Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 8).djvu/62

 Billing.

"Our city's palpitating heart," I once ventured to call them in a convivial moment

Dr. Stockmann.

Yes, I daresay. Well—do you know what they really are, these mighty, magnificent, belauded Baths, that have cost so much money—do you know what they are?

Hovstad.

No, what are they?

Mrs. Stockmann.

Do tell us.

Dr. Stockmann.

Simply a pestiferous hole.

Petra.

The Baths, father?

Mrs. Stockmann.

[At the same time.] Our Baths!

Hovstad.

[Also at the same time.] But, Doctor!

Billing.

Oh, it's incredible!

Dr. Stockmann.

I tell you the whole place is a poisonous whited-sepulchre; noxious in the highest degree! All that filth up there in the Mill Dale—the stuff that smells so horribly—taints the water in the