MRS. SÖRBY. He hasn’t frittered away all that was good in him, at any rate. The man who does that must take the consequences. RELLING. I shall go out with Molvik this evening. MRS. SÖRBY. You musn’t do that, Relling. Don’t do it—for my sake. RELLING. There’s nothing else for it. [_To HIALMAR._] If you’re going with us, come along. GINA. No, thank you. Ekdal doesn’t go in for _that_ sort of dissertation. HIALMAR. [_Half aloud, in vexation._] Oh, do hold your tongue! RELLING. Good-bye, Mrs.—Werle. [_Goes out through the passage door._ GREGERS. [_To MRS. SÖRBY._] You seem to know Dr. Relling pretty intimately. MRS. SÖRBY. Yes, we have known each other for many years. At one time it seemed as if things might have gone further between us. GREGERS. It was surely lucky for you that they did not. MRS. SÖRBY. You may well say that. But I have always been wary of acting on impulse. A woman can’t afford absolutely to throw herself away. GREGERS. Are you not in the least afraid that I may let my father know about this old friendship? MRS. SÖRBY. Why, of course I have told him all about it myself. GREGERS. Indeed? MRS. SÖRBY. Your father knows every single thing that can, with any truth, be said about me. I have told him all; it was the first thing I did when I saw what was in his mind. GREGERS. Then you have been franker than most people, I think. MRS. SÖRBY. I have always been frank. We women find that the best policy. HIALMAR. What do you say to that, Gina? GINA. Oh, we’re not all alike, us women aren’t. Some are made one way, some another. MRS. SÖRBY. Well, for my part, Gina, I believe it’s wisest to do as I've done. And Werle has no secrets either, on his side. That’s really the great bond between us, you see. Now he can talk to me as openly as a child. He has never had the chance to do that before. Fancy a man like him, full of health and vigour, passing his whole youth and the best years of his life in listening to nothing but penitential sermons! And very often the sermons had for their text the most imaginary offences—at least so I understand. GINA. That’s true enough. GREGERS. If you ladies are going to follow up this topic, I had better withdraw. MRS. SÖRBY.