The fact is, I am not so fit for work as I once was. I am obliged to spare my eyes, Gregers; they have begun to trouble me. GREGERS. They have always been weak. WERLE. Not as they are now. And besides, circumstances might possibly make it desirable for me to live up there—for a time, at any rate. GREGERS. That is certainly quite a new idea to me. WERLE. Listen, Gregers: there are many things that stand between us; but we are father and son after all. We ought surely to be able to come to some sort of understanding with each other. GREGERS. Outwardly, you mean, of course? WERLE. Well, even that would be something. Think it over, Gregers. Don’t you think it ought to be possible? Eh? GREGERS. [_Looking at him coldly._] There is something behind all this. WERLE. How so? GREGERS. You want to make use of me in some way. WERLE. In such a close relationship as ours, the one can always be useful to the other. GREGERS. Yes, so people say. WERLE. I want very much to have you at home with me for a time. I am a lonely man Gregers; I have always felt lonely, all my life through; but most of all now that I am getting up in years. I feel the need of some one about me—— GREGERS. You have Mrs. Sörby. WERLE. Yes, I have her; and she has become, I may say, almost indispensable to me. She is lively and even-tempered; she brightens up the house; and that is a very great thing for me. GREGERS. Well then, you have everything just as you wish it. WERLE. Yes, but I am afraid it can’t last. A woman so situated may easily find herself in a false position, in the eyes of the world. For that matter it does a man no good, either. GREGERS. Oh, when a man gives such dinners as you give, he can risk a great deal. WERLE. Yes, but how about the woman, Gregers? I fear she won’t accept the situation much longer; and even if she did—even if, out of attachment to me, she were to take her chance of gossip and scandal and all that——? Do you think, Gregers—you with your strong sense of justice—— GREGERS. [_Interrupts him._] Tell me in one word: are you thinking of marrying her? WERLE. Suppose I were thinking of it? What then? GREGERS. That’s what I say: what then? WERLE. Should you be inflexibly opposed to it?