just as likely I take after my mother, I expect.--May
I ask, Mrs. Alving, whether Mr. Manders knows this about me?

Mrs. Alving. Mr. Manders knows everything.

Regina (putting on her shawl). Oh, well then, the best thing I can do
is to get away by the boat as soon as I can. Mr. Manders is such a nice
gentleman to deal with; and it certainly seems to me that I have just
as much right to some of that money as he--as that horrid carpenter.

Mrs. Alving. You are quite welcome to it, Regina.

Regina (looking at her fixedly). You might as well have brought me up
like a gentleman's daughter; it would have been more suitable. (Tosses
her head.) Oh, well--never mind! (With a bitter glance at the unopened
bottle.) I daresay someday I shall be drinking champagne with
gentlefolk, after all.

Mrs. Alving. If ever you need a home, Regina, come to me.

Regina. No, thank you, Mrs. Alving. Mr. Manders takes an interest in
me, I know. And if things should go very badly with me, I know one
house at any rate where I shall feel at home.

Mrs. Alving. Where is that?

Regina. In the "Alving Home."

Mrs. Alving. Regina--I can see quite well--you are going to your ruin!

Regina. Pooh!--goodbye.

(She bows to them and goes out through the hall.)

Oswald (standing by the window and looking out). Has she gone?

Mrs. Alving. Yes.

Oswald (muttering to himself). I think it's all wrong.

Mrs. Alving (going up to him from behind and putting her hands on his
shoulders). Oswald, my dear boy--has it been a great shock to you?

Oswald (turning his face towards her). All this about father, do you
mean?

Mrs. Alving. Yes, about your unhappy father. I am so afraid it may have
been too much for you.

Oswald. What makes you think that? Naturally it has taken me entirely
by surprise; but, after all, I don't know that it matters much to me.

Mrs. Alving (drawing back her hands). Doesn't matter!--that your
father's life was such a terrible failure!

Oswald. Of course I can feel sympathy for him, just as I would for
anyone else, but--

Mrs. Alving. No more than that! For your own father!

Oswald (impatiently). Father--father! I never knew anything of my
father. I don't remember anything else about him except that he once
made me sick.

Mrs. Alving. It is dreadful to think of!--But surely a child should
feel some affection for his father, whatever happens?

Oswald. When the child has nothing to thank his father for? When he has
never