Acquittal is acquittal. Why do you rake up these old miseries that turned my hair grey before its time? Is that the sort of thing you have been brooding over up there, all these years? I can assure you, Gregers, here in the town the whole story has been forgotten long ago—so far as I am concerned.
Gregers.
But that unhappy Ekdal family.[family.]
Werle.
What would you have had me do for the people? When Ekdal came out of prison he was a broken-down being, past all help. There are people in the world who dive to the bottom the moment they get a couple of slugs in their body, and never come to the surface again. You may take my word for it, Gregers, I have done all I could without positively laying myself open to all sorts of suspicion and gossip——
Gregers.
Suspicion——? Oh, I see.
Werle.
I have given Ekdal copying to do for the office, and I pay him far, far more for it than his work is worth——
Gregers.