Lona: That stands to reason. But who was the thief?
Bernick: There was no thief. There was no money stolen--not a
penny.
Lona: How is that?
Bernick: Not a penny, I tell you.
Lona: But those rumours? How did that shameful rumour get about
that Johan--
Bernick: Lona, I think I can speak to you as I could to no one
else. I will conceal nothing from you. I was partly to blame for
spreading the rumour.
Lona: You? You could act in that way towards a man who for your
sake--!
Bernick: Do not condemn me without bearing in mind how things
stood at that time. I told you about it yesterday. I came home
and found my mother involved in a mesh of injudicious
undertakings; we had all manner of bad luck--it seemed as if
misfortunes were raining upon us, and our house was on the verge
of ruin. I was half reckless and half in despair. Lona, I believe
it was mainly to deaden my thoughts that I let myself drift into
that entanglement that ended in Johan's going away.
Lona: Hm--
Bernick: You can well imagine how every kind of rumour was set on
foot after you and he had gone. People began to say that it was
not his first piece of folly--that Dorf had received a large sum
of money to hold his tongue and go away; other people said that
she had received it.
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