mixture of what
was heartbreaking and what was so ridiculous--I heard my own servant
whisper: "Let me go, Mr. Alving! Let me be!"

Manders. What unseemly levity on his part! But surely nothing more than
levity, Mrs. Alving, believe me.

Mrs. Alving. I soon knew what to believe. My husband had his will of
the girl--and that intimacy had consequences, Mr. Manders.

Manders (as if turned to stone). And all that in this house! In this
house!

Mrs. Alving. I have suffered a good deal in this house. To keep him at
home in the evening--and at night--I have had to play the part of boon
companion in his secret drinking-bouts in his room up there. I have had
to sit there alone with him, have had to hobnob and drink with him,
have had to listen to his ribald senseless talk, have had to fight with
brute force to get him to bed--

Manders (trembling). And you were able to endure all this!

Mrs. Alving. I had my little boy, and endured it for his sake. But when
the crowning insult came--when my own servant--then I made up my mind
that there should be an end of it. I took the upper hand in the house,
absolutely--both with him and all the others. I had a weapon to use
against him, you see; he didn't dare to speak. It was then that Oswald
was sent away. He was about seven then, and was beginning to notice
things and ask questions as children will. I could endure all that, my
friend. It seemed to me that the child would be poisoned if he breathed
the air of this polluted house. That was why I sent him away. And now
you understand, too, why he never set foot here as long as his father
was alive. No one knows what it meant to me.

Manders. You have indeed had a pitiable experience.

Mrs. Alving. I could never have gone through with it, if I had not had
my work. Indeed, I can boast that I have worked. All the increase in
the value of the property, all the improvements, all the useful
arrangements that my husband got the honour and glory of--do you
suppose that he troubled himself about any of them? He, who used to lie
the whole day on the sofa reading old official lists! No, you may as
well know that too. It was I that kept him up to the mark when he had
his lucid intervals; it was I that had to bear the whole burden of it
when he began his excesses again or took to whining about his miserable
condition.

Manders. And this is the man you are building a memorial to!

Mrs. Alving. There you see the power of an uneasy conscience.