ple like ourselves?

Mrs. Alving. Yes, amongst people like ourselves too.

Manders. Well, really, I must say--!

Mrs. Alving. But what is the particular objection that you have to
these books?

Manders. What objection? You surely don't suppose that I take any
particular interest in such productions?

Mrs. Alving. In fact, you don't know anything about what you are
denouncing?

Manders. I have read quite enough about these books to disapprove of
them:

Mrs. Alving. Yes, but your own opinion--

Manders. My dear Mrs. Alving, there are many occasions in life when one
has to rely on the opinion of others. That is the way in this world,
and it is quite right that it should be so. What would become of
society, otherwise?

Mrs. Alving. Well, you may be right.

Manders. Apart from that, naturally I don't deny that literature of
this kind may have a considerable attraction. And I cannot blame you,
either, for wishing to make yourself acquainted with the intellectual
tendencies which I am told are at work in the wider world in which you
have allowed your son to wander for so long but--

Mrs. Alving. But--?

Manders (lowering his voice). But one doesn't talk about it, Mrs.
Alving. One certainly is not called upon to account to everyone for
what one reads or thinks in the privacy of one's own room.

Mrs. Alving. Certainly not. I quite agree with you.

Manders. Just think of the consideration you owe to this Orphanage,
which you decided to build at a time when your thoughts on such
subjects were very different from what they are now--as far as I am
able to judge.

Mrs. Alving. Yes, I freely admit that. But it was about the Orphanage...

Manders. It was about the Orphanage we were going to talk; quite so.
Well--walk warily, dear Mrs. Alving! And now let us turn to the
business in hand. (Opens an envelope and takes out some papers.) You
see these?

Mrs. Alving. The deeds?

Manders. Yes, the whole lot--and everything in order; I can tell you it
has been no easy matter to get them in time. I had positively to put
pressure on the authorities; they are almost painfully conscientious
when it is a question of settling property. But here they are at last.
(Turns over the papers.) Here is the deed of conveyance of that part of
the Rosenvold estate known as the Solvik property, together with the
buildings newly erected thereon--the school, the masters' houses and
the chapel. And here is the legal sanction for the statut