GREGERS

  Yes, slightly.

  RELLING

  Oh, Mr. Werle, junior! Yes, we two have had one or two little skirmishes up at the Höidal works. You’ve just moved in?

  GREGERS

  I moved in this morning.

  RELLING

  Molvik and I live right under you; so you haven’t far to go for the doctor and the clergyman, if you should need anything in that line.

  GREGERS

  Thanks, it’s not quite unlikely; for yesterday we were thirteen at table.

  HIALMAR

  Oh, come now, don’t let us get upon unpleasant subjects again!

  RELLING

  You may make your mind easy, Ekdal; I’ll be hanged if the finger of fate points to you.

  HIALMAR

  I should hope not, for the sake of my family. But let us sit down now, and eat and drink and be merry.

  GREGERS

  Shall we not wait for your father?

  HIALMAR

  No, his lunch will be taken in to him later. Come along!

  [The men seat themselves at table, and eat and drink. GINA and HED

  VIG go in and out and wait upon them.]

  RELLING

  Molvik was frightfully screwed yesterday, Mrs. Ekdal.

  GINA

  Really? Yesterday again?

  RELLING

  Didn’t you hear him when I brought him home last night.

  GINA

  No, I can’t say I did.

  RELLING

  That was a good thing, for Molvik was disgusting last night.

  GINA

  Is that true, Molvik?

  MOLVIK

  Let us draw a veil over last night’s proceedings. That sort of thing is totally foreign to my better self.

  RELLING [To GREGERS.]

  It comes over him like a sort of possession, and then I have to go out on the loose with him. Mr. Molvik is dæmonic, you see.

  GREGERS

  Dæmonic?

  RELLING

  Molvik is dæmonic, yes.

  GREGERS

  H’m.

  RELLING

  And dæmonic natures are not made to walk straight through the world; they must meander a little now and then.—Well, so you still stick up there at those horrible grimy works?

  GREGERS

  I have stuck there until now.

  RELLING

  And did you ever manage to collect that claim you went about presenting?

  GREGERS

  Claim?

  [Understands him.]

  Ah, I see.

  HIALMAR

  Have you been presenting claims, Gregers?

  GREGERS

  Oh, nonsense.

  RELLING

  Faith, but he has, though! He went round to all the cottars’ cabins presenting something he called “the claim of the ideal.”

  GREGERS

  I was young then.

  RELLING

  You’re right; you were very young. And as for the claim of the ideal—you never got it honoured while I was up there.

  GREGERS

  Nor since either.

  RELLING

  Ah, then you’ve learnt to knock a little discount off, I expect.

  GREGERS

  Never, when I have a true man to deal with.

  HIALMAR

  No, I should think not, indeed. A little butter, Gina.

  RELLING

  And a slice of bacon for Molvik.

  MOLVIK

  Ugh! not bacon!

  [A knock at the garret door.]

  HIALMAR

  Open the door, Hedvig; father wants to come out.

  [HEDVIG goes over and opens the door a little way; EKDAL enters with a fresh rabbit-skin; she closes the door after him.]

  EKDAL

  Good morning, gentlemen! Good sport to-day. Shot a big one.

  HIALMAR

  And you’ve gone and skinned it without waiting for me——!

  EKDAL

  Salted it too. It’s good tender meat, is rabbit; it’s sweet; it tastes like sugar. Good appetite to you, gentlemen!

  [Goes into his room.]

  MOLVIK [Rising.]

  Excuse me——; I can’t——; I must get downstairs immediately——

  RELLING

  Drink some soda water, man!

  MOLVIK [Hurrying away.]

  Ugh—ugh!

  [Goes out by the passage door.]

  RELLING [To HIALMAR.]

  Let us drain a glass to the old hunter.

  HIALMAR [Clinks glasses with him.]

  To the undaunted sportsman who has looked death in the face!

  RELLING

  To the grey-haired——

  [Drinks.]

  By-the-bye, is his hair grey or white?

  HIALMAR

  Something between the two, I fancy; for that matter, he has very few hairs left of any colour.

  RELLING

  Well well, one can get through the world with a wig. After all, you are a happy man, Ekdal; you have your noble mission to labour for——

  HIALMAR

  And I do labour, I can tell you.

  RELLING

  And then you have your excellent wife, shuffling quietly in and out in her felt slippers, with that see-saw walk of hers, and making everything cosy and comfortable about you.

  HIALMAR

  Yes, Gina—

  [Nods to her.]

  —you are a good helpmate on the path of life.

  GINA

  Oh, don’t sit there cricketizing me.

  RELLING

  And your Hedvig too, Ekdal!

  HIALMAR [Affected.]

  The child, yes! The child before everything! Hedvig, come here

  to me.

  [Strokes her hair.]

  What day is it to-morrow, eh?

  HEDVIG [Shaking him.]

  Oh no, you’re not to say anything, father!

  HIALMAR

  It cuts me to the heart when I think what a poor affair it will be; only a little festivity in the garret——

  HEDVIG

  Oh, but that’s just what I like!

  RELLING

  Just you wait till the wonderful invention sees the light, Hedvig!

  HIALMAR

  Yes indeed—then you shall see——! Hedvig, I have resolved to make your future secure. You shall live in comfort all your days. I will demand—something or other—on your behalf. That shall be the poor inventor’s sole reward.

  HEDVIG [Whispering, with her arms round his neck.]

  Oh you dear, kind father!

  RELLING [To GREGERS.]

  Come now, don’t you find it pleasant, for once in a way, to sit at a well-spread table in a happy family circle?

  HIALMAR

  Ah yes, I really prize these social hours.

  GREGERS

  For my part, I don’t thrive in marsh vapours.

  RELLING

  Marsh vapours?

  HIALMAR

  Oh, don’t begin with that stuff again!

  GINA

  Goodness knows there’s no vapours in this house, Mr. Werle; I give the place a good airing every blessed day.

  GREGERS [Leaves the table.]

  No airing you can give will drive out the taint I mean.

  HIALMAR

  Taint!

  GINA

  Yes, what do you say to that, Ekdal!

  RELLING

  Excuse me—may it not be you yourself that have brought the taint from those mines up there?

  GREGERS

  It is like you to call what I bring into this house a taint.

  RELLING [Goes up to him.]

  Look here, Mr Werle, junior: I have a strong suspicion that you are still carrying about that “claim of the ideal” large as life, in your coat-tail pocket.

  GREGERS

  I carry it in my breast.

  RELLING

  Well, wherever you carry it, I advise you not to come dunning us with it here, so long as I am on the premises.

  GREGERS

  And if I do so none the less?

  RELLING

  Then you’ll go head-foremost down the stairs; now I’ve warned you.

  HIALMAR [Rising.]

  Oh, but Relling——!

  GREGERS

  Yes, you may turn me out——

  GINA [Interposing between them.]

  We can’t have that, Relling. But I must say, Mr. Werle, it ill becomes you to talk about vapours and taints, after all the mess you made with your stove. [A knock at the passage door.]

  HEDVIG

  Mother, there’s somebody knocking.

  HIALMAR

  There now, we’re going to have a whole lot of people!

  GINA

  I’ll go——

  [Goes over and opens the door, starts, and draws back.]

  Oh—oh dear!

  WERLE, in a fur coat, advances one step into the room.

  WERLE

  Excuse me; but I think my son is staying here.

  GINA [With a gulp.]

  Yes.

  HIALMAR [Approaching him.]

  Won’t you do us the honour to——?

  WERLE

  Thank you, I merely wish to speak to my son.

  GREGERS

  What is it? Here I am.

  WERLE

  I want a few words with you, in your room.

  GREGERS

  In my room? Very well——

  [About to go.]

  GINA

  No, no, your room’s not in a fit state——

  WERLE

  Well then, out in the passage here; I want to have a few words with you alone.

  HIALMAR

  You can have them here, sir. Come into the parlour, Relling. [HIALMAR and RELLING go off to the right. GINA takes HEDVIG with her into the kitchen.]

  GREGERS [After a short pause.]

  Well, now we are alone.

  WERLE

  From something you let fall last evening, and from your coming to lodge with the Ekdals, I can’t help inferring that you intend to make yourself unpleasant to me, in one way or another.

  GREGERS

  I intend to open Hialmar Ekdal’s eyes. He shall see his position as it really is—that is all.

  WERLE

  Is that the mission in life you spoke of yesterday?

  GREGERS

  Yes. You have left me no other.

  WERLE

  Is it I, then, that have crippled your mind, Gregers?

  GREGERS

  You have crippled my whole life. I am not thinking of all that about mother——But it’s thanks to you that I am continually haunted and harassed by a guilty conscience.

  WERLE

  Indeed! It is your conscience that troubles you, is it?

  GREGERS

  I ought to have taken a stand against you when the trap was set for Lieutenant Ekdal. I ought to have cautioned him; for I had a misgiving as to what was in the wind.

  WERLE

  Yes, that was the time to have spoken.

  GREGERS

  I did not dare to, I was so cowed and spiritless. I was mortally afraid of you—not only then, but long afterwards.

  WERLE

  You have got over that fear now, it appears.

  GREGERS

  Yes, fortunately. The wrong done to old Ekdal, both by me and by—others, can never be undone; but Hialmar I can rescue from all the falsehood and deception that are bringing him to ruin.

  WERLE

  Do you think that will be doing him a kindness?

  GREGERS

  I have not the least doubt of it.

  WERLE

  You think our worthy photographer is the sort of man to appreciate such friendly offices?

  GREGERS

  Yes, I do.

  WERLE

  H’m—we shall see.

  GREGERS

  Besides, if I am to go on living, I must try to find some cure for my sick conscience.

  WERLE

  It will never be sound. Your conscience has been sickly from childhood. That is a legacy from your mother, Gregers—the only one she left you.

  GREGERS [With a scornful half-smile.]

  Have you not yet forgiven her for the mistake you made in supposing she would bring you a fortune?

  WERLE

  Don’t let us wander from the point.—Then you hold to your purpose of setting young Ekdal upon what you imagine to be the right scent?

  GREGERS

  Yes, that is my fixed resolve.

  WERLE

  Well, in that case I might have spared myself this visit; for of course it is useless to ask whether you will return home with me?

  GREGERS

  Quite useless.

  WERLE

  And I suppose you won’t enter the firm either?

  GREGERS

  No.

  WERLE

  Very good. But as I am thinking of marrying again, your share in the property will fall to you at once.140

  GREGERS [Quickly.]

  No, I do not want that.

  WERLE

  You don’t want it?

  GREGERS

  No, I dare not take it, for conscience’ sake.

  WERLE [After a pause.]

  Are you going up to the works again?

  GREGERS

  No; I consider myself released from your service.

  WERLE

  But what are you going to do?

  GREGERS

  Only to fulfil my mission; nothing more.

  WERLE

  Well, but afterwards? What are you going to live upon?

  GREGERS

  I have laid by a little out of my salary.

  WERLE

  How long will that last?

  GREGERS

  I think it will last my time.

  WERLE

  What do you mean?

  GREGERS

  I shall answer no more questions.

  WERLE

  Good-bye then, Gregers.

  GREGERS

  Good-bye.

  [WERLE goes.]

  HIALMAR [Peeping in.]

  He’s gone, isn’t he?

  GREGERS

  Yes.

  HIALMAR and RELLING enter; also GINA and HEDVIG from the kitchen.

  RELLING

  That luncheon-party was a failure.

  GREGERS

  Put on your coat, Hialmar; I want you to come for a long walk with me.

  HIALMAR

  With pleasure. What was it your father wanted? Had it anything to do with me?

  GREGERS

  Come along. We must have a talk. I’ll go and put on my

  overcoat.

  [Goes out by the passage door.]

  GINA

  You shouldn’t go out with him, Ekdal.

  RELLING

  No, don’t you do it. Stay where you are.

  HIALMAR [Gets his hat and overcoat.]

  Oh, nonsense! When a friend of my youth feels impelled to open his mind to me in private——

  RELLING

  But devil take it—don’t you see that the fellow’s mad, cracked, demented!

  GINA

  There, what did I tell you! His mother before him had crazy fits like that sometimes.

  HIALMAR

  The more need for a friend’s watchful eye.

  [To GINA.]

  Be sure you have dinner ready in good time. Good-bye for the

  present.

  [Goes out by the passage door.]

  RELLING

  It’s a thousand pities the fellow didn’t go to hell through one of the Höidal mines.

  GINA

  Good Lord! what makes you say that?

  RELLING [Muttering.]

  Oh, I have my own reasons.

  GINA

  Do you think young Werle is really mad?

  RELLING

  No, worse luck; he’s no madder than most other people. But one disease he has certainly got in his system.

  GINA

  What is it that’s the matter with him?

  RELLING

  Well, I’ll tell you, Mrs. Ekdal. He is suffering from an acute attack of integrity.

  GINA

  Integrity?

  HEDVIG

  Is that a kind of disease?

  RELLING

  Yes, it’s a national disease; but it only appears sporadically.

  [Nods to GINA.]

  Thanks for your hospitality.

  [He goes out by the passage door.]

  GINA [Moving restlessly to and fro.]

  Ugh, that Gregers Werle—he was always a wretched creature.

  HEDVIG [Standing by the table, and looking searchingly at her.]