Previous  - next

I think it will be best to leave the
money in the bank for the present. The interest is not very high,
it is true; four per cent at six months' call; later on, if we
can find some good mortgage--of course it must be a first mortgage
and on unexceptionable security--we can consider the matter
further.

Mrs. Alving. Yes, yes, my dear Mr. Manders, you know best about
all that.

Manders. I will keep my eye on it, anyway. But there is one thing
in connection with it that I have often meant to ask you about.

Mrs. Alving. What is that?

Manders. Shall we insure the buildings, or not?

Mrs. Alving. Of course we must insure them.

Manders. Ah, but wait a moment, dear lady. Let us look into the
matter a little more closely.

Mrs. Alving. Everything of mine is insured--the house and its
contents, my livestock--everything.

Manders. Naturally. They are your own property. I do exactly the
same, of course. But this, you see, is quite a different case.
The Orphanage is, so to speak, dedicated to higher uses.

Mrs. Alving. Certainly, but--

Manders. As far as I am personally concerned, I can
conscientiously say that I don't see the smallest objection to
our insuring ourselves against all risks.

Mrs. Alving. That is exactly what I think.

Manders. But what about the opinion of the people hereabouts?

Mrs. Alving. Their opinion--?

Manders. Is there any considerable body of opinion here--opinion
of some account, I mean--that might take exception to it?

Mrs. Alving. What, exactly, do you mean by opinion of some
account?

Manders. Well, I was thinking particularly of persons of such
independent and influential position that one could hardly refuse
to attach weight to their opinion.

Mrs. Alving. There are a certain number of such people here, who
might perhaps take exception to it if we--

Manders. That's just it, you see. In town there are lots of them.
All my fellow-clergymen's congregations, for instance! It would
be so extremely easy for them to interpret it as meaning that
neither you nor I had a proper reliance on Divine protection.

Mrs. Alving. But as far as you are concerned, my dear friend, you
have at all events the consciousness that--

Manders. Yes I know I know; my own mind is quite easy about it,
it is true. But we should not be able to prevent a wrong and
injurious interpretation of our action. And that sort of thing,
moreover, might very easily end in exercising a hampering
influence on the work of the Orphanage.

Mrs. Alving. Oh, well, if that is likely to be the effect of it--

Manders. Nor can I entirely overlook the difficult--indeed, I may
say, painful--position I might possibly be placed in. In the best
circles in town the matter of this Orphanage is attracting a
great deal of attention. Indeed the Orphanage is to some extent
built for the benefit of the town too, and it is to be hoped that
it may result in the lowering of our poor-rate by a considerable
amount. But as I have been your adviser in the matter and have
taken charge of the business side of it, I should be afraid that

Previous  - next