This page needs to be proofread.
Petra.
I could never have thought it of Billing!
Hovstad.
[Looking more closely at her.] No? Is it such a surprise to you?
Petra.
Yes. And yet—perhaps not. Oh, I don't know
Hovstad.
We journalists are not worth much, Miss Petra.
Petra.
Do you really say that?
Hovstad.
I think so, now and then.
Petra.
Yes, in the little every-day squabbles—that I can understand. But now that you have taken up a great cause
Hovstad.
You mean this affair of your father's?
Petra.
Of course. I should think you must feel yourself worth more than the general run of people now.
Hovstad.
Yes, to-day I do feel something of the sort.
Petra.
Yes, surely you must. Oh, it's a glorious career you have chosen! To be the pioneer of unrecog-
