ENGSTRAND. Lord bless you, I don't mean just exactly the same. But
I mean, if your Reverence had anything to be ashamed of in the eyes
of the world, as the saying goes. We menfolk oughtn't to judge a
poor woman too hardly, your Reverence.

MANDERS. I am not doing so. It is you I am reproaching.

ENGSTRAND. Might I make so bold as to ask your Reverence a bit of a
question?

MANDERS. Yes, if you want to.

ENGSTRAND. Isn't it right and proper for a man to raise up the
fallen?

MANDERS. Most certainly it is.

ENGSTRAND. And isn't a man bound to keep his sacred word?

MANDERS. Why, of course he is; but--

ENGSTRAND. When Johanna had got into trouble through that
Englishman--or it might have been an American or a Russian, as they
call them--well, you see, she came down into the town. Poor thing,
she'd sent me about my business once or twice before: for she
couldn't bear the sight of anything as wasn't handsome; and I'd got
this damaged leg of mine. Your Reverence recollects how I ventured
up into a dancing saloon, where seafaring men was carrying on with
drink and devilry, as the saying goes. And then, when I was for