Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 8).djvu/203

 Morten Kiil.

No, thank you. I hold fast to my good name, I've heard that people call me "the Badger." A badger's a sort of a pig, I know; but I'm determined to give them the lie. I will live and die a clean man.

Dr. Stockmann.

And how will you manage that?

Morten Kiil. You shall make me clean, Stockmann.

Dr. Stockmann. I!

Morten Kiil.

Do you know what money I've used to buy these shares with? No, you can't know; but now I'll tell you. It's the money Katrina and Petra and the boys are to have after my death. For, you see, I've laid by something after all.

Dr. Stockmann.

[Flaring up.] And you've taken Katrina's money and done this with it!

Morten Kiil.

Yes; the whole of it is invested in the Baths now. And now I want to see if you're really so stark, staring mad; after all, Stockmann. If you go on making out that these beasts and other abominations dribble down from my tannery, it'll be just as if you were to flay broad stripes of Katrina's skin—and Petra's too, and the boys'. No decent father would ever do that—unless he were a madman.