HEDVIG [Leaves off reading.]

  Yes, but it seems to me that it’s grandfather that’s to have it.

  HIALMAR [Takes the letter from her.]

  Gina—can you understand this?

  GINA

  I know nothing whatever about it; tell me what’s the matter.

  HIALMAR

  Mr. Werle writes to Hedvig that her old grandfather need not trouble himself any longer with the copying, but that he can henceforth draw on the office for a hundred crowns a month——

  GREGERS

  Aha!

  HEDVIG

  A hundred crowns, mother! I read that.

  GINA

  What a good thing for grandfather!

  HIALMAR

  ——a hundred crowns a month so long as he needs it—that means, of course, so long as he lives.

  GINA

  Well, so he’s provided for, poor dear.

  HIALMAR

  But there is more to come. You didn’t read that, Hedvig. Afterwards this gift is to pass on to you.

  HEDVIG

  To me! The whole of it?

  HIALMAR

  He says that the same amount is assured to you for the whole of your life. Do you hear that, Gina?

  GINA

  Yes, I hear.

  HEDVIG

  Fancy—all that money for me!

  [Shakes him.]

  Father, father, aren’t you glad——?

  HIALMAR [Eluding her.]

  Glad!

  [Walks about.]

  Oh what vistas—what perspectives open up before me! It is

  Hedvig, Hedvig that he showers these benefactions upon!

  GINA

  Yes, because it’s Hedvig’s birthday——

  HEDVIG

  And you’ll get it all the same, father! You know quite well I shall give all the money to you and mother.

  HIALMAR

  To mother, yes! There we have it.

  GREGERS

  Hialmar, this is a trap he is setting for you.

  HIALMAR

  Do you think it’s another trap?

  GREGERS

  When he was here this morning he said: Hialmar Ekdal is not the man you imagine him to be.

  HIALMAR

  Not the man——!

  GREGERS

  That you shall see, he said.

  HIALMAR

  He meant you should see that I would let myself be bought off——!

  HEDVIG

  Oh mother, what does all this mean?

  GINA

  Go and take off your things. [HEDVIG goes out by the kitchen door, half-crying.]

  GREGERS

  Yes, Hialmar—now is the time to show who was right, he or I.

  HIALMAR [Slowly tears the paper across, lays both pieces on the table, and says:]

  Here is my answer.

  GREGERS

  Just what I expected.

  HIALMAR [Goes over to GINA, who stands by the stove, and says in a low voice:]

  Now please make a clean breast of it. If the connection between you and him was quite over when you—came to care for me, as you call it—why did he place us in a position to marry?

  GINA

  I suppose he thought as he could come and go in our house.

  HIALMAR

  Only that? Was not he afraid of a possible contingency?

  GINA

  I don’t know what you mean.

  HIALMAR

  I want to know whether—your child has the right to live under my roof.

  GINA [Draws herself up; her eyes flash.]

  You ask that!

  HIALMAR

  You shall answer me this one question: Does Hedvig belong to me—or——? Well!

  GINA [Looking at him with cold defiance.]

  I don’t know.

  HIALMAR [Quivering a little.]

  You don’t know!

  GINA

  How should I know? A creature like me——

  HIALMAR [Quietly turning away from her.]

  Then I have nothing more to do in this house.

  GREGERS

  Take care, Hialmar! Think what you are doing!

  HIALMAR [Puts on his overcoat.]

  In this case, there is nothing for a man like me to think twice about.

  GREGERS

  Yes indeed, there are endless things to be considered. You three must be together if you are to attain the true frame of mind for self-sacrifice and forgiveness.

  HIALMAR

  I don’t want to attain it. Never, never! My hat!

  [Takes his hat.]

  My home has fallen in ruins about me.

  [Bursts into tears.]

  Gregers, I have no child!

  HEDVIG [Who has opened the kitchen door.]

  What is that you’re saying?

  [Coming to him.]

  Father, father!

  GINA

  There, you see!

  HIALMAR

  Don’t come near me, Hedvig! Keep far away. I cannot bear to

  see you. Oh! those eyes——! Good-bye.

  [Makes for the door.]

  HEDVIG [Clinging close to him and screaming loudly.]

  No! no! Don’t leave me!

  GINA [Cries out.]

  Look at the child, Ekdal! Look at the child!

  HIALMAR

  I will not! I cannot! I must get out—away from all this! [He tears himself away from HEDVIG, and goes out by the passage door.]

  HEDVIG [With despairing eyes.]

  He is going away from us, mother! He is going away from us! He will never come back again!

  GINA

  Don’t cry, Hedvig. Father’s sure to come back again.

  HEDVIG [Throws herself sobbing on the sofa.]

  No, no, he’ll never come home to us any more.

  GREGERS

  Do you believe I meant all for the best, Mrs. Ekdal?

  GINA

  Yes, I daresay you did; but God forgive you, all the same.

  HEDVIG [Lying on the sofa.]

  Oh, this will kill me! What have I done to him? Mother, you must fetch him home again!

  GINA

  Yes yes yes; only be quiet, and I’ll go out and look for him.

  [Puts on her outdoor things.]

  Perhaps he’s gone in to Relling’s. But you mustn’t lie there and

  cry. Promise me!

  HEDVIG [Weeping convulsively.]

  Yes, I’ll stop, I’ll stop; if only father comes back!

  GREGERS [To GINA, who is going.]

  After all, had you not better leave him to fight out his bitter fight to the end?

  GINA

  Oh, he can do that afterwards. First of all, we must get the child

  quieted.

  [Goes out by the passage door.]

  HEDVIG [Sits up and dries her tears.]

  Now you must tell me what all this means. Why doesn’t father want me any more?

  GREGERS

  You mustn’t ask that till you are a big girl—quite grown-up.

  HEDVIG [Sobs.]

  But I can’t go on being as miserable as this till I’m grown-up.—I think I know what it is.—Perhaps I’m not really father’s child.

  GREGERS [Uneasily.]

  How could that be?

  HEDVIG

  Mother might have found me. And perhaps father has just got to know it; I’ve read of such things.

  GREGERS

  Well, but if it were so——

  HEDVIG

  I think he might be just as fond of me for all that. Yes, fonder almost. We got the wild duck in a present, you know, and I love it so dearly all the same.

  GREGERS [Turning the conversation.]

  Ah, the wild duck, by-the-bye! Let us talk about the wild duck a little, Hedvig.

  HEDVIG

  The poor wild duck! He doesn’t want to see it any more either. Only think, he wanted to wring its neck!

  GREGERS

  Oh, he won’t do that.

  HEDVIG

  No; but he said he would like to. And I think it was horrid of father to say it; for I pray for the wild duck every night, and ask that it may be preserved from death and all that is evil.

  GREGERS [Looking at her.]

  Do you say your prayers every night?

  HEDVIG

  Yes.

  GREGERS

  Who taught you to do that?

  HEDVIG

  I myself; one time when father was very ill, and had leeches on his neck, and said that death was staring him in the face.

  GREGERS

  Well?

  HEDVIG

  Then I prayed for him as I lay in bed; and since then I have always kept it up.

  GREGERS

  And now you pray for the wild duck too?

  HEDVIG

  I thought it was best to bring in the wild duck; for she was so weakly at first.

  GREGERS

  Do you pray in the morning, too?

  HEDVIG

  No, of course not.

  GREGERS

  Why not in the morning as well?

  HEDVIG

  In the morning it’s light, you know, and there’s nothing in particular to be afraid of.

  GREGERS

  And your father was going to wring the neck of the wild duck that you love so dearly?

  HEDVIG

  No; he said he ought to wring its neck, but he would spare it for my sake; and that was kind of father.

  GREGERS [Coming a little nearer.]

  But suppose you were to sacrifice the wild duck of your own free will for his sake.

  HEDVIG [Rising.]

  The wild duck!

  GREGERS

  Suppose you were to make a free-will offering, for his sake, of the dearest treasure you have in the world!

  HEDVIG

  Do you think that would do any good?

  GREGERS

  Try it, Hedvig.

  HEDVIG [Softly, with flashing eyes.]

  Yes, I will try it.

  GREGERS

  Have you really the courage for it, do you think?

  HEDVIG

  I’ll ask grandfather to shoot the wild duck for me.

  GREGERS

  Yes, do. But not a word to your mother about it.

  HEDVIG

  Why not?

  GREGERS

  She doesn’t understand us.

  HEDVIG

  The wild duck! I’ll try it to-morrow morning.

  [GINA comes in by the passage door.]

  HEDVIG [Going towards her.]

  Did you find him, mother?

  GINA

  No, but I heard as he had called and taken Relling with him.

  GREGERS

  Are you sure of that?

  GINA

  Yes, the porter’s wife said so. Molvik went with them too, she said.

  GREGERS

  This evening, when his mind so sorely needs to wrestle in solitude——!

  GINA [Takes off her things.]

  Yes, men are strange creatures, so they are. The Lord only knows where Relling has dragged him to! I ran over to Madam Eriksen’s, but they weren’t there.

  HEDVIG [Struggling to keep back her tears.]

  Oh, if he should never come home any more!

  GREGERS

  He will come home again. I shall have news to give him to-morrow; and then you shall see how he comes home. You may rely upon that, Hedvig, and sleep in peace. Good-night.

  [He goes out by the passage door.]

  HEDVIG [Throws herself sobbing on GINA’s neck.]

  Mother, mother!

  GINA [Pats her shoulder and sighs.]

  Ah yes; Relling was right, he was. That’s what comes of it when crazy creatures go about presenting the claims of the—what-you-may-call-it.

  ACT FIFTH

  HIALMAR EKDAL’s studio. Cold, grey, morning light.Wet snow lies upon the large panes of the sloping roof-window.

  GINA comes from the kitchen with an apron and bib on, and carrying a dusting-brush and a duster; she goes towards the sitting-room door. At the same moment HEDVIG comes hurriedly in from the passage.

  GINA [Stops.]

  Well?

  HEDVIG

  Oh, mother, I almost think he’s down at Relling’s——

  GINA

  There, you see!

  HEDVIG

  ——because the porter’s wife says she could hear that Relling had two people with him when he came home last night.

  GINA

  That’s just what I thought.

  HEDVIG

  But it’s no use his being there, if he won’t come up to us.

  GINA

  I’ll go down and speak to him at all events.

  OLD EKDAL, in dressing-gown and slippers, and with a lighted pipe, appears at the door of his room.

  EKDAL

  Hialmar——Isn’t Hialmar at home?

  GINA

  No, he’s gone out.

  EKDAL

  So early? And in such a tearing snowstorm? Well well; just as he pleases; I can take my morning walk alone.

  [He slides the garret door aside; HEDVIG helps him; he goes in; she closes it after him.]

  HEDVIG [In an undertone.]

  Only think, mother, when poor grandfather hears that father is going to leave us.

  GINA

  Oh, nonsense; grandfather mustn’t hear anything about it. It was a heaven’s mercy he wasn’t at home yesterday in all that burly-burly.

  HEDVIG

  Yes, but——

  [GREGERS comes in by the passage door.]

  GREGERS

  Well, have you any news of him?

  GINA

  They say he’s down at Relling’s.

  GREGERS

  At Relling’s! Has he really been out with those creatures?

  GINA

  Yes, like enough.

  GREGERS

  When he ought to have been yearning for solitude, to collect and clear his thoughts——

  GINA

  Yes, you may well say so.

  RELLING enters from the passage.

  HEDVIG [Going to him.]

  Is father in your room?

  GINA [At the same time.]

  Is he there?

  RELLING

  Yes, to be sure he is.

  HEDVIG

  And you never let us know!

  RELLING

  Yes; I’m a brute. But in the first place I had to look after the other brute; I mean our dæmonic friend, of course; and then I fell so dead asleep that——

  GINA

  What does Ekdal say to-day?

  RELLING

  He says nothing whatever.

  HEDVIG

  Doesn’t he speak?

  RELLING

  Not a blessed word.

  GREGERS

  No no; I can understand that very well.

  GINA

  But what’s he doing then?

  RELLING

  He’s lying on the sofa, snoring.

  GINA

  Oh is he? Yes, Ekdal’s a rare one to snore.

  HEDVIG

  Asleep? Can he sleep?

  RELLING

  Well, it certainly looks like it.

  GREGERS

  No wonder, after the spiritual conflict that has rent him——

  GINA

  And then he’s never been used to gadding about out of doors at night.

  HEDVIG

  Perhaps it’s a good thing that he’s getting sleep, mother.

  GINA

  Of course it is; and we must take care we don’t wake him up too early. Thank you, Relling. I must get the house cleaned up a bit now, and then——Come and help me, Hedvig.

  [GINA and HEDVIG go into the sitting-room.]

  GREGERS [Turning to RELLING.]

  What is your explanation of the spiritual tumult that is now going on in Hialmar Ekdal?

  RELLING

  Devil a bit of a spiritual tumult have I noticed in him.

  GREGERS

  What! Not at such a crisis, when his whole life has been placed on a new foundation——? How can you think that such an individuality as Hialmar’s——?

  RELLING

  Oh, individuality—he! If he ever had any tendency to the abnormal developments you call individuality, I can assure you it was rooted out of him while he was still in his teens.

  GREGERS

  That would be strange indeed,—considering the loving care with which he was brought up.

  RELLING

  By those two high-flown, hysterical maiden aunts, you mean?