MANDERS. We two do not understand each other.
MRS. ALVING. Not now, at any rate.
MANDERS. Never—never in my most secret thoughts have I regarded you otherwise than as another's wife.
MRS. ALVING. Oh—indeed?
MANDERS. Helen—!
MRS. ALVING. People so easily forget their past selves.
MANDERS. I do not. I am what I always was.
MRS. ALVING. [Changing the subject.] Well well well; don't let us talk of old times any longer. You are now over head and ears in Boards and Committees, and I am fighting my battle with ghosts, both within me and without.
MANDERS. Those without I shall help you to lay. After all the terrible things I have heard from you today, I cannot in conscience permit an unprotected girl to remain in your house.
MRS. ALVING. Don't you think the best plan would be to get her provided for?—I mean, by a good marriage.