MRS. ALVING. But put your pipe away, my dear boy; I won't have smoking in here. 
OSWALD. [Does so.] By all means. I only wanted to try it; for I once smoked it when I was a child. 
MRS. ALVING. You? 
OSWALD. Yes. I was quite small at the time. I recollect I came up to father's room one evening when he was in great spirits. 
MRS. ALVING. Oh, you can't recollect anything of those times. 
OSWALD. Yes, I recollect it distinctly. He took me on his knee, and gave me the pipe. "Smoke, boy," he said; "smoke away, boy!" And I smoked as hard as I could, until I felt I was growing quite pale, and the perspiration stood in great drops on my forehead. Then he burst out laughing heartily-- 
MANDERS. That was most extraordinary. 
MRS. ALVING. My dear friend, it's only something Oswald has dreamt. 
OSWALD. No, mother, I assure you I didn't dream it. For--don't you remember this?--you came and carried me out into the nursery. Then I was sick, and I saw that you were crying.--Did father often play such practical jokes? 
MANDERS. In his youth he overflowed with the joy of life-- 
OSWALD. And yet he managed to do so much in the world; so much that was good and useful; although he died so early. 
MANDERS. Yes, you have inherited the name of an energetic and admirable man, my dear Oswald Alving. No doubt it will be an incentive to you-- 
OSWALD. It ought to, indeed. 
MANDERS. It was good of you to come home for the ceremony in his honour. 
OSWALD. I could do no less for my father. 
MRS. ALVING. And I am to keep him so long! That is the best of all. 
MANDERS. You are going to pass the winter at home, I hear. 
OSWALD. My stay is indefinite, sir. But, ah! it is good to be at home! 
MRS. ALVING. [Beaming.] Yes, isn't it, dear? 
MANDERS. [Looking sympathetically at him.] You went out into the world early, my dear Oswald. 
OSWALD. I did. I sometimes wonder whether it wasn't too early. 
MRS. ALVING. Oh, not at all. A healthy lad is all the better for it; especially when he's an only child. He oughtn't to hang on at home with his mother and father, and get spoilt. 
MANDERS. That is a very disputable point, Mrs. Alving. A child's proper place is, and must be, the home of his fathers. 
OSWALD. There I quite agree with you, Pastor Manders. 
MANDERS. Only look at your own son--there is no reason why we should not say it in his presence--what has the consequence been for him? He is six or seven and twenty, and has never had the opportunity of learning what a well-ordered home really is.OSWALD. I beg your pardon, Pastor; there you're quite mistaken. 
MANDERS. Indeed? I thought you had lived almost exclusively in artistic circles. 
OSWALD. So I have. 
MANDERS. And chiefly among the younger artists? 
OSWALD. Yes, certainly. 
MANDERS. But I thought few of those young fellows could 

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