MANDERS. More repulsive than what you have told me?

MRS. ALVING. I had gone on bearing with him, although I knew very
well the secrets of his life out of doors. But when he brought the
scandal within our own walls--

MANDERS. Impossible! Here!

MRS. ALVING. Yes; here in our own home. It was there [Pointing
towards the first door on the right], in the dining-room, that I
first came to know of it. I was busy with something in there, and
the door was standing ajar. I heard our housemaid come up from the
garden, with water for those flowers.

MANDERS. Well--?

MRS. ALVING. Soon after, I heard Alving come in too. I heard him say
something softly to her. And then I heard--[With a short laugh]--oh!
it still sounds in my ears, so hateful and yet so ludicrous--I heard
my own servant-maid whisper, "Let me go, Mr. Alving! Let me be!"

MANDERS. What unseemly levity on his part'! But it cannot have been
more than levity, Mrs. Alving; believe me, it cannot.

MRS. ALVING. I soon knew what to believe. Mr. Alving had his way
with the girl; and that connection had consequences, Mr. Manders.

MANDERS. [As though petrified.] Such things in this house--in this
house!