Gregers. But this is quite another matter, Hjalmar. Surely you would not conjure either yourself or her with those two. Oh! you understand me.
Hjalmar. But I can’t get away from the fact, that in all this there is something that wounds and offends my sense of rectitude. Why, it looks exactly as if there were no righteous providence in the direction of the world.
Gina. Oh! Ekdal, God knows you mustn’t say such things.
Gregers. H’m, don’t let us enter upon that question.
Hjalmar. But, on the other hand, I seem to behold the guiding finger of Fate. He is going blind.
Gina. Oh! perhaps that’s not so very certain.
Hjalmar. It is indubitable. We, at any rate, ought not to question that, for it is just in this fact that there lies the righteous retribution. He has in his time blinded a trusting fellow-creature.
Gregers. Unfortunately he has blinded many.
Hjalmar. And now Fate, the inexorable, the mysterious, demands his own eyes.
Gina. How can you dare to say such awful things! I’m quite frightened.