ng away, you know, Thomas.

(PETRA comes back.)

Dr. Stockmann. Well?

Petra. She has gone with it.

Dr. Stockmann. Good.--Going away, did you say? No, I'll be hanged if we
are going away! We are going to stay where we are, Katherine!

Petra. Stay here?

Mrs. Stockmann. Here, in the town?

Dr. Stockmann. Yes, here. This is the field of battle--this is where
the fight will be. This is where I shall triumph! As soon as I have had
my trousers sewn up I shall go out and look for another house. We must
have a roof over our heads for the winter.

Horster. That you shall have in my house.

Dr. Stockmann. Can I?

Horsier. Yes, quite well. I have plenty of room, and I am almost never
at home.

Mrs. Stockmann. How good of you, Captain Horster!

Petra. Thank you!

Dr. Stockmann (grasping his hand). Thank you, thank you! That is one
trouble over! Now I can set to work in earnest at once. There is an
endless amount of things to look through here, Katherine! Luckily I
shall have all my time at my disposal; because I have been dismissed
from the Baths, you know.

Mrs. Stockmann (with a sigh). Oh yes, I expected that.

Dr. Stockmann. And they want to take my practice away from me too. Let
them! I have got the poor people to fall back upon, anyway--those that
don't pay anything; and, after all, they need me most, too. But, by
Jove, they will have to listen to me; I shall preach to them in season
and out of season, as it says somewhere.

Mrs. Stockmann. But, dear Thomas, I should have thought events had
showed you what use it is to preach.

Dr. Stockmann. You are really ridiculous, Katherine. Do you want me to
let myself be beaten off the field by public opinion and the compact
majority and all that devilry? No, thank you! And what I want to do is
so simple and clear and straightforward. I only want to drum into the
heads of these curs the fact that the liberals are the most insidious
enemies of freedom--that party programmes strangle every young and
vigorous truth--that considerations of expediency turn morality and
justice upside down--and that they will end by making life here
unbearable. Don't you think, Captain Horster, that I ought to be able
to make people understand that?

Horster. Very likely; I don't know much about such things myself.

Dr. Stockmann. Well, look here--I will explain! It is the party leaders
that must be exterminated. A party leader is like a wolf, you see--like
a voracious wolf. He req