t?

Manders (looking sympathetically at him). You went out into the world
very young, my dear Oswald.

Oswald. I did. Sometimes I wonder if I wasn't too young.

Mrs. Alving. Not a bit of it. It is the best thing for an active boy,
and especially for an only child. It's a pity when they are kept at
home with their parents and get spoiled.

Manders. That is a very debatable question, Mrs. Alving. A child's own
home is, and always must be, his proper place.

Oswald. There I agree entirely with Mr. Manders.

Manders. Take the case of your own son. Oh yes, we can talk about it
before him. What has the result been in his case? He is six or seven
and twenty, and has never yet had the opportunity of learning what a
well-regulated home means.

Oswald. Excuse me, Mr. Manders, you are quite wrong there.

Manders. Indeed? I imagined that your life abroad had practically been
spent entirely in artistic circles.

Oswald. So it has.

Manders. And chiefly amongst the younger artists.

Oswald. Certainly.

Manders. But I imagined that those gentry, as a rule, had not the means
necessary for family life and the support of a home.

Oswald. There are a considerable number of them who have not the means
to marry, Mr. Manders.

Manders. That is exactly my point.

Oswald. But they can have a home of their own, all the same; a good
many of them have. And they are very well-regulated and very
comfortable homes, too.

(MRS. ALVING, who has listened to him attentively, nods assent, but
says nothing.)

Manders. Oh, but I am not talking of bachelor establishments. By a home
I mean family life--the life a man lives with his wife and children.

Oswald. Exactly, or with his children and his children's mother.

Manders (starts and clasps his hands). Good heavens!

Oswald. What is the matter?

Manders. Lives with-with-his children's mother.

Oswald. Well, would you rather he should repudiate his children's
mother?

Manders. Then what you are speaking of are those unprincipled
conditions known as irregular unions!

Oswald. I have never noticed anything particularly unprincipled about
these people's lives.

Manders. But do you mean to say that it is possible for a man of any
sort of bringing up, and a young woman, to reconcile themselves to such
a way of living--and to make no secret of it, either!

Oswald. What else are they to do? A poor artist, and a poor girl--it
costs a good deal to get married. What else are they to