It cannot be denied that Providence seems specially to have smoothed the way for a branch line. RÖRLUND. Do you really say so, Mr. Vigeland? BERNICK. Yes, for my part, I cannot but regard it as a special guidance that sent me up country on business this spring, and led me by chance into a valley where I had never been before. It struck me like a flash of lightning that here was the very track for a branch line. I at once sent an engineer to inspect it; I have here the provisional calculations and estimates; nothing now stands in our way. MRS. BERNICK. [_Still standing, along with the other ladies, at the garden door._] But, my dear Karsten, why have you kept all this so secret? BERNICK. Oh, my good Betty, you would not have seen the situation in its true light. Besides, I have spoken of it to no living creature until to-day. But now the decisive moment has come; now we must go to work openly, and with all our might. Ay, if I have to risk all I possess in the affair, I am determined to see it through. RUMMEL. So are we, Bernick; you may rely on us. RÖRLUND. Do you really expect such great results from this undertaking, gentlemen? BERNICK. Yes, indeed we do. What a stimulus it will give to our whole community! Think of the great tracts of forest it will bring within reach, think of all the rich mineral-seams it will allow us to work; think of the river, with its one waterfall above the other! What rare advantages for manufactures of all kinds! RÖRLUND. And you have no fear that more frequent intercourse with a depraved outer world—— BERNICK. No; make your mind easy, Doctor. Our busy little town now rests, heaven be thanked, on a sound moral foundation; we have all helped to drain it, if I may say so; and that we will continue to do, each in his own way. You, Doctor, will carry on your beneficent activity in the school and in the home. We, the practical men of business, will support society by furthering the welfare of as wide a circle as possible. And our women—yes, come nearer, ladies; I am glad that you should hear—our women, I say, our wives and daughters, will proceed unwearied in their charitable labours, and be a help and comfort to those nearest and dearest to them, as my dear Betty and Martha are to me and Olaf——[_Looks around._] Why, where is Olaf to-day? MRS. BERNICK. Oh, in the holidays it’s impossible to keep him at home. BERNICK. Then he’s certain to have gone down to the water again! You’ll see, this will end in a misfortune. HILMAR. Bah—a little sport with the forces of nature—— MRS. RUMMEL.