[HEDVIG brings a plate of bread and butter, which she puts upon the table.]

  HIALMAR

  Sit down, father, and have a glass of beer. Help yourself, Gregers. [EKDAL mutters and stumbles over to the sofa. GREGERS seats himself on the chair nearest to him, HIALMAR on the other side of GREGERS. GINA sits a little way from the table, sewing; HEDVIG stands beside her father.]

  GREGERS

  Can you remember, Lieutenant Ekdal, how Hialmar and I used to come up and visit you in the summer and at Christmas?

  EKDAL

  Did you? No, no, no; I don’t remember it. But sure enough I’ve been a tidy bit of a sportsman in my day. I’ve shot bears too. I’ve shot nine of ’em, no less.

  GREGERS [Looking sympathetically at him.]

  And now you never get any shooting?

  EKDAL

  Can’t just say that, sir. Get a shot now and then perhaps. Of

  course not in the old way. For the woods you see—the woods,

  the woods——!

  [Drinks.]

  Are the woods fine up there now?

  GREGERS

  Not so fine as in your time. They have been thinned a good deal.

  EKDAL

  Thinned?

  [More softly, and as if afraid.]

  It’s dangerous work that. Bad things come of it. The woods

  revenge themselves.

  HIALMAR [Filling up his glass.]

  Come—a little more, father.

  GREGERS

  How can a man like you—such a man for the open air—live in the midst of a stuffy town, boxed within four walls?

  EKDAL [Laughs quietly and glances at HIALMAR.]

  Oh, it’s not so bad here. Not at all so bad.

  GREGERS

  But don’t you miss all the things that used to be a part of your very being—the cool sweeping breezes, the free life in the woods and on the uplands, among beasts and birds——?

  EKDAL [Smiling.]

  Hialmar, shall we let him see it?

  HIALMAR [Hastily and a little embarrassed.]

  Oh no no, father; not this evening.

  GREGERS

  What does he want to show me?

  HIALMAR

  Oh, it’s only something—you can see it another time.

  GREGERS [Continues, to the old man.]

  You see I have been thinking, Lieutenant Ekdal, that you should come up with me to the works; I am sure to be going back soon. No doubt you could get some copying there too. And here, you have nothing on earth to interest you—nothing to liven you up.

  EKDAL [Stares in astonishment at him.]

  Have I nothing on earth to——!

  GREGERS

  Of course you have Hialmar; but then he has his own family. And a man like you, who has always had such a passion for what is free and wild——

  EKDAL [Thumps the table.]

  Hialmar, he shall see it!

  HIALMAR

  Oh, do you think it’s worth while, father? It’s all dark.

  EKDAL

  Nonsense; it’s moonlight.

  [Rises.]

  He shall see it, I tell you. Let me pass! Come and help me,

  Hialmar.

  HEDVIG

  Oh yes, do, father!

  HIALMAR [Rising.]

  Very well then.

  GREGERS [To GINA.]

  What is it?

  GINA

  Oh, nothing so very wonderful, after all. [EKDAL and HIALMAR have gone to the back wall and are each pushing back a side of the sliding door; HEDVIG helps the old man; GREGERS remains standing by the sofa; GINA sits still and sews. Through the open doorway a large, deep irregular garret is seen with odd nooks and corners; a couple of stove-pipes running through it, from rooms below. There are sky-lights through which clear moonbeams shine in on some parts of the great room; others lie in deep shadow.]

  EKDAL [To GREGERS.]

  You may come close up if you like.

  GREGERS [Going over to them.]

  Why, what is it?

  EKDAL

  Look for yourself. H’m.

  HIALMAR [Somewhat embarrassed.]

  This belongs to father, you understand.

  GREGERS [At the door, looks into the garret.]

  Why, you keep poultry, Lieutenant Ekdal?

  EKDAL

  Should think we did keep poultry. They’ve gone to roost now. But you should just see our fowls by daylight, sir!

  HEDVIG

  And there’s a——

  EKDAL

  Sh—sh! don’t say anything about it yet.

  GREGERS

  And you have pigeons too, I see.

  EKDAL

  Oh yes, haven’t we just got pigeons! They have their nest-boxes up there under the roof-tree; for pigeons like to roost high, you see.

  HIALMAR

  They aren’t all common pigeons.

  EKDAL

  Common! Should think not indeed! We have tumblers, and a pair of pouters, too. But come here! Can you see that hutch down there by the wall?

  GREGERS

  Yes; what do you use it for?

  EKDAL

  That’s where the rabbits sleep, sir.

  GREGERS

  Dear me; so you have rabbits too?

  EKDAL

  Yes, you may take my word for it, we have rabbits! He wants to know if we have rabbits, Hialmar! H’m! But now comes the thing, let me tell you! Here we have it! Move away, Hedvig. Stand here; that’s right,—and now look down there.—Don’t you see a basket with straw in it?

  GREGERS

  Yes. And I can see a fowl lying in the basket.

  EKDAL

  H’m—“a fowl”——

  GREGERS

  Isn’t it a duck?

  EKDAL [Hurt.]

  Why, of course it’s a duck.

  HIALMAR

  But what kind of duck, do you think?

  HEDVIG

  It’s not just a common duck——

  EKDAL

  Sh!

  GREGERS

  And it’s not a Muscovy duck either.

  EKDAL

  No, Mr.—Werle; it’s not a Muscovy duck; for it’s a wild duck!

  GREGERS

  Is it really? A wild duck?

  EKDAL

  Yes, that’s what it is. That “fowl” as you call it—is the wild duck. It’s our wild duck, sir.

  HEDVIG

  My wild duck. It belongs to me.

  GREGERS

  And can it live up here in the garret? Does it thrive?

  EKDAL

  Of course it has a trough of water to splash about in, you know.

  HIALMAR

  Fresh water every other day.

  GINA [Turning towards HIALMAR.]

  But my dear Ekdal, it’s getting icy cold here.

  EKDAL

  H’m, we had better shut up then. It’s as well not to disturb their night’s rest, too. Close up, Hedvig.

  [HIALMAR and HEDVIG push the garret doors together.]

  EKDAL

  Another time you shall see her properly.

  [Seats himself in the arm-chair by the stove.]

  Oh, they’re curious things, these wild ducks, I can tell you.

  GREGERS

  How did you manage to catch it, Lieutenant Ekdal?

  EKDAL

  I didn’t catch it. There’s a certain man in this town whom we have to thank for it.

  GREGERS [Starts slightly.]

  That man was not my father, was he?

  EKDAL

  You’ve hit it. Your father and no one else. H’m.

  HIALMAR

  Strange that you should guess that, Gregers.

  GREGERS

  You were telling me that you owed so many things to my father; and so I thought perhaps——

  GINA

  But we didn’t get the duck from Mr. Werle himself——

  EKDAL

  It’s Håkon Werle we have to thank for her, all the same, Gina. [To GREGERS.]

  He was shooting from a boat, you see, and he brought her down. But your father’s sight is not very good now. H’m; she was only wounded.

  GREGERS

  Ah! She got a couple of slugs in her body, I suppose.

  HIALMAR

  Yes, two or three.

  HEDVIG

  She was hit under the wing, so that she couldn’t fly.

  GREGERS

  And I suppose she dived to the bottom, eh?

  EKDAL [Sleepily, in a thick voice.]

  Of course. Always do that, wild ducks do. They shoot to the bottom as deep as they can get, sir—and bite themselves fast in the tangle and seaweed—and all the devil’s own mess that grows down there. And they never come up again.

  GREGERS

  But your wild duck came up again, Lieutenant Ekdal.

  EKDAL

  He had such an amazingly clever dog, your father had. And that dog—he dived in after the duck and fetched her up again.

  GREGERS [Who has turned to HIALMAR.]

  And then she was sent to you here?

  HIALMAR

  Not at once; at first your father took her home. But she wouldn’t thrive there; so Pettersen was told to put an end to her——

  EKDAL [Half asleep.]

  H’m—yes—Pettersen—that ass——

  HIALMAR [Speaking more softly.]

  That was how we got her, you see; for father knows Pettersen a little; and when he heard about the wild duck he got him to hand her over to us.

  GREGERS

  And now she thrives as well as possible in the garret there?

  HIALMAR

  Yes, wonderfully well. She has got fat. You see, she has lived in there so long now that she has forgotten her natural wild life; and it all depends on that.

  GREGERS

  You are right there, Hialmar. Be sure you never let her get a glimpse of the sky and the sea——. But I mustn’t stay any longer; I think your father is asleep.

  HIALMAR

  Oh, as for that——

  GREGERS

  But, by-the-bye—you said you had a room to let—a spare room?

  HIALMAR

  Yes; what then? Do you know of anybody——?

  GREGERS

  Can I have that room?

  HIALMAR

  You?

  GINA

  Oh no, Mr. Werle, you——

  GREGERS

  May I have the room? If so, I’ll take possession first thing to-morrow morning.

  HIALMAR

  Yes, with the greatest pleasure——

  GINA

  But, Mr. Werle, I’m sure it’s not at all the sort of room for you.

  HIALMAR

  Why, Gina! how can you say that?

  GINA

  Why, because the room’s neither large enough nor light enough, and——

  GREGERS

  That really doesn’t matter, Mrs. Ekdal.

  HIALMAR

  I call it quite a nice room, and not at all badly furnished either.

  GINA

  But remember the pair of them underneath.

  GREGERS

  What pair?

  GINA

  Well, there’s one as has been a tutor——

  HIALMAR

  That’s Molvik—Mr. Molvik, B.A.

  GINA

  And then there’s a doctor, by the name of Relling.

  GREGERS

  Relling? I know him a little; he practised for a time up in Höidal.

  GINA

  They’re a regular rackety pair, they are. As often as not, they’re out on the loose in the evenings; and then they come home at all hours, and they’re not always just——

  GREGERS

  One soon gets used to that sort of thing. I daresay I shall be like the wild duck——

  GINA

  H’m; I think you ought to sleep upon it first, anyway.

  GREGERS

  You seem very unwilling to have me in the house, Mrs. Ekdal.

  GINA

  Oh no! What makes you think that?

  HIALMAR

  Well, you really behave strangely about it, Gina.

  [To GREGERS.]

  Then I suppose you intend to remain in the town for the pres

  ent?

  GREGERS [Pulling on his overcoat.]

  Yes, now I intend to remain here.

  HIALMAR

  And yet not at your father’s? What do you propose to do, then?

  GREGERS

  Ah, if I only knew that, Hialmar, I shouldn’t be so badly off! But when one has the misfortune to be called Gregers—!

  “Gregers”—and then “Werle” after it; did you ever hear anything so hideous?

  HIALMAR

  Oh, I don’t think so at all.

  GREGERS

  Ugh! Bah! I feel I should like to spit upon the fellow that answers to such a name. But when a man is once for all doomed to be Gregers—Werle in this world, as I am——

  HIALMAR [Laughs.]

  Ha ha! If you weren’t Gregers Werle, what would you like to be?

  GREGERS

  If I could choose, I should like best to be a clever dog.

  GINA

  A dog!

  HEDVIG [Involuntarily.]

  Oh no!

  GREGERS

  Yes, an amazingly clever dog; one that goes to the bottom after wild ducks when they dive and bite themselves fast in tangle and sea-weed, down among the ooze.

  HIALMAR

  Upon my word now, Gregers—I don’t in the least know what you’re driving at.

  GREGERS

  Oh well, you might not be much the wiser if you did. It’s

  understood, then, that I move in early to-morrow morning.

  [To GINA.]

  I won’t give you any trouble; I do everything for myself.

  [To HIALMAR.]

  We can talk about the rest to-morrow.—Good-night, Mrs.

  Ekdal.

  [Nods to HEDVIG.]

  Good-night.

  GINA

  Good-night, Mr. Werle.

  HEDVIG

  Good-night.

  HIALMAR [Who has lighted a candle.]

  Wait a moment; I must show you a light; the stairs are sure to be dark.

  [GREGERS and HIALMAR go out by the passage door.]

  GINA [Looking straight before her, with her sewing in her lap.]

  Wasn’t that queer-like talk about wanting to be a dog?

  HEDVIG

  Do you know, mother—I believe he meant something quite different by that.

  GINA

  Why, what should he mean?

  HEDVIG

  Oh, I don’t know; but it seemed to me he meant something different from what he said—all the time.

  GINA

  Do you think so? Yes, it was sort of queer.

  HIALMAR [Comes back.]

  The lamp was still burning.

  [Puts out the candle and sets it down.]

  Ah, now one can get a mouthful of food at last.

  [Begins to eat the bread and butter.]

  Well, you see, Gina—if only you keep your eyes open——

  GINA

  How, keep your eyes open——?

  HIALMAR

  Why, haven’t we at last had the luck to get the room let? And just think—to a person like Gregers—a good old friend.

  GINA

  Well, I don’t know what to say about it.

  HEDVIG

  Oh mother, you’ll see; it’ll be such fun!

  HIALMAR

  You’re very strange——You were so bent upon getting the room let before; and now you don’t like it.

  GINA

  Yes I do, Ekdal; if it had only been to some one else——But what do you suppose Mr. Werle will say?

  HIALMAR

  Old Werle? It doesn’t concern him.

  GINA

  But surely you can see that there’s something amiss between them again, or the young man wouldn’t be leaving home. You know very well those two can’t get on with each other.

  HIALMAR

  Very likely not, but——

  GINA

  And now Mr. Werle may fancy it’s you that has egged him on——

  HIALMAR

  Let him fancy so, then! Mr. Werle has done a great deal for me; far be it from me to deny it. But that doesn’t make me everlastingly dependent upon him.

  GINA

  But, my dear Ekdal, maybe grandfather’ll suffer for it. He may lose the little bit of work he gets from Gråberg.

  HIALMAR

  I could almost say: so much the better! Is it not humiliating for a man like me to see his grey-haired father treated as a pariah? But now I believe the fulness of time is at hand.

  [Takes a fresh piece of bread and butter.]

  As sure as I have a mission in life, I mean to fulfil it now!