LONA. How much does Betty know of all that lay beneath and before her marriage with you? BERNICK. Can you think that I would wound her to no purpose by telling her these things? LONA. To no purpose, you say? Well well, you are a business man; you should understand what is to the purpose.—But listen, Karsten: I, too, will speak calmly and deliberately. Tell me—after all, are you really happy? BERNICK. In my family, do you mean? LONA. Of course. BERNICK. I am indeed, Lona. Oh, you have not sacrificed yourself in vain. I can say truly that I have grown happier year by year. Betty is so good and docile. In the course of years she has learnt to mould her character to what is peculiar in mine—— LONA. H’m. BERNICK. At first, it is true, she had some high-flown notions about love; she could not reconcile herself to the thought that, little by little, it must pass over into a placid friendship. LONA. But she is quite reconciled to that now? BERNICK. Entirely. You may guess that daily intercourse with me has not been without a ripening influence upon her. People must learn to moderate their mutual claims if they are to fulfil their duties in the community in which they are placed. Betty has by degrees come to understand this, so that our house is now a model for our fellow citizens. LONA. But these fellow citizens know nothing of the lie? BERNICK. Of the lie? LONA. Yes, of the lie upon which you have stood for these fifteen years. BERNICK. You call that——? LONA. I call it the lie—the threefold lie. First the lie towards me; then the lie towards Betty; then the lie towards Johan. BERNICK. Betty has never asked me to speak. LONA. Because she has known nothing. BERNICK. And _you_ will not ask me to;—out of consideration for her, you will not. LONA. Oh, no; I daresay I shall manage to bear all the ridicule; I have a broad back. BERNICK. And Johan will not ask me either—he has promised me that. LONA. But you yourself, Karsten? Is there not something within you that longs to get clear of the lie? BERNICK. You would have me voluntarily sacrifice my domestic happiness and my position in society! LONA. What right have you to stand where you are standing?