Bernick: Impossible!

Hilmar: Is it? Why do you suppose these mercenary-minded
creatures were so willing to go into the undertaking with you?
Don't you suppose they have scented profit for themselves--

Bernick: It is impossible, I am sure; there is so much public
spirit in our little community--

Hilmar: In our community? Of course you are a confirmed optimist,
and so you judge others by yourself. But I, who am a tolerably
experienced observer--! There isn't a single soul in the place--
excepting ourselves, of course--not a single soul in the place
who holds up the banner of the Ideal. (Goes towards the
verandah.) Ugh, I can see them there--

Bernick: See whom?

Hilmar: Our two friends from America. (Looks out to the right.)
And who is that they are walking with? As I am alive, if it is
not the captain of the "Indian Girl." Ugh!

Bernick: What can they want with him?

Hilmar. Oh, he is just the right company for them. He looks as if
he had been a slave-dealer or a pirate; and who knows what the
other two may have been doing all these years.

Bernick: Let me tell you that it is grossly unjust to think such