perfectly. The firm was in a dangerous position at the time; I
had gone off, and you had my defenceless name and reputation at
your mercy. Well, I do not blame you so very much for what you
did; we were young and thoughtless in those days. But now I have
need of the truth, and now you must speak.

Bernick: And just now I have need of all my reputation for
morality, and therefore I cannot speak.

Johan: I don't take much account of the false reports you spread
about me; it is the other thing that you must take the blame of.
I shall make Dina my wife, and here--here in your town--I mean to
settle down and live with her.

Lona: Is that what you mean to do?

Bernick: With Dina? Dina as your wife?--in this town?

Johan: Yes, here and nowhere else. I mean to stay here to defy
all these liars and slanderers. But before I can win her, you must
exonerate me.

Bernick: Have you considered that, if I confess to the one thing,
it will inevitably mean making myself responsible for the other
as well? You will say that I can show by our books that nothing
dishonest happened? But I cannot; our books were not so
accurately kept in those days. And even if I could, what good
would it do? Should I not in any case be pointed at as the man
who had once saved himself by an untruth, and for fifteen years
had allowed that untruth and all its consequences to stand