RANK.
Certainly. However wretched I may feel, I want to prolong the agony as long as possible. All my patients are like that. And so are those who are morally diseased; one of them, and a bad case too, is at this very moment with Helmer—
MRS LINDE.
[sadly]. Ah!
NORA.
Whom do you mean?
RANK.
A lawyer of the name of Krogstad, a fellow you don’t know at all. He suffers from a diseased moral character, Mrs Helmer; but even he began talking of its being highly important that he should live.
NORA.
Did he? What did he want to speak to Torvald about?
RANK.
I have no idea; I only heard that it was something about the Bank.
NORA.
I didn’t know this—what’s his name—Krogstad had anything to do with the Bank.
RANK.
Yes, he has some sort of appointment there. [To Mrs Linde.] I don’t know whether you find also in your part of the world that there are certain people who go zealously snuffing about to smell out moral corruption, and, as soon as they have found some, put the person concerned into some lucrative position where they can keep their eye on him. Healthy natures are left out in the cold.
MRS LINDE.
Still I think the sick are those who most need taking care of.
RANK.
[shrugging his shoulders]. Yes, there you are. That is the sentiment that is turning Society into a sick-house.