Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 8).djvu/256

 Werle.

Yes, but I am afraid it can't last. A woman so situated may easily find herself in a false position, in the eyes of the world. For that matter it does a man no good, either.

Gregers.

Oh, when a man gives such dinners as you give, he can risk a great deal.

Werle.

Yes, but how about the woman, Gregers? I fear she won't accept the situation much longer; and even if she did—even if, out of attachment to me, she were to take her chance of gossip and scandal and all that? Do you think, Gregers—you with your strong sense of justice

Gregers.

[Interrupts him.] Tell me in one word: are you thinking of marrying her?

Werle. Suppose I were thinking of it? What then?

Gregers. That's what I say: what then?

Werle. Should you be inflexibly opposed to it!

Gregers. Not at all. Not by any means.

Werle. I was not sure whether your devotion to your mother's memory