Do you think the plebeians aren’t just as insolent in other towns? Oh yes, they are, my dear; it’s six of one and half a dozen of the other. Well, never mind; let the curs yelp; _that’s_ not the worst; the worst is that every one, all over the country, is the slave of his party. Not that I suppose—very likely it’s no better in the free West either; the compact majority, and enlightened public opinion, and all the other devil’s trash is rampant there too. But you see the conditions are larger there than here; they may kill you, but they don’t slow-torture you; they don’t screw up a free soul in a vice, as they do at home here. And then, if need be, you can keep out of it all. [_Walks up and down._] If I only knew of any primeval forest, or a little South Sea island to be sold cheap—— MRS. STOCKMANN. Yes, but the boys, Thomas. DR. STOCKMANN. [_Comes to a standstill._] What an extraordinary woman you are, Katrina! Would you rather have the boys grow up in such a society as ours? Why, you could see for yourself yesterday evening that one half of the population is stark mad, and if the other half hasn’t lost its wits, that’s only because they are brute beasts who haven’t any wits to lose. MRS. STOCKMANN. But really, my dear Thomas, you do say such imprudent things. DR. STOCKMANN. What! Isn’t it the truth that I tell them? Don’t they turn all ideas upside down? Don’t they stir up right and wrong into one hotch-potch? Don’t they call lies everything that I know to be the truth? But the maddest thing of all is to see crowds of grown men, calling themselves Liberals, go about persuading themselves and others that they are friends of freedom! Did you ever hear anything like it, Katrina? MRS. STOCKMANN. Yes, yes, no doubt. But—— PETRA _enters from the sitting-room._ MRS. STOCKMANN. Back from school already? PETRA. Yes; I have been dismissed. MRS. STOCKMANN. Dismissed? DR. STOCKMANN. You too! PETRA. Mrs. Busk gave me notice, and so I thought it best to leave there and then. DR. STOCKMANN. You did perfectly right! MRS. STOCKMANN. Who could have thought Mrs. Busk was such a bad woman! PETRA. Oh mother, Mrs. Busk isn’t bad at all; I saw clearly how sorry she was. But she dared not do otherwise, she said; and so I am dismissed. DR. STOCKMANN. [_Laughing and rubbing his hands._] She dared not do otherwise—just like the rest! Oh, it’s delicious. MRS. STOCKMANN. Oh well, after that frightful scene last night—— PETRA.