"Henrik Ibsen - Pillars Of Society" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ibsen Henrik)

sepulchres.
Mrs. Holt: How true! How true!
Mrs. Rummel: And for an example of it, we need look no farther than at the crew
of the American ship that is lying here just now.
Rorlund: Oh, I would rather not speak of such offscourings of humanity as that.
But even in higher circlesЧwhat is the case there? A spirit of doubt and unrest
on all sides; minds never at peace, and instability characterising all their
behaviour. Look how completely family life is undermined over there! Look at
their shameless love of casting doubt on even the most serious truths!
Dina (without looking up from her work): But are there not many big things done
there too?
Rorlund: Big things doneЧ? I do not understandЧ.
Mrs. Holt (in amazement): Good gracious, DinaЧ!
Mrs. Rummel (in the same breath): Dina, how can youЧ?
Rorlund: I think it would scarcely be a good thing for us if such "big things"
became the rule here. No, indeed, we ought to be only too thankful that things
are as they are in this country. It is true enough that tares grow up amongst
our wheat here too, alas; but we do our best conscientiously to weed them out as
well as we are able. The important thing is to keep society pure, ladiesЧto ward
off all the hazardous experiments that a restless age seeks to force upon us.
Mrs. Holt: And there are more than enough of them in the wind, unhappily.
Mrs. Rummel: Yes, you know last year we only by a hair's breadth escaped the
project of having a railway here.
Mrs. Bernick: Ah, my husband prevented that.
Rorlund: Providence, Mrs. Bernick. You may be certain that your husband was the
instrument of a higher Power when he refused to have anything to do with the
scheme.
Mrs. Bernick: And yet they said such horrible things about him in the
newspapers! But we have quite forgotten to thank you, Mr. Rorlund. It is really
more than friendly of you to sacrifice so much of your time to us.
Rorlund: Not at all. This is holiday time, andЧ
Mrs. Bernick: Yes, but it is a sacrifice all the same, Mr. Rorlund.
Rorlund (drawing his chair nearer): Don't speak of it, my dear lady. Are you not
all of you making some sacrifice in a good cause?Чand that willingly and gladly?
These poor fallen creatures for whose rescue we are working may be compared to
soldiers wounded on the field of battle; you, ladies, are the kind-hearted
sisters of mercy who prepare the lint for these stricken ones, lay the bandages
softly on their wounds, heal them and cure them.
Mrs. Bernick: It must be a wonderful gift to be able to see everything in such a
beautiful light.
Rorlund: A good deal of it is inborn in oneЧbut it can be to a great extent
acquired, too. All that is needful is to see things in the light of a serious
mission in life. (To MARTHA:) What do you say, Miss Bernick? Have you not felt
as if you were standing on firmer ground since you gave yourself up to your
school work?
Martha: I really do not know what to say. There are times, when I am in the
schoolroom down there, that I wish I were far away out on the stormy seas.
Rorlund: That is merely temptation, dear Miss Bernick. You ought to shut the
doors of your mind upon such disturbing guests as that. By the "stormy seas"Чfor
of course you do not intend me to take your words literallyЧyou mean the