[Places himself in front of her.] Do you mean to say you don’t find a kind of lurking, hidden meaning in the most innocent word I happen to say?

Mrs. Solness.

I, do you say? I do that?

Solness.

[Laughs.] Ho-ho-ho! It’s natural enough, Aline! When you have a sick man on your hands——

Mrs. Solness.

[Anxiously.] Sick? Are you ill, Halvard?

Solness.

[Violently.] A half-mad man then! A crazy man! Call me what you will.

Mrs. Solness.