gina! Lord, what a turn you gave me! [Looks at MRS.
ALVING.] There's nothing wrong about Regina, is there?

MANDERS. We will hope not. But I mean, what is the truth about you and
Regina? You pass for her father, eh!

ENGSTRAND. [Uncertain.] Well--h'm--your Reverence knows all about me and
poor Johanna.

MANDERS. Come now, no more prevarication! Your wife told Mrs. Alving the
whole story before quitting her service.

ENGSTRAND. Well, then, may--! Now, did she really?

MANDERS. You see we know you now, Engstrand.

ENGSTRAND. And she swore and took her Bible oath--

MANDERS. Did she take her Bible oath?

ENGSTRAND. No; she only swore; but she did it that solemn-like.

MANDERS. And you have hidden the truth from me all these years? Hidden
it from me, who have trusted you without reserve, in everything.

ENGSTRAND. Well, I can't deny it.

MANDERS. Have I deserved this of you, Engstrand? Have I not always been
ready to help you in word and deed, so far as it lay in my power? Answer
me. Have I not?

ENGSTRAND. It would have been a poor look-out for me many a time but for
the Reverend Mr. Manders.

MANDERS. And this is how you reward me! You cause me to enter falsehoods
in the Church Register, and you withhold from me, year after year, the
explanations you owed alike to me and to the truth. Your conduct has
been wholly inexcusable, Engstrand; and from this time forward I have
done with you!

ENGSTRAND. [With a sigh.] Yes! I suppose there's no help for it.

MANDERS. How can you possibly justify yourself?

ENGSTRAND. Who could ever have thought she'd have gone and made bad
worse by talking about it? Will your Reverence just fancy yourself in
the same trouble as poor Johanna--

MANDERS. I!

ENGSTRAND. Lord bless you, I don't mean just exactly the same. But I
mean, if your Reverence had anything to be ashamed of in the eyes of the
world, as the saying goes. We menfolk oughtn't to judge a poor woman too
hardly, your Reverence.

MANDERS. I am not doing so. It is you I am reproaching.

ENGSTRAND. Might I make so bold as to ask your Reverence a bit of a
question?

MANDERS. Yes, if you want to.

ENGSTRAND. Isn't it right and proper for a man to raise up the fallen?

MANDERS. Most certainly it is.

ENGSTRAND. And isn't a man bound to keep his sacred word?

MANDERS. Why, of course he is; but--

ENGSTRAND. When Johanna had got into trouble through that Englishman--or
it might have been an American or a Rus