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Was the poor girl to go and increase her load of shame
by talking about it? Just suppose, sir, for a moment that your
reverence was in the same predicament as my poor Joanna.

Manders. I!

Engstrand. Good Lord, sir, I don't mean the same predicament. I
mean, suppose there were something your reverence was ashamed of
in the eyes of the world, so to speak. We men ought not judge a
poor woman too hardly, Mr. Manders.

Manders. But I am not doing so at all. It is you I am blaming.

Engstrand. Will your reverence grant me leave to ask you a small
question?

Manders. Ask away.

Engstrand. Shouldn't you say it was right for a man to raise up
the fallen?

Manders. Of course it is.

Engstrand. And isn't a man bound to keep his word of honour?

Manders. Certainly he is; but--

Engstrand. At the time when Joanna had her misfortune with this
Englishman--or maybe he was an American or a Russian, as they
call 'em--well, sir, then she came to town. Poor thing, she had
refused me once or twice before; she only had eyes for good-
looking men in those days, and I had this crooked leg then. Your
reverence will remember how I had ventured up into a dancing-
saloon where seafaring men were revelling in drunkenness and
intoxication, as they say. And when I tried to exhort them to
turn from their evil ways--

Mrs. Alving (coughs from the window). Ahem!

Manders. I know, Engstrand, I know--the rough brutes threw you
downstairs. You have told me about that incident before. The
affliction to your leg is a credit to you.

Engstrand. I don't want to claim credit for it, your reverence.
But what I wanted to tell you was that she came then and confided
in me with tears and gnashing of teeth. I can tell you, sir, it
went to my heart to hear her.

Manders. Did it, indeed, Engstrand? Well, what then?

Engstrand. Well, then I said to her: "The American is roaming
about on the high seas, he is. And you, Joanna," I said, "you
have committed a sin and are a fallen woman. But here stands
Jacob Engstrand," I said, "on two strong legs"--of course that
was only speaking in a kind of metaphor, as it were, your
reverence.

Manders. I quite understand. Go on.

Engstrand. Well, sir, that was how I rescued her and made her my
lawful wife, so that no one should know how recklessly she had
carried on with the stranger.

Manders. That was all very kindly done. The only thing I cannot
justify was your bringing yourself to accept the money.

Engstrand. Money? I? Not a farthing.

Manders (to MRS. ALVING, in a questioning tare). But--

Engstrand. Ah, yes!--wait a bit; I remember now. Joanna did have
a trifle of money, you are quite right. But I didn't want to know
anything about that. "Fie," I said, "on the mammon of
unrighteousness, it's the price of your sin; as for this tainted
gold"--or notes, or whatever it was--"we will throw it back in
the American's face," I said. But he had gone away and
disappeared on the stormy seas, your reverence.

Manders. Was that how it was, my good fellow?

Engstrand. It was, sir.

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