Hovstad.

To you, as a doctor and a man of science, this business of the water-works appears an isolated affair. I daresay it hasn’t occurred to you that a good many other things are bound up with it?

Dr. Stockmann.

Indeed! In what way? Let us sit down, my dear fellow.—No; there, on the sofa.

[Hovstad sits on sofa; the Doctor in an easy-chair on the other side of the table.

Dr. Stockmann.

Well, so you think——?

Hovstad.

You said yesterday that the water is polluted by impurities in the soil.

Dr. Stockmann.