What do you mean by that? [_Flaring up._] You are not alluding to me, I hope? GREGERS. [_Softly but firmly._] Yes, I am alluding to you. WERLE. And you dare——! You presume to——! How can that ungrateful hound—that photographer fellow—how dare he go making such insinuations! GREGERS. Hialmar has never breathed a word about this. I don’t believe he has the faintest suspicion of such a thing. WERLE. Then where have you got it from? Who can have put such notions in your head? GREGERS. My poor unhappy mother told me; and that the very last time I saw her. WERLE. Your mother! I might have known as much! You and she—you always held together. It was she who turned you against me, from the first. GREGERS. No, it was all that she had to suffer and submit to, until she broke down and came to such a pitiful end. WERLE. Oh, she had nothing to suffer or submit to; not more than most people, at all events. But there’s no getting on with morbid, overstrained creatures—that I have learnt to my cost.—And you could go on nursing such a suspicion—burrowing into all sorts of old rumours and slanders against your own father! I must say, Gregers, I really think that at your age you might find something more useful to do. GREGERS. Yes, it is high time. WERLE. Then perhaps your mind would be easier than it seems to be now. What can be your object in remaining up at the works, year out and year in, drudging away like a common clerk, and not drawing a farthing more than the ordinary monthly wage? It is downright folly. GREGERS. Ah, if I were only sure of _that_. WERLE. I understand you well enough. You want to be independent; you won’t be beholden to me for anything. Well, now there happens to be an opportunity for you to become independent, your own master in everything. GREGERS. Indeed? In what way——? WERLE. When I wrote you insisting on your coming to town at once—h’m—— GREGERS. Yes, what is it you really want of me? I have been waiting all day to know. WERLE. I want to propose that you should enter the firm, as partner. GREGERS. I! Join your firm? As partner? WERLE. Yes. It would not involve our being constantly together. You could take over the business here in town, and I should move up to the works. GREGERS. _You_ would? WERLE.