Bernick: Johan, now that we are alone, you must let me thank you.

Johan: Oh, nonsense!

Bernick: My home and all the happiness that it means to me--my
position here as a citizen--all these I owe to you.

Johan: Well, I am glad of it, Karsten; some good came of that mad
story after all, then.

Bernick (grasping his hands again): But still you must let me
thank you! Not one in ten thousand would have done what you did
for me.

Johan: Rubbish! Weren't we, both of us, young and thoughtless?
One of us had to take the blame, you know.

Bernick: But surely the guilty one was the proper one to do that?

Johan: Stop! At the moment the innocent one happened to be the
proper one to do it. Remember, I had no ties--I was an orphan; it
was a lucky chance to get free from the drudgery of the office.
You, on the other hand, had your old mother still alive; and,
besides that, you had just become secretly engaged to Betty, who
was devoted to you. What would have happened between you and her
if it had come to her ears?

Bernick: That is true enough, but still--