Source Text: FATHER1.2Captain: Thirty-four -- nine, forty-three -- seven, eight, fifty-six --
Laura: Would you mind --
Captain: Just a moment -- sixty-six, seventy-one -- eighty-four, eighty-nine, ninety-two, a hundred. What is it?
Laura: Am I interrupting?
Captain: Not at all. I suppose you want some housekeeping money?
Laura: Yes, housekeeping money.
Captain: Leave the accounts here, and I'll go over them.
Laura: Accounts?
Captain: Yes.
Laura: Do I have to keep accounts, now?
Captain: Of course you must keep accounts. Things are in a bad way with us, and if I should go bankrupt, I must be able to produce accounts, or they could accuse me of negligence.
Laura: It's not my fault if things are in a bad way.
Captain: Then the accounts would confirm that.
Laura: I can't help it if the lodger didn't pay.
Captain: Who was so enthusiastic about the man? You. Why do you recommend such a -- what shall I call him -- such a ne'er-do-well?
Laura: Why did you take in such a ne'er-do-well?
Captain: Because I wasn't allowed to eat or sleep or work in peace until you'd got him in here. You wanted him because your brother wanted to get rid of him; your mother wanted him because I didn't. The governess wanted him because he was a Pietist; and old Margret, because she'd known his grandmother ever since she was a baby. That's why I took him in -- because if I hadn't, I should be in the lunatic asylum by now, or in the family vault. However, here's the housekeeping money, and your allowance. You can give me the accounts later.
Laura: Thank you so much! And do you keep an account of what you spend -- apart from the housekeeping?
Captain: That's nothing to do with you.
Laura: True -- just as my child's education is nothing to do with me. Did my lords come to any decision at this evening's session?
Captain: I'd made up my mind already, I merely wished to inform the only friend I and my household have in common. Bertha is to live in town; she'll leave in a fortnight's time.
Laura: And where is she to live -- if I'm allowed to ask?
Captain: With the lawyer, Mr Savberg.
Laura: That Freethinker!
Captain: As the law stands, children must be brought up in their father's faith.
Laura: And the mother has no say in the matter?
Captain: None whatever. By law she surrenders all her rights and possessions to her husband, and in return he must support her and her children.
Laura: So she has no rights over her own child?
Captain: None whatever. Once you've sold your goods, you can't expect to have them back and keep the money.
Laura: But if the father and the mother agree on a compromise . . .
Captain: How could they? I want her to live in the town, you want her to live at home. Mathematically, a compromise would mean that she stayed at the railway station -- half-way between the two. It's one of those knots that there's no untying, you see.
Laura: Then it must be cut! What was Nojd doing here?
Captain: That's an official and confidential matter --
Laura: -- that the whole kitchen knows about.
Captain: Good -- then you know it too.
Laura: Yes, I know it.
Captain: And you've passed judgement already?
Laura: The law's perfectly clear.
Captain: The law can't say who is the child's father.
Laura: You can usually tell.
Captain: They say that's something you can never be sure of.
Laura: How extraordinary! You can't be sure who a child's father is?
Captain: So they say.
Laura: Extraordinary. Then how is it that the father has such rights over a woman's children?
Captain: He has the rights simply because he takes on the responsibilities -- or has them forced on him. In marriage, naturally there's no doubt about the paternity.
Laura: No doubt?
Captain: I should hope not.
Laura: Suppose the wife were unfaithful?
Captain: That question doesn't arise in this case. Is there anything else you want to ask?
Laura: No, nothing.
Captain: Then I shall go up to my room. Let me know when the Doctor comes, please.
Laura: Very well.
Captain: The moment he arrives, please. Naturally I don't want to seem discourteous to him.
Laura: Naturally.