Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 8).djvu/76

 Dr. Stockmann.

Not yet. He'll be here presently.

Hovstad.

I have been thinking the matter over since last evening.

Dr. Stockmann.

Well?

HOVSTAD.

To you, as a doctor and a man of science, this business of the water-works appears an isolated affair. I daresay it hasn't occurred to you that a good many other things are bound up with it?

Dr. Stockmann.

Indeed! In what way? Let us sit down, my dear fellow.—No; there, on the sofa.

[Hovstad sits on sofa; the Doctor in an easy-chair on the other side of the table.

Dr. Stockmann.

Well, so you think?

Hovstad.

You said yesterday that the water is polluted by impurities in the soil.

Dr. Stockmann.

Yes, undoubtedly; the mischief comes from that poisonous swamp up in the Mill Dale.

Hovstad.

Excuse me, Doctor, but I think it comes from a very different swamp.