Oh, indeed! So I am impossible, am I?
Burgomaster.
Yes, Thomas, you are an impossible man to work with. I know that from experience. You have no consideration for any one or any thing; you seem quite to forget that you have me to thank for your position as medical officer of the Baths——
Dr. Stockmann.
It was mine by right! Mine, and no one else’s! I was the first to discover the town’s capabilities as a watering-place; I saw them, and, at that time, I alone. For years I fought single-handed for this idea of mine; I wrote and wrote——
Burgomaster.
No doubt; but then the right time had not come. Of course, in that out-of-the-world corner, you could not judge of that. As soon as the propitious moment arrived, I—and others—took the matter in hand——
Dr. Stockmann.
Yes, and you went and bungled the whole of my glorious plan. Oh, we see now what a set of wiseacres you were!
Burgomaster.