Bernick: Do you mean to say that you call that--?
Lona: I call it a lie--a threefold lie: first of all, there is the
lie towards me; then, the lie towards Betty; and then, the lie
towards Johan.
Bernick: Betty has never asked me to speak.
Lona: Because she has known nothing.
Bernick: And you will not demand it--out of consideration for
her.
Lona: Oh, no--I shall manage to put up with their gibes well
enough; I have broad shoulders.
Bernick: And Johan will not demand it either; he has promised me
that.
Lona: But you yourself, Karsten? Do you feel within yourself no
impulse urging you to shake yourself free of this lie?
Bernick: Do you suppose that of my own free will I would
sacrifice my family happiness and my position in the world?
Lona: What right have you to the position you hold?
Bernick: Every day during these fifteen years I have earned some
little right to it--by my conduct, and by what I have achieved by
my work.
Lona: True, you have achieved a great deal by your work, for
yourself as well as for others. You are the richest and most
influential man in the town; nobody in it dares do otherwise than
defer to your will, because you are looked upon as a man without
spot or blemish; your home is regarded as a model home, and your
conduct as a model of conduct.
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