per, I seem to see ghosts gliding between the lines. There
must be ghosts all the country over, as thick as the sands of the sea.
And then we are, one and all, so pitifully afraid of the light.

MANDERS. Aha--here we have the fruits of your reading. And pretty fruits
they are, upon my word! Oh, those horrible, revolutionary, free-thinking
books!

MRS. ALVING. You are mistaken, my dear Pastor. It was you yourself who
set me thinking; and I thank you for it with all my heart.

MANDERS. I!

MRS. ALVING. Yes--when you forced me under the yoke of what you called
duty and obligation; when you lauded as right and proper what my whole
soul rebelled against as something loathsome. It was then that I began
to look into the seams of your doctrines. I wanted only to pick at a
single knot; but when I had got that undone, the whole thing ravelled
out. And then I understood that it was all machine-sewn.

MANDERS. [Softly, with emotion.] And was that the upshot of my life's
hardest battle?

MRS. ALVING. Call it rather your most pitiful defeat.

MANDERS. It was my greatest victory, Helen--the victory over myself.

MRS. ALVING. It was a crime against us both.

MANDERS. When you went astray, and came to me crying, "Here I am; take
me!" I commanded you, saying, "Woman, go home to your lawful husband."
Was that a crime?

MRS. ALVING. Yes, I think so.

MANDERS. We two do not understand each other.

MRS. ALVING. Not now, at any rate.

MANDERS. Never--never in my most secret thoughts have I regarded you
otherwise than as another's wife.

MRS. ALVING. Oh--indeed?

MANDERS. Helen--!

MRS. ALVING. People so easily forget their past selves.

MANDERS. I do not. I am what I always was.

MRS. ALVING. [Changing the subject.] Well well well; don't let us talk
of old times any longer. You are now over head and ears in Boards and
Committees, and I am fighting my battle with ghosts, both within me and
without.

MANDERS. Those without I shall help you to lay. After all the terrible
things I have heard from you today, I cannot in conscience permit an
unprotected girl to remain in your house.

MRS. ALVING. Don't you think the best plan would be to get her provided
for?--I mean, by a good marriage.

MANDERS. No doubt. I think it would be desirable for her in every
respect. Regina is now at the age when--Of course I don't know much
about these things, but--

MRS. ALVING. Regina matured very early.

MANDERS. Yes, I thought so. I h