Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 8).djvu/372

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Hialmar. [Half aloud, in vexation.] Oh, do hold your tongue!

Relling. Good-bye, Mrs.—Werle. [Goes out through the passage door.

Gregers. [To Mrs. Sörby.] You seem to know Dr. Relling pretty intimately.

Mrs. Sörby. Yes, we have known each other for many years. At one time it seemed as if things might have gone further between us.

Gregers. It was surely lucky for you that they did not.

Mrs. Sörby. You may well say that. But I have always been wary of acting on impulse. A woman can't afford absolutely to throw herself away.

Gregers. Are you not in the least afraid that I may let my father know about this old friendship?

Mrs. Sörby. Why, of course I have told him all about it myself.

Gregers. Indeed?

Mrs. Sörby. Your father knows every single thing that can,