GREGERS [Interrupts him.]

  Tell me in one word: are you thinking of marrying her?

  WERLE

  Suppose I were thinking of it? What then?

  GREGERS

  That’s what I say: what then?

  WERLE

  Should you be inflexibly opposed to it!

  GREGERS

  Not at all. Not by any means.

  WERLE

  I was not sure whether your devotion to your mother’s memory——

  GREGERS

  I am not overstrained.

  WERLE

  Well, whatever you may or may not be, at all events you have lifted a great weight from my mind. I am extremely pleased that I can reckon on your concurrence in this matter.

  GREGERS [Looking intently at him.]

  Now I see the use you want to put me to.

  WERLE

  Use to put you to? What an expression!

  GREGERS

  Oh, don’t let us be nice in our choice of words—not when we are alone together, at any rate. [With a short laugh.]

  Well well! So this is what made it absolutely essential that I should come to town in person. For the sake of Mrs. Sörby, we are to get up a pretence at family life in the house—a tableau137 of filial affection! That will be something new indeed.

  WERLE

  How dare you speak in that tone!

  GREGERS

  Was there ever any family life here? Never since I can remember. But now, forsooth, your plans demand something of the sort. No doubt it will have an excellent effect when it is reported that the son has hastened home, on the wings of filial piety, to the grey-haired father’s wedding-feast. What will then remain of all the rumours as to the wrongs the poor dead mother had to submit to? Not a vestige. Her son annihilates them at one stroke.

  WERLE

  Gregers—I believe there is no one in the world you detest as you do me.

  GREGERS [Softly.]

  I have seen you at too close quarters.

  WERLE

  You have seen me with your mother’s eyes.

  [Lowers his voice a little.]

  But you should remember that her eyes were—clouded now and

  then.

  GREGERS [Quivering.]

  I see what you are hinting at. But who was to blame for mother’s unfortunate weakness? Why you, and all those——! The last of them was this woman that you palmed off upon Hialmar Ekdal, when you were——Ugh!

  WERLE [Shrugs his shoulders.]

  Word for word as if it were your mother speaking!

  GREGERS [Without heeding.]

  And there he is now, with his great, confiding, childlike mind, compassed about with all this treachery—living under the same roof with such a creature, and never dreaming that what he calls his home is built upon a lie!

  [Comes a step nearer.]

  When I look back upon your past, I seem to see a battle-field with shattered lives on every hand.

  WERLE

  I begin to think the chasm that divides us is too wide.

  GREGERS [Bowing, with self-command.]

  So I have observed; and therefore I take my hat and go.

  WERLE

  You are going! Out of the house?

  GREGERS

  Yes. For at last I see my mission in life.

  WERLE

  What mission?

  GREGERS

  You would only laugh if I told you.

  WERLE

  A lonely man doesn’t laugh so easily, Gregers.

  GREGERS [Pointing towards the background.]

  Look, father,—the Chamberlains are playing blind-man’s-bluff with Mrs. Sörby.—Good-night and good-bye. [He goes out by the back to the right. Sounds of laughter and merriment from the company, who are now visible in the outer room.]

  WERLE [Muttering contemptuously after GREGERS.]

  Ha——! Poor wretch—and he says he is not overstrained!

  ACT SECOND

  HIALMAR EKDAL’s studio, a good-sized room, evidently in the top storey of the building. On the right, a sloping roof of large panes of glass, half-covered by a blue curtain. In the right-hand corner, at the back, the entrance door; farther forward, on the same side, a door leading to the sitting-room.Two doors on the opposite side, and between them an iron stove. At the back, a wide double sliding-door.The studio is plainly but comfortably fitted up and furnished. Between the doors on the right, standing out a little from the wall, a sofa with a table and some chairs; on the table a lighted lamp with a shade; beside the stove an old arm-chair. Photographic instruments and apparatus of different kinds lying about the room. Against the back wall, to the left of the double door, stands a bookcase containing a few books, boxes, and bottles of chemicals, instruments, tools, and other objects. Photographs and small articles, such as camel’s-hair pencils, paper, and so forth, lie on the table.

  GINA EKDAL sits on a chair by the table, sewing. HEDVIG is sitting on the sofa, with her hands shading her eyes and her thumbs in her ears, reading a book.

  GINA [Glances once or twice at HEDVIG, as if with secret anxiety; then says:]

  Hedvig!

  HEDVIG [Does not hear.]

  GINA [Repeats more loudly.]

  Hedvig!

  HEDVIG [Takes away her hands and looks up.]

  Yes, mother?

  GINA

  Hedvig dear, you mustn’t sit reading any longer now.

  HEDVIG

  Oh mother, mayn’t I read a little more? Just a little bit?

  GINA

  No no, you must put away your book now. Father doesn’t like it; he never reads hisself in the evening.

  HEDVIG [Shuts the book.]

  No, father doesn’t care much about reading.

  GINA [Puts aside her sewing and takes up a lead pencil and a little account-book from the table.]

  Can you remember how much we paid for the butter to-day?

  HEDVIG

  It was one crown sixty-five.

  GINA

  That’s right.

  [Puts it down.]

  It’s terrible what a lot of butter we get through in this house.

  Then there was the smoked sausage, and the cheese—let me

  see—

  [Writes.]

  —and the ham—

  [Adds up.]

  Yes, that makes just——

  HEDVIG

  And then the beer.

  GINA

  Yes, to be sure.

  [Writes.]

  How it do mount up! But we can’t manage with no less.

  HEDVIG

  And then you and I didn’t need anything hot for dinner, as father was out.

  GINA

  No; that was so much to the good. And then I took eight crowns fifty for the photographs.

  HEDVIG

  Really! So much as that?

  GINA

  Exactly eight crowns fifty.

  [Silence. GINA takes up her sewing again, HEDVIG takes paper and pencil and begins to draw, shading her eyes with her left hand.]

  HEDVIG

  Isn’t it jolly to think that father is at Mr. Werle’s big dinner-party?

  GINA

  You know he’s not really Mr. Werle’s guest. It was the son

  invited him.

  [After a pause.]

  We have nothing to do with that Mr. Werle.

  HEDVIG

  I’m longing for father to come home. He promised to ask Mrs. Sörby for something nice for me.

  GINA

  Yes, there’s plenty of good things going in that house, I can tell you.

  HEDVIG [Goes on drawing.]

  And I believe I’m a little hungry too.

  [OLD EKDAL, with the paper parcel under his arm and another parcel

  in his coat pocket, comes in by the entrance door.]

  GINA

  How late you are to-day, grandfather!

  EKDAL

  They had locked the office door. Had to wait in Gråberg’s room. And then they let me through—h’m.

  HEDVIG

  Did you get some more copying to do, grandfather?

  EKDAL

  This whole packet. Just look.

  GINA

  That’s capital.

  HEDVIG

  And you have another parcel in your pocket.

  EKDAL

  Eh? Oh never mind, that’s nothing.

  [Puts his stick away in a corner.]

  This work will keep me going a long time, Gina.

  [Opens one of the sliding-doors in the back wall a little.]

  Hush!

  [Peeps into the room for a moment, then pushes the door carefully to

  again.]

  Hee-hee! They’re fast asleep, all the lot of them. And she’s gone

  into the basket herself. Hee-hee!

  HEDVIG

  Are you sure she isn’t cold in that basket, grandfather?

  EKDAL

  Not a bit of it! Cold? With all that straw?

  [Goes towards the farther door on the left.]

  There are matches in here, I suppose.

  GINA

  The matches is on the drawers.

  [EKDAL goes into his room.]

  HEDVIG

  It’s nice that grandfather has got all that copying.

  GINA

  Yes, poor old father; it means a bit of pocket-money for him.

  HEDVIG

  And he won’t be able to sit the whole forenoon down at that horrid Madam Eriksen’s.

  GINA

  No more he won’t.

  [Short silence.]

  HEDVIG

  Do you suppose they are still at the dinner-table?

  GINA

  Goodness knows; as like as not.

  HEDVIG

  Think of all the delicious things father is having to eat! I’m certain he’ll be in splendid spirits when he comes. Don’t you think so, mother?

  GINA

  Yes; and if only we could tell him that we’d got the room let——

  HEDVIG

  But we don’t need that this evening.

  GINA

  Oh, we’d be none the worse of it, I can tell you. It’s no use to us as it is.

  HEDVIG

  I mean we don’t need it this evening, for father will be in a good humour at any rate. It is best to keep the letting of the room for another time.

  GINA [Looks across at her.]

  You like having some good news to tell father when he comes home in the evening?

  HEDVIG

  Yes; for then things are pleasanter somehow.

  GINA [Thinking to herself.]

  Yes, yes, there’s something in that.

  [OLD EKDAL comes in again and is going out by the foremost door to the left.]

  GINA [Half turning in her chair.]

  Do you want something out of the kitchen, grandfather?

  EKDAL

  Yes, yes, I do. Don’t you trouble.

  [Goes out.]

  GINA

  He’s not poking away at the fire, is he?

  [Waits a moment.]

  Hedvig, go and see what he’s about.

  [EKDAL comes in again with a small jug of steaming hot water.]

  HEDVIG

  Have you been getting some hot water, grandfather?

  EKDAL

  Yes, hot water. Want it for something. Want to write, and the ink has got as thick as porridge.—h’m.

  GINA

  But you’d best have your supper, first, grandfather. It’s laid in there.

  EKDAL

  Can’t be bothered with supper, Gina. Very busy, I tell you. No

  one’s to come to my room. No one—h’m.

  [He goes into his room; GINA and HEDVIG look at each other.]

  GINA [Softly.]

  Can you imagine where he’s got money from?

  HEDVIG

  From Gråberg, perhaps.

  GINA

  Not a bit of it. Gråberg always sends the money to me.

  HEDVIG

  Then he must have got a bottle on credit somewhere.

  GINA

  Poor grandfather, who’d give him credit?

  HIALMAR EKDAL, in an overcoat and grey felt hat, comes in from the right.

  GINA [Throws down her sewing and rises.]

  Why, Ekdal. Is that you already?

  HEDVIG [At the same time jumping up.]

  Fancy your coming so soon, father!

  HIALMAR [Taking off his hat.]

  Yes, most of the people were coming away.

  HEDVIG

  So early?

  HIALMAR

  Yes, it was a dinner-party, you know.

  [Is taking off his overcoat.]

  GINA

  Let me help you.

  HEDVIG

  Me too.

  [They draw off his coat; GINA hangs it up on the back wall.]

  HEDVIG

  Were there many people there, father?

  HIALMAR

  Oh no, not many. We were about twelve or fourteen at table.

  GINA

  And you had some talk with them all?

  HIALMAR

  Oh yes, a little; but Gregers took me up most of the time.

  GINA

  Is Gregers as ugly as ever?

  HIALMAR

  Well, he’s not very much to look at. Hasn’t the old man come home?

  HEDVIG

  Yes, grandfather is in his room, writing.

  HIALMAR

  Did he say anything?

  GINA

  No, what should he say?

  HIALMAR

  Didn’t he say anything about——? I heard something about his having been with Gråberg. I’ll go in and see him for a moment.

  GINA

  No, no, better not.

  HIALMAR

  Why not? Did he say he didn’t want me to go in?

  GINA

  I don’t think he wants to see nobody this evening——

  HEDVIG [Making signs.]

  H’m—h’m!

  GINA [Not noticing.]

  ——he has been in to fetch hot water——

  HIALMAR

  Aha! Then he’s——

  GINA

  Yes, I suppose so.

  HIALMAR

  Oh God! my poor old white-haired father!—Well, well; there let him sit and get all the enjoyment he can.

  [OLD EKDAL, in an indoor coat and with a lighted pipe, comes from his room.]

  EKDAL

  Got home? Thought it was you I heard talking.

  HIALMAR

  Yes, I have just come.

  EKDAL

  You didn’t see me, did you?

  HIALMAR

  No; but they told me you had passed through—so I thought I would follow you.

  EKDAL

  Hm, good of you, Hialmar.—Who were they, all those fellows?

  HIALMAR

  Oh, all sorts of people. There was Chamberlain Flor, and

  Chamberlain Balle, and Chamberlain Kasperseu, and

  Chamberlain—this, that, and the other—I don’t know who all——

  EKDAL [Nodding.]

  Hear that, Gina! Chamberlains every one of them!

  GINA

  Yes, I hear as they’re terrible genteel in that house nowadays.

  HEDVIG

  Did the Chamberlains sing, father? Or did they read aloud?

  HIALMAR

  No, they only talked nonsense. They wanted me to recite something for them; but I knew better than that.

  EKDAL

  You weren’t to be persuaded, eh?

  GINA

  Oh, you might have done it.

  HIALMAR

  No; one mustn’t be at everybody’s beck and call.

  [Walks about the room.]

  That’s not my way, at any rate.

  EKDAL

  No no; Hialmar’s not to be had for the asking, he isn’t.

  HIALMAR

  I don’t see why I should bother myself to entertain people on the rare occasions when I go into society. Let the others exert themselves. These fellows go from one great dinner-table to the next and gorge and guzzle day out and day in. It’s for them to bestir themselves and do something in return for all the good feeding they get.

  GINA

  But you didn’t say that?

  HIALMAR [Humming.]

  Ho-ho-ho——; faith, I gave them a bit of my mind.

  EKDAL

  Not the Chamberlains?

  HIALMAR

  Oh, why not?

  [Lightly.]

  After that, we had a little discussion about Tokay.

  EKDAL

  Tokay! There’s a fine wine for you!

  HIALMAR [Comes to a standstill.]