Tjaelde (who has at last finished eating and drinking, is struck by her words). What do you mean by that, Valborg?
Valborg. That if I were his daughter I would never forgive him.
Mrs. Tjaelde. My dear Valborg, don't say such things!
Valborg. I mean it! A man who would bring such shame and misery upon his family does not deserve any mercy from them.
Mrs. Tjaelde. We are all in need of mercy.
Valborg. In one sense, yes. But what I mean is that I could never give him my respect or my affection again. He would have wronged me too cruelly.
Mrs. Tjaelde. Have you finished already, dear?
Tjaelde. I said I had finished. Wronged you? How?
Valborg. Well, I cannot imagine how one could be more cruelly wronged than to be allowed to assume a position that was nothing but a lie, to live up to means that had no real existence but were merely a sham--one's clothes a lie, one's very existence a lie! Suppose I were the sort of girl that found a certain delight in making use of her position as a rich man's daughter--in using it to the fullest possible extent; well, when I discovered that all that my father had given me was stolen-that all he had made me believe in was a lie--I am sure that then my anger and my shame would be beyond all bounds!
Mrs. Tjaelde. My child, you have never been tried. You don't know how such things may happen. You don't really know what you are saying!
Hamar. Well it might do Möller good if he heard what she says!
Valborg. He has heard it. His daughter said that to him.
Mrs. Tjaelde. His own daughter! Child, child, is that what you write to each other about? God forgive you both!
Valborg. Oh, He will forgive us, because we speak the truth.
Tjaelde. You evidently don't understand what business is--success one day and failure the next.
Valborg. No one will ever persuade me that business is a lottery.
Valborg. Exactly. It is the unsound sort that I condemn.
Tjaelde. Still, even the soundest have their anxious moments.
Valborg. If the anxious moments really foreshadow a crisis, no man of honour would keep his family o: his creditors in ignorance of the fact. My God, how Mr. Möller has deceived his!
Signe. Valborg is always talking about business!
Valborg. Yes, it has had an attraction for me ever since I was a child. I am not ashamed of that.