I can add what you do not yet know. The man referred
to did not go away alone; with him, to become his wife, went--
Lona (loudly): Dina Dorf!
Rorlund: What?
Mrs. Bernick: What? (Great commotion.)
Rorlund: Fled? Run away--with him! Impossible!
Bernick: To become his wife, Mr. Rorlund. And I will add more. (In a
low voice, to his wife.) Betty, be strong to bear what is coming.
(Aloud.) This is what I have to say : hats off to that man, for he has
nobly taken another's guilt upon his shoulders. My friends, I want to
have done with falsehood; it has very nearly poisoned every fibre of my
being. You shall know all. Fifteen years ago, I was the guilty man.
Mrs. Bernick (softly and tremblingly): Karsten!
Martha (similarly): Ah, Johan--!
Lona: Now at last you have found yourself!
(Speechless consternation among the audience.)
Bernick: Yes, friends, I was the guilty one, and he went away. The vile
and lying rumours that were spread abroad afterwards, it is beyond
human power to refute now; but I have no right to complain of that. For
fifteen years I have climbed up the ladder of success by the help of
those rumours; whether now they are to cast me down again, or not, each
of you must decide in his own mind.
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