Manders. Is there any considerable body of opinion here--opinion
of some account, I mean--that might take exception to it?

Mrs. Alving. What, exactly, do you mean by opinion of some
account?

Manders. Well, I was thinking particularly of persons of such
independent and influential position that one could hardly refuse
to attach weight to their opinion.

Mrs. Alving. There are a certain number of such people here, who
might perhaps take exception to it if we--

Manders. That's just it, you see. In town there are lots of them.
All my fellow-clergymen's congregations, for instance! It would
be so extremely easy for them to interpret it as meaning that
neither you nor I had a proper reliance on Divine protection.

Mrs. Alving. But as far as you are concerned, my dear friend, you
have at all events the consciousness that--

Manders. Yes I know I know; my own mind is quite easy about it,
it is true. But we should not be able to prevent a wrong and
injurious interpretation of our action. And that sort of thing,
moreover, might very easily end in exercising a hampering
influence on the work of the Orphanage.

Mrs. Alving. Oh, well, if that is likely to be the effect of it--