GREGERS

  So you could; and it was you that ought to have done it, wasn’t it?

  HEDVIG

  Yes, for it’s my wild duck.

  GREGERS

  Of course it is.

  HEDVIG

  Yes, it belongs to me. But I lend it to father and grandfather as often as they please.

  GREGERS

  Indeed? What do they do with it?

  HEDVIG

  Oh, they look after it, and build places for it, and so on.

  GREGERS

  I see; for no doubt the wild duck is by far the most distinguished inhabitant of the garret?

  HEDVIG

  Yes, indeed she is; for she is a real wild fowl, you know. And then she is so much to be pitied; she has no one to care for, poor thing.

  GREGERS

  She has no family, as the rabbits have——

  HEDVIG

  No. The hens too, many of them, were chickens together; but she has been taken right away from all her friends. And then there is so much that is strange about the wild duck. Nobody knows her, and nobody knows where she came from either.

  GREGERS

  And she has been down in the depths of the sea.

  HEDVIG [With a quick glance at him, represses a smile and asks:]

  Why do you say “the depths of the sea”?

  GREGERS

  What else should I say?

  HEDVIG

  You could say “the bottom of the sea.”139

  GREGERS

  Oh, mayn’t I just as well say the depths of the sea?

  HEDVIG

  Yes; but it sounds so strange to me when other people speak of the depths of the sea.

  GREGERS

  Why so? Tell me why?

  HEDVIG

  No, I won’t; it’s so stupid.

  GREGERS

  Oh no, I am sure it’s not. Do tell me why you smiled.

  HEDVIG

  Well, this is the reason: whenever I come to realise suddenly—in a flash—what is in there, it always seems to me that the whole room and everything in it should be called “the depths of the sea.”—But that is so stupid.

  GREGERS

  You mustn’t say that.

  HEDVIG

  Oh yes, for you know it is only a garret.

  GREGERS [Looks fixedly at her.]

  Are you so sure of that?

  HEDVIG [Astonished.]

  That it’s a garret?

  GREGERS

  Are you quite certain of it?

  [HEDVIG is silent, and looks at him openmouthed. GINA comes in from the kitchen with the table things.]

  GREGERS [Rising.]

  I have come in upon you too early.

  GINA

  Oh, you must be somewhere; and we’re nearly ready now, any way. Clear the table, Hedvig.

  [HEDVIG clears away her things; she and GINA lay the cloth during what follows. GREGERS seats himself in the arm-chair and turns over an album.]

  GREGERS

  I hear you can retouch, Mrs. Ekdal.

  GINA [With a side glance.]

  Yes, I can.

  GREGERS

  That was exceedingly lucky.

  GINA

  How—lucky?

  GREGERS

  Since Ekdal took to photography, I mean.

  HEDVIG

  Mother can take photographs too.

  GINA

  Oh, yes; I was bound to learn that.

  GREGERS

  So it is really you that carry on the business, I suppose?

  GINA

  Yes, when Ekdal hasn’t time himself——

  GREGERS

  He is a great deal taken up with his old father, I daresay.

  GINA

  Yes; and then you can’t expect a man like Ekdal to do nothing but take car-de-visits of Dick, Tom and Harry.

  GREGERS

  I quite agree with you; but having once gone in for the thing——

  GINA

  You can surely understand, Mr. Werle, that Ekdal’s not like one of your common photographers.

  GREGERS

  Of course not; but still——

  [A shot is fired within the garret.]

  GREGERS [Starting up.]

  What’s that?

  GINA

  Ugh! now they’re firing again!

  GREGERS

  Have they firearms in there?

  HEDVIG

  They are out shooting.

  GREGERS

  What!

  [At the door of the garret.]

  Are you shooting, Hialmar?

  HIALMAR [Inside the net.]

  Are you there? I didn’t know; I was so taken up——

  [To HEDVIG.]

  Why did you not let us know?

  [Comes into the studio.]

  GREGERS

  Do you go shooting in the garret?

  HIALMAR [Showing a double-barrelled pistol.]

  Oh, only with this thing.

  GINA

  Yes, you and grandfather will do yourselves a mischief some day with that there pigstol.

  HIALMAR [With irritation.]

  I believe I have told you that this kind of firearm is called a pistol.

  GINA

  Oh, that doesn’t make it much better, that I can see.

  GREGERS

  So you have become a sportsman too, Hialmar.

  HIALMAR

  Only a little rabbit-shooting now and then. Mostly to please father, you understand.

  GINA

  Men are strange beings; they must always have something to pervert theirselves with.

  HIALMAR [Snappishly.]

  Just so; we must always have something to divert ourselves with.

  GINA

  Yes, that’s just what I say.

  HIALMAR

  H’m.

  [To GREGERS.]

  You see the garret is fortunately so situated that no one can hear

  us shooting.

  [Lays the pistol on the top shelf of the bookcase.]

  Don’t touch the pistol, Hedvig! One of the barrels is loaded; re

  member that.

  GREGERS [Looking through the net.]

  You have a fowling-piece too, I see.

  HIALMAR

  That is father’s old gun. It’s of no use now; something has gone wrong with the lock. But it’s fun to have it all the same; for we can take it to pieces now and then, and clean and grease it, and screw it together again.—Of course, it’s mostly father that fiddle-faddles with all that sort of thing.

  HEDVIG [Beside GREGERS.]

  Now you can see the wild duck properly.

  GREGERS

  I was just looking at her. One of her wings seems to me to droop a bit.

  HEDVIG

  Well, no wonder; her wing was broken, you know.

  GREGERS

  And she trails one foot a little. Isn’t that so?

  HIALMAR

  Perhaps a very little bit.

  HEDVIG

  Yes, it was by that foot the dog took hold of her.

  HIALMAR

  But otherwise she hasn’t the least thing the matter with her; and that is simply marvellous for a creature that has a charge of shot in her body, and has been between a dog’s teeth——

  GREGERS [With a glance at HEDVIG.]

  —and that has lain in the depths of the sea—so long.

  HEDVIG [Smiling.]

  Yes.

  GINA [Laying the table.]

  That blessed wild duck! What a lot of fuss you do make over her.

  HIALMAR

  H’m;—will lunch soon be ready?

  GINA

  Yes, directly. Hedvig, you must come and help me now. [GINA and HEDVIG go out into the kitchen.]

  HIALMAR [In a low voice.]

  I think you had better not stand there looking in at father; he

  doesn’t like it.

  [GREGERS moves away from the garret door.]

  Besides I may as well shut up before the others come.

  [Claps his hands to drive the fowls back.]

  Shh—shh, in with you!

  [Draws up the curtain and pulls the doors together.]

  All the contrivances are my own invention. It’s really quite

  amusing to have things of this sort to potter with, and to put to

  rights when they get out of order. And it’s absolutely necessary,

  too; for Gina objects to having rabbits and fowls in the studio.

  GREGERS

  To be sure; and I suppose the studio is your wife’s special department?

  HIALMAR

  As a rule, I leave the everyday details of business to her; for then I can take refuge in the parlour and give my mind to more important things.

  GREGERS

  What things may they be, Hialmar?

  HIALMAR

  I wonder you have not asked that question sooner. But perhaps you haven’t heard of the invention?

  GREGERS

  The invention? No.

  HIALMAR

  Really? Have you not? Oh no, out there in the wilds——

  GREGERS

  So you have invented something, have you?

  HIALMAR

  It is not quite completed yet; but I am working at it. You can easily imagine that when I resolved to devote myself to photography, it wasn’t simply with the idea of taking likenesses of all sorts of commonplace people.

  GREGERS

  No; your wife was saying the same thing just now.

  HIALMAR

  I swore that if I consecrated my powers to this handicraft, I would so exalt it that it should become both an art and a science. And to that end I determined to make this great invention.

  GREGERS

  And what is the nature of the invention? What purpose does it serve?

  HIALMAR

  Oh, my dear fellow, you mustn’t ask for details yet. It takes time, you see. And you must not think that my motive is vanity. It is not for my own sake that I am working. Oh no; it is my life’s mission that stands before me night and day.

  GREGERS

  What is your life’s mission?

  HIALMAR

  Do you forget the old man with the silver hair?

  GREGERS

  Your poor father? Well, but what can you do for him?

  HIALMAR

  I can raise up his self-respect from the dead, by restoring the name of Ekdal to honour and dignity.

  GREGERS

  Then that is your life’s mission?

  HIALMAR

  Yes. I will rescue the shipwrecked man. For shipwrecked he was, by the very first blast of the storm. Even while those terrible investigations were going on, he was no longer himself. That pistol there—the one we use to shoot rabbits with—has played its part in the tragedy of the house of Ekdal.

  GREGERS

  The pistol? Indeed?

  HIALMAR

  When the sentence of imprisonment was passed—he had the pistol in his hand——

  GREGERS

  Had he——?

  HIALMAR

  Yes; but he dared not use it. His courage failed him. So broken, so demoralised was he even then! Oh, can you understand it? He, a soldier; he, who had shot nine bears, and who was descended from two lieutenant-colonels—one after the other of course. Can you understand it, Gregers?

  GREGERS

  Yes, I understand it well enough.

  HIALMAR

  I cannot. And once more the pistol played a part in the history of our house. When he had put on the grey clothes and was under lock and key—oh, that was a terrible time for me, I can tell you. I kept the blinds drawn down over both my windows. When I peeped out, I saw the sun shining as if nothing had happened. I could not understand it. I saw people going along the street, laughing and talking about indifferent things. I could not understand it. It seemed to me that the whole of existence must be at a standstill—as if under an eclipse.

  GREGERS

  I felt like that too, when my mother died.

  HIALMAR

  It was in such an hour that Hialmar Ekdal pointed the pistol at his own breast.

  GREGERS

  You too thought of——!

  HIALMAR

  Yes.

  GREGERS

  But you did not fire?

  HIALMAR

  No. At the decisive moment I won the victory over myself. I remained in life. But I can assure you it takes some courage to choose life under circumstances like those.

  GREGERS

  Well, that depends on how you look at it.

  HIALMAR

  Yes, indeed, it takes courage. But I am glad I was firm: for now I shall soon perfect my invention; and Dr. Relling thinks, as I do myself, that father may be allowed to wear his uniform again. I will demand that as my sole reward.

  GREGERS

  So that is what he meant about his uniform——?

  HIALMAR

  Yes, that is what he most yearns for. You can’t think how my heart bleeds for him. Every time we celebrate any little family festival—Gina’s and my wedding-day, or whatever it may be—in comes the old man in the lieutenant’s uniform of happier days. But if he only hears a knock at the door—for he daren’t show himself to strangers, you know—he hurries back to his room again as fast as his old legs can carry him. Oh, it’s heartrending for a son to see such things!

  GREGERS

  How long do you think it will take you to finish your invention?

  HIALMAR

  Come now, you mustn’t expect me to enter into particulars like that. An invention is not a thing completely under one’s own control. It depends largely on inspiration—on intuition—and it is almost impossible to predict when the inspiration may come.

  GREGERS

  But it’s advancing?

  HIALMAR

  Yes, certainly, it is advancing. I turn it over in my mind every day; I am full of it. Every afternoon, when I have had my dinner, I shut myself up in the parlour, where I can ponder undisturbed. But I can’t be goaded to it; it’s not a bit of good; Relling says so too.

  GREGERS

  And you don’t think that all that business in the garret draws you off and distracts you too much?

  HIALMAR

  No no no; quite the contrary. You mustn’t say that. I cannot be everlastingly absorbed in the same laborious train of thought. I must have something alongside of it to fill up the time of waiting. The inspiration, the intuition, you see—when it comes, it comes, and there’s an end of it.

  GREGERS

  My dear Hialmar, I almost think you have something of the wild duck in you.

  HIALMAR

  Something of the wild duck? How do you mean?

  GREGERS

  You have dived down and bitten yourself fast in the undergrowth.

  HIALMAR

  Are you alluding to the well-nigh fatal shot that has broken my father’s wing—and mine too?

  GREGERS

  Not exactly to that. I don’t say that your wing has been broken; but you have strayed into a poisonous marsh, Hialmar; an insidious disease has taken hold of you, and you have sunk down to die in the dark.

  HIALMAR

  I? To die in the dark? Look here, Gregers, you must really leave off talking such nonsense.

  GREGERS

  Don’t be afraid; I shall find a way to help you up again. I too have a mission in life now; I found it yesterday.

  HIALMAR

  That’s all very well; but you will please leave me out of it. I can assure you that—apart from my very natural melancholy, of course—I am as contented as any one can wish to be.

  GREGERS

  Your contentment is an effect of the marsh poison.

  HIALMAR

  Now, my dear Gregers, pray do not go on about disease and poison; I am not used to that sort of talk. In my house nobody ever speaks to me about unpleasant things.

  GREGERS

  Ah, that I can easily believe.

  HIALMAR

  It’s not good for me you see. And there are no marsh poisons here, as you express it. The poor photographer’s roof is lowly, I know—and my circumstances are narrow. But I am an inventor, and I am the breadwinner of a family. That exalts me above my mean surroundings.—Ah, here comes lunch!

  GINA and HEDVIG bring bottles of ale, a decanter of brandy, glasses, etc. At the same time, RELLING and MOLVIK enter from the passage; they are both without hat or overcoat. MOLVIK is dressed in black.

  GINA [Placing the things upon the table.]

  Ah, you two have come in the nick of time.

  RELLING

  Molvik got it into his head that he could smell herring-salad, and then there was no holding him.—Good morning again, Ekdal.

  HIALMAR

  Gregers, let me introduce you to Mr. Molvik. Doctor——Oh, you know Relling, don’t you?