No, thank you, ma’am. Pastor Manders will look after me, I know. And if the worst comes to the worst, I know of one house where I’ve every right to a place. MRS. ALVING. Where is that? REGINA. “Chamberlain Alving’s Home.” MRS. ALVING. Regina—now I see it—you are going to your ruin. REGINA. Oh, stuff! Good-bye. [_She nods and goes out through the hall._ OSWALD. [_Stands at the window and looks out._] Is she gone? MRS. ALVING. Yes. OSWALD. [_Murmuring aside to himself._] I think it was a mistake, this. MRS. ALVING. [_Goes up behind him and lays her hands on his shoulders._] Oswald, my dear boy—has it shaken you very much? OSWALD. [_Turns his face towards her._] All that about father, do you mean? MRS. ALVING. Yes, about your unhappy father. I am so afraid it may have been too much for you. OSWALD. Why should you fancy that? Of course it came upon me as a great surprise; but it can make no real difference to me. MRS. ALVING. [_Draws her hands away._] No difference! That your father was so infinitely unhappy! OSWALD. Of course I can pity him, as I would anybody else; but—— MRS. ALVING. Nothing more! Your own father! OSWALD. [_Impatiently._] Oh, “father,”—“father”! I never knew anything of father. I remember nothing about him, except that he once made me sick. MRS. ALVING. This is terrible to think of! Ought not a son to love his father, whatever happens? OSWALD. When a son has nothing to thank his father for? has never known him? Do you really cling to that old superstition?—you who are so enlightened in other ways? MRS. ALVING. Can it be only a superstition——? OSWALD. Yes; surely you can see _that_, mother. It’s one of those notions that are current in the world, and so—— MRS. ALVING. [_Deeply moved._] Ghosts! OSWALD. [_Crossing the room._] Yes; you may call them ghosts. MRS. ALVING. [_Wildly._] Oswald—then you don’t love me, either! OSWALD. You I know, at any rate—— MRS. ALVING. Yes, you know me; but is that all! OSWALD. And, of course, I know how fond you are of me, and I can’t but be grateful to you. And then you can be so useful to me, now that I am ill. MRS. ALVING.