr. Stockmann. What? Anything wrong with the ship?

Horster. No; but the fact is, I shan't be sailing in her.

Petra. Surely you have not been dismissed?