you only!

Manders. And what may the truth be?

Mrs. Alving. The truth is this, that my husband died just as great a
profligate as he had been all his life.

Manders (feeling for a chair). What are you saying?

Mrs. Alving. After nineteen years of married life, just as
profligate--in his desires at all events--as he was before you married
us.

Manders. And can you talk of his youthful indiscretions--his
irregularities--his excesses, if you like--as a profligate life!

Mrs. Alving. That was what the doctor who attended him called it.

Manders. I don't understand what you mean.

Mrs. Alving. It is not necessary that you should.

Manders. It makes my brain reel. To think that your marriage--all the
years of wedded life you spent with your husband--were nothing but a
hidden abyss of misery.

Mrs. Alving. That and nothing else. Now you know.

Manders. This--this bewilders me. I can't understand it! I can't grasp
it! How in the world was it possible? How could such a state of things
remain concealed?

Mrs. Alving. That was just what I had to fight for incessantly, day
after day. When Oswald was born, I thought I saw a slight improvement.
But it didn't last long. And after that I had to fight doubly
hard--fight a desperate fight so that no one should know what sort of a
man my child's father was. You know quite well what an attractive
manner he had; it seemed as if people could believe nothing but good of
him. He was one of those men whose mode of life seems to have no effect
upon their reputations. But at last, Mr. Manders--you must hear this
too--at last something happened more abominable than everything else.

Manders. More abominable than what you have told me!

Mrs. Alving. I had borne with it all, though I knew only too well what
he indulged in in secret, when he was out of the house. But when it
came to the point of the scandal coming within our four walls--

Manders. Can you mean it! Here?

Mrs. Alving. Yes, here, in our own home. It was in there (pointing to
the nearer door on the right) in the dining-room that I got the first
hint of it. I had something to do in there and the door was standing
ajar. I heard our maid come up from the garden with water for the
flowers in the conservatory.

Manders. Well--?

Mrs. Alving. Shortly afterwards I heard my husband come in too. I heard
him say something to her in a low voice. And then I heard--(with a
short laugh)--oh, it rings in my ears still, with its