KRISTIN. Yes, you can say that, you are so smart. But I don't want to serve people who behave so. It reflects on oneself, I think.
JEAN. Yes, but it's a comfort that they're not a bit better than we.
KRISTIN. No, I don't think so, for if they are not better there's no use in our trying to better ourselves in this world. And to think of the Count! Think of him who has had so much sorrow all his days? No, I don't want to stay in this house any longer! And to think of it being with such as you! If it had been the Lieutenant—
JEAN. What's that?
KRISTIN. Yes! He was good enough, to be sure, but there's a difference between people just the same. No, this I can never forget. Miss Julie who was always so proud and indifferent to men! One never would believe that she would give herself—and to one like you! She who was ready to have Diana shot because she would run after the gatekeeper's mongrels. Yes, I say it—and here I won't stay any longer and on the twenty-fourth of October I go my way.
JEAN. And then?
KRISTIN. Well, as we've come to talk about it, it's high time you looked around for something else, since we're going to get married.
JEAN. Well, what'll I look for? A married man couldn't get a place like this.
KRISTIN. No, of course not. But you could take a gatekeeper's job or look for a watchman's place in some factory. The government's plums are few, but they are sure. And then the wife and children get a pension—
JEAN [With a grimace]. That's all very fine—all that, but it's not exactly in my line to think about dying for my wife and children just now. I must confess that I have slightly different aspirations.