Bernick: And Johan will not demand it either; he has promised me that.
Lona: But you yourself, Karsten? Do you feel within yourself no impulse urging you to shake yourself free of this lie?
Bernick: Do you suppose that of my own free will I would sacrifice my family happiness and my position in the world?
Lona: What right have you to the position you hold?
Bernick: Every day during these fifteen years I have earned some little right to it--by my conduct, and by what I have achieved by my work.
Lona: True, you have achieved a great deal by your work, for yourself as well as for others. You are the richest and most influential man in the town; nobody in it dares do otherwise than defer to your will, because you are looked upon as a man without spot or blemish; your home is regarded as a model home, and your conduct as a model of conduct. But all this grandeur, and you with it, is founded on a treacherous morass. A moment may come and a word may be spoken, when you and all your grandeur will be engulfed in the morass, if you do not save yourself in time.
Bernick: Lona--what is your object in coming here?
Lona: I want to help you to get firm ground under your feet, Karsten.
Bernick: Revenge!--you want to revenge yourself! I suspected it. But you won't succeed! There is only one person here that can speak with authority, and he will be silent.
Lona: You mean Johan?