Lona.
I congratulate you, brother-in-law!
[An expectant silence intervenes.
Bernick.
[Begins earnestly and slowly.] My fellow citizens,—your spokesman has said that we stand this evening on the threshold of a new era; and there, I hope, he was right. But in order that it may be so, we must bring home to ourselves the truth—the truth which has, until this evening, been utterly and in all things banished from our community.
[Astonishment among the audience.
Bernick.
I must begin by repudiating the panegyric with which you, Dr. Rörlund, according to use and wont on such occasions, have overwhelmed me. I do not deserve it; for until to-day I have not been disinterested in my dealings. If I have not always striven for pecuniary profit, at least I am now conscious that a desire, a craving, for power, influence, and respect has been the motive of most of my actions.
Rummel.
[Half aloud.] What next?