Manders.
You and your husband left the town immediately after.
Mrs. Alving.
Yes; and in my husband’s lifetime you never came to see us. It was business that forced you to visit me when you undertook the affairs of the Orphanage.
Manders.
[Softly and hesitatingly.] Helen—if that is meant as a reproach, I would beg you to bear in mind——
Mrs. Alving.
——the regard you owed to your position, yes; and that I was a runaway wife. One can never be too cautious with such unprincipled creatures.
Manders.
My dear—Mrs. Alving, you know that is an absurd exaggeration——