Petra.
And would you supply the public with such stuff? You don’t believe a word of it yourself. You know well enough that things do not really happen like that.
Hovstad.
Of course not; but an editor can’t always do as he likes. He has often to humour people’s fancies in minor matters. After all, politics is the chief thing in life—at any rate for a newspaper; and if I want the people to follow me along the path of emancipation and progress, I mustn’t scare them away. If they find a moral story like this down in the cellar,[[11]] they are all the more ready to take in what we tell them above—they feel themselves safer.
Petra.
For shame! You’re not such a hypocrite as to set traps like that for your readers. You’re not a spider.
Hovstad.
[Smiling.] Thanks for your good opinion. It’s true that the idea is Billing’s, not mine.
Petra.
Mr. Billing’s!