Berent. I must repeat that it is not I that am responsible for your bankruptcy; it is yourself.
Tjaelde. And I must repeat that my bankruptcy only exists in your imagination! Much may happen in a month; and I have shown that I can find a way out of difficulties before now!
Berent. That is to say, by involving yourself deeper and deeper in falsehood.
Tjaelde. Only a man of business can understand such things. But, if you really understand them, I would say to you: "Give me £20,000 and I will save the situation entirely." That would be doing something worthy of your great powers; that would give you a reputation for penetration in discerning the real state of affairs; because by so doing you would safeguard the welfare of more than a thousand people, and ensure a prosperous future for the whole district!
Berent. I don't rise to that bait.
Tjaelde (after a moment's reflection). Do you want me to explain to you how £20,000 would be sufficient to set the whole complicated situation straight? Within three months remittances would be coming in. I can make it its clear as daylight to you—
Berent.—that you would be falling from one disillusionment to another! That is what you have been doing for the last three years, from month to month.
Tjaelde. Because the last three years have been bad years—horrible years! But we have reached the crisis; things must begin to improve now!
Berent. That is what every defaulter thinks.
Tjaelde. Do not drive me to despair! Have you any idea what I have gone through in these three years? Have you any idea what I am capable of?