The whole town! Well, I don’t say but it may. But it serves them right; it’ll teach them a lesson. They wanted to be so much cleverer than we old fellows. They hounded me out of the Town Council. Yes; I tell you they hounded me out like a dog, that they did. But now it’s their turn. Just you keep up the game with them, Stockmann. DR. STOCKMANN. Yes, but, father-in-law—— MORTEN KIIL. Keep it up, I say. [_Rising._] If you can make the Burgomaster and his gang eat humble pie, I'll give a hundred crowns straight away to the poor. DR. STOCKMANN. Come, that’s good of you. MORTEN KIIL. Of course I've little enough to throw away; but if you can manage that, I shall certainly remember the poor at Christmas-time, to the tune of fifty crowns. HOVSTAD _enters from hall._ HOVSTAD. Good morning! [_Pausing._] Oh! I beg your pardon—— DR. STOCKMANN. Not at all. Come in, come in. MORTEN KIIL. [_Chuckling again._] He! Is he in it too? HOVSTAD. What do you mean? DR. STOCKMANN. Yes, of course he is. MORTEN KIIL. I might have known it! It’s to go into the papers. Ah, you’re the one, Stockmann! Do you two lay your heads together; I'm off. DR. STOCKMANN. Oh no; don’t go yet, father-in-law. MORTEN KIIL. No, I'm off now. Play them all the monkey-tricks you can think of. Deuce take me but you shan’t lose by it. [_He goes, MRS. STOCKMANN accompanying him._ DR. STOCKMANN. [_Laughing._] What do you think—? The old fellow doesn’t believe a word of all this about the water-works. HOVSTAD. Was that what he——? DR. STOCKMANN. Yes; that was what we were talking about. And I daresay you have come on the same business? HOVSTAD. Yes. Have you a moment to spare, Doctor? DR. STOCKMANN. As many as you like, my dear fellow. HOVSTAD. Have you heard anything from the Burgomaster? DR. STOCKMANN. Not yet. He’ll be here presently. HOVSTAD. I have been thinking the matter over since last evening. DR. STOCKMANN. Well? HOVSTAD. To you, as a doctor and a man of science, this business of the water-works appears an isolated affair. I daresay it hasn’t occurred to you that a good many other things are bound up with it? DR. STOCKMANN. Indeed! In what way? Let us sit down, my dear fellow.—No; there, on the sofa.