MANDERS. And those-those wild oats--those irregularities--those
excesses, if you like--you call "a dissolute life"?

MRS. ALVING. Our doctor used the expression.

MANDERS. I do not understand you.

MRS. ALVING. You need not.

MANDERS. It almost makes me dizzy. Your whole married life, the seeming
union of all these years, was nothing more than a hidden abyss!

MRS. ALVING. Neither more nor less. Now you know it.

MANDERS. This is--this is inconceivable to me. I cannot grasp it! I
cannot realise it! But how was it possible to--? How could such a state
of things be kept secret?

MRS. ALVING. That has been my ceaseless struggle, day after day. After
Oswald's birth, I thought Alving seemed to be a little better. But it
did not last long. And then I had to struggle twice as hard, fighting as
though for life or death, so that nobody should know what sort of man
my child's father was. And you know what power Alving had of winning
people's hearts. Nobody seemed able to believe anything but good of
him. He was one of those people whose life does not bite upon their
reputation. But at last, Mr. Manders--for you must know the whole
story--the most repulsive thing of all happened.

MANDERS. More repulsive than what you have told me?

MRS. ALVING. I had gone on bearing with him, although I knew very well
the secrets of his life out of doors. But when he brought the scandal
within our own walls--

MANDERS. Impossible! Here!

MRS. ALVING. Yes; here in our own home. It was there [Pointing towards
the first door on the right], in the dining-room, that I first came
to know of it. I was busy with something in there, and the door was
standing ajar. I heard our housemaid come up from the garden, with water
for those flowers.

MANDERS. Well--?

MRS. ALVING. Soon after, I heard Alving come in too. I heard him say
something softly to her. And then I heard--[With a short laugh]--oh! it
still sounds in my ears, so hateful and yet so ludicrous--I heard my own
servant-maid whisper, "Let me go, Mr. Alving! Let me be!"

MANDERS. What unseemly levity on his part'! But it cannot have been more
than levity, Mrs. Alving; believe me, it cannot.

MRS. ALVING. I soon knew what to believe. Mr. Alving had his way with
the girl; and that connection had consequences, Mr. Manders.

MANDERS. [As though petrified.] Such things in this house--in this
house!

MRS. ALVING. I had borne a great deal in this house. To keep him at home
in the eve