MRS. WILTON.
Many thanks, my dear lady, but I really can't. We have another
invitation. We're going down to the Hinkels'.

MRS. BORKMAN.
[Looking at her.] We? Whom do you mean by we?

MRS. WILTON.
[Laughing.] Oh, I ought really to have said I. But I was
commissioned by the ladies of the house to bring Mr. Borkman
with me--if I happened to see him.

MRS. BORKMAN.
And you did happen to see him, it appears.

MRS. WILTON.
Yes, fortunately. He was good enough to look in at my house--
to call for Frida.

MRS. BORKMAN.
[Drily.] But, Erhart, I did not know that you knew that family--
those Hinkels?

ERHART.
[Irritated.] No, I don't exactly know them. [Adds rather
impatiently.] You know better than anybody, mother, what people
I know and don't know.

MRS. WILTON.