RELLING [To GREGERS.]

  Is it rude to ask what you really want in this house?

  GREGERS

  To lay the foundations of a true marriage.

  RELLING

  So you don’t think Ekdal’s marriage is good enough as it is?

  GREGERS

  No doubt it is as good a marriage as most others, worse luck. But a true marriage it has yet to become.

  HIALMAR

  You have never had eyes for the claims of the ideal, Relling.

  RELLING

  Rubbish, my boy!—But excuse me, Mr. Werle: how many—in round numbers—how many true marriages have you seen in the course of your life?

  GREGERS

  Scarcely a single one.

  RELLING

  Nor I either.

  GREGERS

  But I have seen innumerable marriages of the opposite kind. And it has been my fate to see at close quarters what ruin such a marriage can work in two human souls.

  HIALMAR

  A man’s whole moral basis may give away beneath his feet; that is the terrible part of it.

  RELLING

  Well, I can’t say I’ve ever been exactly married, so I don’t pretend to speak with authority. But this I know, that the child enters into the marriage problem. And you must leave the child in peace.

  HIALMAR

  Oh—Hedvig! my poor Hedvig!

  RELLING

  Yes, you must be good enough to keep Hedvig outside of all this. You two are grown-up people; you are free, in God’s name, to make what mess and muddle you please of your life. But you must deal cautiously with Hedvig, I tell you; else you may do her a great injury.

  HIALMAR

  An injury!

  RELLING

  Yes, or she may do herself an injury—and perhaps others too.

  GINA

  How can you know that, Relling?

  HIALMAR

  Her sight is in no immediate danger, is it?

  RELLING

  I am not talking about her sight. Hedvig is at a critical age. She may be getting all sorts of mischief into her head.

  GINA

  That’s true—I’ve noticed it already! She’s taken to carrying on with the fire, out in the kitchen. She calls it playing at house-on-fire. I’m often scared for fear she really sets fire to the house.

  RELLING

  You see; I thought as much.

  GREGERS [To RELLING.]

  But how do you account for that?

  RELLING [Sullenly.]

  Her constitution’s changing, sir.

  HIALMAR

  So long as the child has me——! So long as I am above

  ground——!

  [A knock at the door.]

  GINA

  Hush, Ekdal; there’s some one in the passage.

  [Calls out.]

  Come in!

  [MRS. SÖRBY, in walking dress, comes in.]

  MRS. SÖRBY

  Good evening.

  GINA [Going towards her.]

  Is it really you, Bertha?

  MRS. SÖRBY

  Yes, of course it is. But I’m disturbing you, I’m afraid?

  HIALMAR

  No, not at all; an emissary from that house——

  MRS. SÖRBY [To GINA.]

  To tell the truth, I hoped your men-folk would be out at this time. I just ran up to have a little chat with you, and to say good-bye.

  GINA

  Good-bye? Are you going away, then?

  MRS. SÖRBY

  Yes, to-morrow morning,—up to Höidal. Mr. Werle started this

  afternoon.

  [Lightly to GREGERS.]

  He asked me to say good-bye for him.

  GINA

  Only fancy——!

  HIALMAR

  So Mr. Werle has gone? And now you are going after him?

  MRS. SÖRBY

  Yes, what do you say to that, Ekdal?

  HIALMAR

  I say: beware!

  GREGERS

  I must explain the situation. My father and Mrs. Sörby are going to be married.

  HIALMAR

  Going to be married!

  GINA

  Oh Bertha! So it’s come to that at last!

  RELLING [His voice quivering a little.]

  This is surely not true?

  MRS. SÖRBY

  Yes, my dear Relling, it’s true enough.

  RELLING

  You are going to marry again?

  MRS. SÖRBY

  Yes, it looks like it. Werle has got a special licence, and we are going to be married quite quietly, up at the works.

  GREGERS

  Then I must wish you all happiness, like a dutiful stepson.

  MRS. SÖRBY

  Thank you very much—if you mean what you say. I certainly hope it will lead to happiness, both for Werle and for me.

  RELLING

  You have every reason to hope that. Mr. Werle never gets drunk—so far as I know; and I don’t suppose he’s in the habit of thrashing his wives, like the late lamented horse-doctor.

  MRS. SÖRBY

  Come, now, let Sörby rest in peace. He had his good points too.

  RELLING

  Mr. Werle has better ones, I have no doubt.

  MRS. SÖRBY

  He hasn’t frittered away all that was good in him, at any rate. The man who does that must take the consequences.

  RELLING

  I shall go out with Molvik this evening.

  MRS. SÖRBY

  You mustn’t do that, Relling. Don’t do it—for my sake.

  RELLING

  There’s nothing else for it.

  [To HIALMAR.]

  If you’re going with us, come along.

  GINA

  No, thank you. Ekdal doesn’t go in for that sort of dissertation.

  HIALMAR [Half aloud, in vexation.]

  Oh, do hold your tongue!

  RELLING

  Good-bye, Mrs.—Werle.

  [Goes out through the passage door.]

  GREGERS [To MRS. SÖRBY.]

  You seem to know Dr. Relling pretty intimately.

  MRS. SÖRBY

  Yes, we have known each other for many years. At one time it seemed as if things might have gone further between us.

  GREGERS

  It was surely lucky for you that they did not.

  MRS. SÖRBY

  You may well say that. But I have always been wary of acting on impulse. A woman can’t afford absolutely to throw herself away.

  GREGERS

  Are you not in the least afraid that I may let my father know about this old friendship?

  MRS. SÖRBY

  Why, of course I have told him all about it myself.

  GREGERS

  Indeed?

  MRS. SÖRBY

  Your father knows every single thing that can, with any truth, be said about me. I have told him all; it was the first thing I did when I saw what was in his mind.

  GREGERS

  Then you have been franker than most people, I think.

  MRS. SÖRBY

  I have always been frank. We women find that the best policy.

  HIALMAR

  What do you say to that, Gina?

  GINA

  Oh, we’re not all alike, us women aren’t. Some are made one way, some another.

  MRS. SÖRBY

  Well, for my part, Gina, I believe it’s wisest to do as I’ve done. And Werle has no secrets either, on his side. That’s really the great bond between us, you see. Now he can talk to me as openly as a child. He has never had the chance to do that before. Fancy a man like him, full of health and vigour, passing his whole youth and the best years of his life in listening to nothing but penitential sermons! And very often the sermons had for their text the most imaginary offences—at least so I understand.

  GINA

  That’s true enough.

  GREGERS

  If you ladies are going to follow up this topic, I had better withdraw.

  MRS. SÖRBY

  You can stay so far as that’s concerned. I shan’t say a word more. But I wanted you to know that I had done nothing secretly or in an underhand way. I may seem to have come in for a great piece of luck; and so I have, in a sense. But after all, I don’t think I am getting any more than I am giving. I shall stand by him always, and I can tend and care for him as no one else can, now that he is getting helpless.

  HIALMAR

  Getting helpless?

  GREGERS [To MRS. SÖRBY.]

  Hush, don’t speak of that here.

  MRS. SÖRBY

  There is no disguising it any longer, however much he would like to. He is going blind.

  HIALMAR [Starts.]

  Going blind? That’s strange. He too going blind!

  GINA

  Lots of people do.

  MRS. SÖRBY

  And you can imagine what that means to a business man. Well, I shall try as well as I can to make my eyes take the place of his. But I musn’t stay any longer; I have such heaps of things to do.—Oh, by-the-bye, Ekdal, I was to tell you that if there is anything Werle can do for you, you must just apply to Gråberg.

  GREGERS

  That offer I am sure Hialmar Ekdal will decline with thanks.

  MRS. SÖRBY

  Indeed? I don’t think he used to be so——

  GINA

  No, Bertha, Ekdal doesn’t need anything from Mr. Werle now.

  HIALMAR [Slowly, and with emphasis.]

  Will you present my compliments to your future husband, and say that I intend very shortly to call upon Mr. Gråberg——

  GREGERS

  What! You don’t really mean that?

  HIALMAR

  To call upon Mr. Gråberg, I say, and obtain an account of the sum I owe his principal. I will pay that debt of honour—ha ha ha! a debt of honour, let us call it! In any case, I will pay the whole with five per cent interest.

  GINA

  But, my dear Ekdal, God knows we haven’t got the money to do it.

  HIALMAR

  Be good enough to tell your future husband that I am working assiduously at my invention. Please tell him that what sustains me in this laborious task is the wish to free myself from a torturing burden of debt. That is my reason for proceeding with the invention. The entire profits shall be devoted to releasing me from my pecuniary obligations to your future husband.

  MRS. SÖRBY

  Something has happened here.

  HIALMAR

  Yes, you are right.

  MRS. SÖRBY

  Well, good-bye. I had something else to speak to you about, Gina; but it must keep till another time. Good-bye. [HIALMAR and GREGERS bow silently. GINA follows MRS. SÖRBY to the door.]

  HIALMAR

  Not beyond the threshold, Gina! [MRS. SÖRBY goes; GINA shuts the door after her.]

  HIALMAR

  There now, Gregers; I have got that burden of debt off my mind.

  GREGERS

  You soon will, at all events.

  HIALMAR

  I think my attitude may be called correct.

  GREGERS

  You are the man I have always taken you for.

  HIALMAR

  In certain cases, it is impossible to disregard the claim of the ideal. Yet, as the breadwinner of a family, I cannot but writhe and groan under it. I can tell you it is no joke for a man without capital to attempt the repayment of a long-standing obligation, over which, so to speak, the dust of oblivion had gathered. But it cannot be helped: the Man in me demands his rights.

  GREGERS [Laying his hand on HIALMAR’s shoulder.]

  My dear Hialmar—was it not a good thing I came?

  HIALMAR

  Yes.

  GREGERS

  Are you not glad to have had your true position made clear to you?

  HIALMAR [Somewhat impatiently.]

  Yes, of course I am. But there is one thing that is revolting to my sense of justice.

  GREGERS

  And what is that?

  HIALMAR

  It is that—but I don’t know whether I ought to express myself so unreservedly about your father.

  GREGERS

  Say what you please, so far as I am concerned.

  HIALMAR

  Well then, is it not exasperating to think that it is not I, but he, who will realise the true marriage?

  GREGERS

  How can you say such a thing?

  HIALMAR

  And yet, after all, I cannot but recognise the guiding finger of fate. He is going blind.

  GINA

  Oh, you can’t be sure of that.

  HIALMAR

  There is no doubt about it. At all events there ought not to be; for in that very fact lies the righteous retribution. He has hoodwinked a confiding fellow creature in days gone by——

  GREGERS

  I fear he has hoodwinked many.

  HIALMAR

  And now comes inexorable, mysterious Fate, and demands Werle’s own eyes.

  GINA

  Oh, how dare you say such dreadful things! You make me quite scared.

  HIALMAR

  It is profitable, now and then, to plunge deep into the night side of existence.

  HEDVIG, in her hat and cloak, comes in by the passage door. She is pleasurably excited, and out of breath.

  GINA

  Are you back already?

  HEDVIG

  Yes, I didn’t care to go any farther. It was a good thing, too; for I’ve just met some one at the door.

  HIALMAR

  It must have been that Mrs. Sörby.

  HEDVIG

  Yes.

  HIALMAR [Walks up and down.]

  I hope you have seen her for the last time. [Silence. HEDVIG, discouraged, looks first at one and then at the other, trying to divine their frame of mind.]

  HEDVIG [Approaching, coaxingly.]

  Father.

  HIALMAR

  Well—what is it, Hedvig?

  HEDVIG

  Mrs. Sörby had something with her for me.

  HIALMAR [Stops.]

  For you?

  HEDVIG

  Yes. Something for to-morrow.

  GINA

  Bertha has always given you some little thing on your birthday.

  HIALMAR

  What is it?

  HEDVIG

  Oh, you mustn’t see it now. Mother is to give it to me to morrow morning before I’m up.

  HIALMAR

  What is all this hocus-pocus that I am to be kept in the dark about!

  HEDVIG [Quickly.]

  Oh no, you may see it if you like. It’s a big letter. [Takes the letter out of her cloak pocket.]

  HIALMAR

  A letter too?

  HEDVIG

  Yes, it is only a letter. The rest will come afterwards, I suppose.

  But fancy—a letter! I’ve never had a letter before. And there’s

  “Miss” written upon it.

  [Reads.]

  “Miss Hedvig Ekdal.” Only fancy—that’s me!

  HIALMAR

  Let me see that letter.

  HEDVIG [Hands it to him.]

  There it is.

  HIALMAR

  That is Mr. Werle’s hand.

  GINA

  Are you sure of that, Ekdal?

  HIALMAR

  Look for yourself.

  GINA

  Oh, what do I know about such-like things?

  HIALMAR

  Hedvig, may I open the letter—and read it?

  HEDVIG

  Yes, of course you may, if you want to.

  GINA

  No, not to-night, Ekdal; it’s to be kept till to-morrow.

  HEDVIG [Softly.]

  Oh, can’t you let him read it! It’s sure to be something good; and then father will be glad, and everything will be nice again.

  HIALMAR

  I may open it then?

  HEDVIG

  Yes do, father. I’m so anxious to know what it is.

  HIALMAR

  Well and good.

  [Opens the letter, takes out a paper, reads it through, and appears bewil

  dered.]

  What is this——!

  GINA

  What does it say?

  HEDVIG

  Oh yes, father—tell us!

  HIALMAR

  Be quiet.

  [Reads it through again; he has turned pale, but says with self-control:]

  It is a deed of gift, Hedvig.

  HEDVIG

  Is it? What sort of gift am I to have?

  HIALMAR

  Read for yourself.

  [HEDVIG goes over and reads for a time by the lamp.]

  HIALMAR [Half-aloud, clenching his hands.]

  The eyes! The eyes—and then that letter!