RUDOLPH. Lord have mercy! And you take pleasure at seeing your family dragged into scandal?

STRANGER. My family? I have never felt myself related to the rest of you. I have never had any strong feeling either for my fellow men or myself. I think it's interesting to watch them—that's all—What sort of a person is your wife?

RUDOLPH. Was there anything about her, too?

STRANGER. About her and the student.

RUDOLPH. Good! Then I was right. Just wait and you'll see!—There comes the stone-cutter.

STRANGER. You know him?

RUDOLPH. And so do you. A schoolmate—Albert Ericson.

STRANGER. Whose father was in the customs service and whose brother I met on the train—he who was so very well informed about our family.

RUDOLPH. That's the infernal cuss who has blabbed to the papers, then!

ERICSON enters with a pick and begins to look over the ruins.