Ghosts by Henrik Ibsen
page 74 of 126 (58%)
page 74 of 126 (58%)
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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 |
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