I’m getting on in years, Consul Bernick—nigh upon sixty. From a boy I’ve been used to the old ways—— BERNICK. They are quite inadequate nowadays. You mustn’t think, Aune, that it’s a question of mere profit; luckily I could do without that; but I must consider the community I live in, and the business I have to manage. It is from me that progress must come, or it will never come at all. AUNE. I have nought to say against progress, Consul. BERNICK. No, for your own narrow circle, for the working class. Oh, I know all about your agitations! You make speeches; you stir people up; but when it comes to a tangible piece of progress, as in the case of the machines, you will have nothing to do with it; you are afraid. AUNE. Yes, I’m afraid, Consul; I’m afraid for the hundreds of poor folks as the machines’ll take the bread out of their mouths. You talk a deal of duty towards Society, Consul, but it seems to me as Society has duties of its own as well. What business have science and capital to bring all these new-fangled inventions into the field before Society has turned out a breed of men that can use them? BERNICK. You read and think too much, Aune; it does you no good; that is what makes you dissatisfied with your position. AUNE. It’s not that, Consul; but I can’t abear to see one good workman after another packed off to starve for the sake of these machines. BERNICK. H’m; when printing was discovered, many copyists had to starve. AUNE. Would you have thought printing such a fine thing, Consul, if you’d have been a copyist? BERNICK. I didn’t get you here to argue with you. I sent for you to tell you that the _Indian Girl_ must be ready to sail the day after to-morrow. AUNE. Why, Consul—— BERNICK. The day after to-morrow, do you hear? At the same time as our own ship; not an hour later. I have my reasons for hurrying on the affair. Have you read this morning’s paper? Ah!—then you know that the Americans have been making disturbances again. The ruffianly crew turn the whole town topsy-turvy. Not a night passes without fights in the taverns or on the street; not to speak of other abominations. AUNE. Yes, they’re a bad lot, for certain. BERNICK. And who gets the blame of all this? It is I—yes, I—that suffer for it. These wretched newspaper-men are covertly carping at us for giving our whole attention to the _Palm Tree_. And I, whose mission it is to set an example to my fellow citizens, must have such things thrown in my teeth! I won’t bear it. I cannot have my name bespattered in this way.