sofa, reading an old Court Guide! No; but I may tell you this too:
when he had his better intervals, it was I who urged him on; it was
I who had to drag the whole load when he relapsed into his evil
ways, or sank into querulous wretchedness.

MANDERS. And it is to this man that you raise a memorial?

MRS. ALVING. There you see the power of an evil conscience.

MANDERS. Evil--? What do you mean?

MRS. ALVING. It always seemed to me impossible but that the truth
must come out and be believed. So the Orphanage was to deaden all
rumours and set every doubt at rest.

MANDERS. In that you have certainly not missed your aim, Mrs.
Alving.

MRS. ALVING. And besides, I had one other reason. I was determined
that Oswald, my own boy, should inherit nothing whatever from his
father.

MANDERS. Then it is Alving's fortune that--?

MRS. ALVING. Yes. The sums I have spent upon the Orphanage, year by
year, make up the amount--I have reckoned it up precisely--the
amount which made Lieutenant Alving "a good match" in his day.

MANDERS. I don't understand--