No, thank you. I hold fast to my good name, I've heard that people call me “the Badger.” A badger’s a sort of a pig, I know; but I'm determined to give them the lie. I will live and die a clean man. DR. STOCKMANN. And how will you manage _that_? MORTEN KIIL. You shall make me clean, Stockmann. DR. STOCKMANN. I! MORTEN KIIL. Do you know what money I've used to buy these shares with? No, you can’t know; but now I'll tell you. It’s the money Katrina and Petra and the boys are to have after my death. For, you see, I've laid by something after all. DR. STOCKMANN. [_Flaring up._] And you’ve taken Katrina’s money and done _this_ with it! MORTEN KIIL. Yes; the whole of it is invested in the Baths now. And now I want to see if you’re really so stark, staring mad; after all, Stockmann. If you go on making out that these beasts and other abominations dribble down from my tannery, it’ll be just as if you were to flay broad stripes of Katrina’s skin—and Petra’s too, and the boys'. No decent father would ever do that—unless he were a madman. DR. STOCKMANN. [_Walking up and down._] Yes, but I _am_ a madman; I _am_ a madman! MORTEN KIIL. You surely can’t be so raving, ramping mad where your wife and children are concerned. DR. STOCKMANN. [_Stopping in front of him._] Why couldn’t you have spoken to me before you went and bought all that rubbish? MORTEN KIIL. What’s done can’t be undone. DR. STOCKMANN. [_Walking restlessly about._] If only I weren’t so certain about the affair——! But I am absolutely convinced that I'm right. MORTEN KIIL. [_Weighing the pocket book in his hand._] If you stick to this lunacy, these aren’t worth much. [_Puts the book into his pocket._ DR. STOCKMANN. But, deuce take it! surely science ought to be able to hit upon some antidote, some sort of prophylactic—— MORTEN KIIL. Do you mean something to kill the beasts? DR. STOCKMANN. Yes, or at least to make them harmless. MORTEN KIIL. Couldn’t you try ratsbane? DR. STOCKMANN. Oh, nonsense, nonsense!—But since every one declares it’s nothing but fancy, why fancy let it be! Let them have it their own way! Haven’t the ignorant, narrow-hearted curs reviled me as an enemy of the people?—and weren’t they on the point of tearing the clothes off my back? MORTEN KIIL. And they’ve smashed all your windows for you too! DR. STOCKMANN.