CURT. Returning to our neighbours on the island—my position will put me in touch with all of them—and it is not easy to steer clear of everything, for no matter how little you care to get mixed up in other people's intrigues, you are drawn into them just the same.
ALICE. You had better take up with them—in the end you will return to us, for here you find your true friends.
CURT. Is it not dreadful to be alone among a lot of enemies as you are?
ALICE. It is not pleasant.
CAPTAIN. It isn't dreadful at all. I have never had anything but enemies all my life, and they have helped me on instead of doing me harm. And when my time to die comes, I may say that I owe nothing to anybody, and that I have never got a thing for nothing. Every particle of what I own I have had to fight for.
ALICE. Yes, Edgar's path has not been strewn with roses——
CAPTAIN. No, with thorns and stones—pieces of flint—but a man's own strength: do you know what that means?
CURT. [Simply] Yes, I learned to recognise its insufficiency about ten years ago.
CAPTAIN. Then you are no good!
ALICE. [To the CAPTAIN] Edgar!