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 as to the wrongs the poor dead mother had to submit to? Not a vestige. Her son annihilates them at one stroke.

Werle. Gregers—I believe there is no one in the world you detest as you do me.

Gregers. [Softly.] I have seen you at too close quarters.

Werle.

You have seen me with your mother's eyes. [Lowers his voice a little.] But you should remember that her eyes were—clouded now and then.

Gregers.

[Quivering.] I see what you are hinting at. But who was to blame for mother's unfortunate weakness? Why you, and all those! The last of them was this woman that you palmed off upon Hialmar Ekdal, when you were Ugh!

Werle.

[Shrugs his shoulders.] Word for word as if it were your mother speaking!

Gregers.

[Without heeding.] And there he is now, with his great, confiding, childlike mind, compassed about with all this treachery—living under the same roof with such a creature, and never dreaming that what he calls his home is built upon a lie! [Comes a step nearer.] When I look back upon your past, I seem to see a battle-field with shattered lives on every hand.