ndeed, that it will be
under a special protection.

Mrs. Alving. Let us hope so, Mr. Manders.

Manders. Then we will leave it alone?

Mrs. Alving. Certainly.

Manders. Very good. As you wish. (Makes a note.) No insurance, then.

Mrs. Alving. It's a funny thing that you should just have happened to
speak about that today--

Manders. I have often meant to ask you about it.

Mrs. Alving. --because yesterday we very nearly had a fire up there.

Manders. Do you mean it!

Mrs. Alving. Oh, as a matter of fact it was nothing of any consequence.
Some shavings in the carpenter's shop caught fire.

Manders. Where Engstrand works?

Mrs. Alving. Yes. They say he is often so careless with matches.

Manders. He has so many things on his mind, poor fellow--so many
anxieties. Heaven be thanked, I am told he is really making an effort
to live a blameless life.

Mrs. Alving. Really? Who told you so?

Manders. He assured me himself that it is so. He's good workman, too.

Mrs. Alving. Oh, yes, when he is sober.

Manders. Ah, that sad weakness of his! But the pain in his poor leg
often drives him to it, he tells me. The last time he was in town, I
was really quite touched by him. He came to my house and thanked me so
gratefully for getting him work here, where he could have the chance of
being with Regina.

Mrs. Alving. He doesn't see very much of her.

Manders. But he assured me that he saw her every day.

Mrs. Alving. Oh well, perhaps he does.

Manders. He feels so strongly that he needs someone who can keep a hold
on him when temptations assail him. That is the most winning thing
about Jacob Engstrand; he comes to one like a helpless child and
accuses himself and confesses his frailty. The last time he came and
had a talk with me... Suppose now, Mrs. Alving, that it were really a
necessity of his existence to have Regina at home with him again--

Mrs. Alving (standing up suddenly). Regina!

Manders. --you ought not to set yourself against him.

Mrs. Alving. Indeed, I set myself very definitely against that. And,
besides, you know Regina is to have a post in the Orphanage.

Manders. But consider, after all he is her father--

Mrs. Alving. I know best what sort of a father he has been to her. No,
she shall never go to him with my consent.

Manders (getting up). My dear lady, don't judge so hastily. It is very
sad how you misjudge poor Engstrand. One would really think you were
afraid...

Mrs. Alving (more