_Presently_ AUNE, _the foreman shipbuilder, enters quietly by the door on the right. The reading ceases for a moment;_ MRS. BERNICK _nods to him and points to the left-hand door._ AUNE _goes quietly to the Consul’s door, knocks softly, pauses a moment, then knocks again._ KRAP, _the Consul’s clerk, opens the door and comes out with his hat in his hand and papers under his arm._ KRAP. Oh, it’s you knocking? AUNE. The Consul sent for me. KRAP. Yes; but he can’t see you just now; he has commissioned me—— AUNE. You? I’d a deal sooner—— KRAP. ——commissioned me to tell you this: You must stop these Saturday lectures to the workmen. AUNE. Indeed? I sort of thought my free time was my own to—— KRAP. Not to make the men useless in work-time. Last Saturday you must needs hold forth about the harm that will be done to the workmen by our machines and new method of work. What makes you do that? AUNE. I do it to support society. KRAP. That’s an odd notion! The Consul says you are undermining society. AUNE. My “society” is not the Consul’s “society,” Mr. Krap! Seeing as I’m the foreman of the Industrial Society, I have to—— KRAP. Your first duty is as foreman of Consul Bernick’s shipyard. Your first duty is to the society called Bernick & Co., for by it we all live.—Well, now you know what the Consul wanted to say to you. AUNE. The Consul wouldn’t have said it like that, Mr. Krap! But I know well enough what I’ve got to thank for this. It’s that cursèd American that has put in for repairs. These people think work can be done here as they do it over there, and that—— KRAP. Well, well—I have no time to go into generalities. I have told you the Consul’s wishes, and that is enough. Now you had better go down to the yard again; you’re sure to be wanted; I shall be down myself presently.—I beg your pardon, ladies! [_He bows, and goes out through the garden and down the street._ AUNE _goes quietly out to the right._ DOCTOR RÖRLUND, _who during the whole of the foregoing conversation has continued reading, presently closes the book with a bang._ RÖRLUND. There, my dear ladies, that is the end. MRS. RUMMEL. Oh, what an instructive tale! MRS. HOLT. And so moral! MRS. BERNICK. Such a book really gives one a great deal to think over. RÖRLUND.