Bernick: Upon a lie?
Lona: What does Betty know of all this...that underlies her union with you?
Bernick: Do you suppose that I would hurt her feelings to no purpose by disclosing the truth?
Lona: To no purpose, you say? Well, well--You are a man of business; you ought to understand what is to the purpose. But listen to me, Karsten--I am going to speak the plain truth now. Tell me, are you really happy?
Bernick: In my family life, do you mean?
Lona: Yes.
Bernick: I am, Lona. You have not been a self-sacrificing friend to me in vain. I can honestly say that I have grown happier every year. Betty is good and willing; and if I were to tell you how, in the course of years, she has learned to model her character on the lines of my own--
Lona: Hm!
Bernick: At first, of course, she had a whole lot of romantic notions about love; she could not reconcile herself to the idea that, little by little, it must change into a quiet comradeship.
Lona: But now she is quite reconciled to that?