ld have mixed
you up in all this disgrace!

Sandstad (coming in hurriedly from the right, and calling out, with his
hand still on the door-handle): You positively must come now, Mr.
Bernick. The fate of the whole railway is hanging by a thread.

Bernick (abstractedly): What is it? What have I to--

Lona (earnestly and with emphasis): You have to go and be a pillar of
society, brother-in-law.

Sandstad: Yes, come along; we need the full weight of your moral
excellence on our side.

Johan (aside, to BERNICK): Karsten, we will have a talk about this
tomorrow. (Goes out through the garden. BERNICK, looking half dazed,
goes out to the right with SANDSTAD.)

ACT III

(SCENE--The same room. BERNICK, with a cane in his hand and evidently
in a great rage, comes out of the farther room on the left, leaving the
door half-open behind him.)

Bernick (speaking to his wife, who is in the other room): There! I have
given it him in earnest now; I don't think he will forget that
thrashing! What do you say?--And I say that you are an injudicious
mother! You make excuses for him, and countenance any sort of rascality
on his part--Not rascality? What do you call it, then? Slipping out of
the house at night, going out in a fishing boat, staying away till well
on in the day, and giving me such a horrible fright when I have so much
to worry me! And then the young scamp has the audacity to threaten that
he will run away! Just let him try it!--You? No, very likely; you don't
trouble yourself much about what happens to him. I really believe that
if he were to get killed--! Oh, really? Well, I have work to leave
behind me in the world; I have no fancy for being left childless--Now,
do not raise objections, Betty; it shall be as I say--he is confined to
the house. (Listens.) Hush; do not let any one notice anything. (KRAP
comes in from the right.)

Krap: Can you spare me a moment, Mr. Bernick?

Bernick (throwing away the cane): Certainly, certainly. Have you come
from the yard?

Krap: Yes. Ahem--!

Bernick: Well? Nothing wrong with the "Palm Tree," I hope?

Krap: The "Palm Tree" can sail tomorrow, but

Bernick: It is the "Indian Girl," then? I had a suspicion that that
obstinate fellow--

Krap: The "Indian Girl" can sail tomorrow, too; but I am sure she will
not get very far.

Bernick: What do you mean?

Krap: Excuse me, sir; that door is standing ajar, and I think there is
some one in the other room--

Bernick (sh