Your son has sent me his balance-sheet. He will be able to pay in full; but there will be nothing over. THE CHAMBERLAIN. H’m. Then will you get my resignation copied? RINGDAL. I’ll see to it. [_Goes out by the foremost door on the right._ FIELDBO. Have you reflected what you are doing? Things can be arranged without any one being a bit the wiser. THE CHAMBERLAIN. Indeed! Can I make myself ignorant of what has happened? FIELDBO. Oh, after all, what has happened? Has not he written to you, acknowledged his fault, and begged for your forgiveness? This is the only time he has done anything of the sort; why not simply blot it out? THE CHAMBERLAIN. Would you do what my son has done? FIELDBO. He won’t repeat it; that is the main point. THE CHAMBERLAIN. How do you know he will not repeat it? FIELDBO. If for no other reason, because of what you yourself told me—the scene with your daughter-in-law. Whatever else comes of it, that will steady him. THE CHAMBERLAIN. [_Pacing the room._] My poor Selma! Our peace and happiness gone! FIELDBO. There are higher things than peace and happiness. Your happiness has been an illusion. Yes, I must speak frankly to you: in that, as in many other things, you have built on a hollow foundation. You have been shortsighted and overweening, Chamberlain! THE CHAMBERLAIN. [_Stops short._] I? FIELDBO. Yes, you! You have plumed yourself on your family honour; but when has that honour been tried? Are you sure it would have stood the test? THE CHAMBERLAIN. You can spare your sermons, Doctor. Do you think I have not learnt a lesson from the events of these days? FIELDBO. I daresay you have; but prove it, by showing greater tolerance and clearer insight. You reproach your son; but what have you done for him? You have taken care to develop his faculties, but not to form his character. You have lectured him on what he owed to the honour of his family; but you have not guided and moulded him so that honour became to him an irresistible instinct. THE CHAMBERLAIN. Do you think so? FIELDBO. I not only think, I know it. But that is generally the way here: people are bent on learning, not on living. And you see what comes of it; you see hundreds of men with great gifts, who never seem to be more than half ripe; who are one thing in their ideas and feelings, and something quite different in their habits and acts. Just look at Stensgård——