‘But now you say you’re really not so perplexed,’ says Stig. ‘And that’s good to hear. That’s almost all I need to hear from you.’

So the clergyman tells him how he feels as they sit together, aware of how the house is cracking. He says: ‘You tell me you know it’s painful. But the question is whether you really do know how impossible it can seem sometimes. Because it looks as if we have to repudiate what we have always preached. You know it as well as I do, and so does everyone, so I shall say no more about it. But it applies only to part of it. For there are other matters that we’ve drawn attention to that have revealed themselves to be precisely what they are, and are stronger than ever before. We’ve drawn attention to them, whether ears have wished to hear or not. And that’s how they stand: in opposition. And everyone who comes here and asks for an explanation rips open this uncertainty, and I suppose that is their intention, according to what you say as well, so one has to test it over and over again. But I can’t say I’m perplexed. When there’s only one course of action, there can be no perplexity.’

‘Yes,’ says Stig, ‘that’s true. All I know is that it must be more difficult for you than for me.’

The other man looks at him searchingly, thinking of all that Stig is forced to take part in.

‘All the same, I shall never be able to face what you have to do,’ he says. ‘Everything would collapse completely.’

Stig says: ‘It’s a great help to me that you stand where you do stand. I don’t know what I’d do without your support. But of course it’s not the same for everyone. I know people who say it doesn’t matter in the long run. But it does to me, and to most of the others I imagine. We need your support.’

The clergyman can only bow his head further. He has learnt so often to turn the other cheek.

‘This is how we can join in after all.’

‘Perhaps we can put it like that,’ replies his companion, who will have to carry out the deed when the order is given.

The clergyman says: ‘I know we have much of the responsibility. And we ought to have it, or we would not be worthy to be what we are. I know we share indirectly in what is done to destroy what desires to destroy. And I think it must be so. We have been thrown into this, you and ourselves and everyone and must take the responsibility for how things will be afterwards. But it’s as if one had better bear it on one’s own shoulders for part of the way. And disregard certain commandments. That’s how we join in.’

Stig merely nods.

The clergyman says: ‘Perhaps you think it’s cowardly to stand like this with the people who keep in the background, giving encouragement, but without the guts to act as they expect others to act?’