HIALMAR

  Oh those two brutes, those slaves of all the vices! A hat must be procured.

  [Takes another piece of bread and butter.]

  Some arrangement must be made. For I have no mind to throw away my life, either.

  [Looks for something on the tray.]

  GINA

  What are you looking for?

  HIALMAR

  Butter.

  GINA

  I’ll get some at once.

  [Goes out into the kitchen.]

  HIALMAR [Calls after her.]

  Oh it doesn’t matter; dry bread is good enough for me.

  GINA [Brings a dish of butter.]

  Look here; this is fresh churned.

  [She pours out another cup of coffee for him; he seats himself on the sqfa, spreads more butter on the already buttered bread, and eats and drinks awhile in silence.]

  HIALMAR

  Could I, without being subject to intrusion—intrusion of any sort—could I live in the sitting-room there for a day or two?

  GINA

  Yes, to be sure you could, if you only would.

  HIALMAR

  For I see no possibility of getting all father’s things out in such a hurry.

  GINA

  And besides, you’ve surely got to tell him first as you don’t mean to live with us others no more.

  HIALMAR [Pushes away his coffee cup.]

  Yes, there is that too; I shall have to lay bare the whole tangled story to him——. I must turn matters over; I must have breathing-time; I cannot take all these burdens on my shoulders in a single day.

  GINA

  No, especially in such horrible weather as it is outside.

  HIALMAR [Touching WERLE’s letter.]

  I see that paper is still lying about here.

  GINA

  Yes, I haven’t touched it.

  HIALMAR

  So far as I am concerned it is mere waste paper——

  GINA

  Well, I have certainly no notion of making any use of it.

  HIALMAR

  ——but we had better not let it get lost all the same;—in all the upset when I move, it might easily——

  GINA

  I’ll take good care of it, Ekdal.

  HIALMAR

  The donation is in the first instance made to father, and it rests with him to accept or decline it.

  GINA [Sighs.]

  Yes, poor old father——

  HIALMAR

  To make quite safe——Where shall I find some gum?

  GINA [Goes to the bookcase.]

  Here’s the gum-pot.

  HIALMAR

  And a brush?

  GINA

  The brush is here too.

  [Brings him the things.]

  HIALMAR [Takes a pair of scissors.]

  Just a strip of paper at the back——

  [Clips and gums.]

  Far be it from me to lay hands upon what is not my own—and least of all upon what belongs to a destitute old man—and to—the other as well.—There now. Let it lie there for a time; and when it is dry, take it away. I wish never to see that document again. Never!

  GREGERS WERLE enters from the passage.

  GREGERS [Somewhat surprised.]

  What,—are you sitting here, Hialmar?

  HIALMAR [Rises hurriedly.]

  I had sunk down from fatigue.

  GREGERS

  You have been having breakfast, I see.

  HIALMAR

  The body sometimes makes its claims felt too.

  GREGERS

  What have you decided to do?

  HIALMAR

  For a man like me, there is only one course possible. I am just putting my most important things together. But it takes time, you know.

  GINA [With a touch of impatience.]

  Am I to get the room ready for you, or am I to pack your portmanteau?

  HIALMAR [After a glance of annoyance at GREGERS.]

  Pack—and get the room ready!

  GINA [Takes the portmanteau.]

  Very well; then I’ll put in the shirt and the other things. [Goes into the sitting-room and draws the door to after her.]

  GREGERS [After a short silence.]

  I never dreamed that this would be the end of it. Do you really feel it a necessity to leave house and home?

  HIALMAR [Wanders about restlessly.]

  What would you have me do?—I am not fitted to bear unhappiness, Gregers. I must feel secure and at peace in my surroundings.

  GREGERS

  But can you not feel that here? Just try it. I should have thought you had firm ground to build upon now—if only you start afresh. And remember, you have your invention to live for.

  HIALMAR

  Oh don’t talk about my invention. It’s perhaps still in the dim distance.

  GREGERS

  Indeed.

  HIALMAR

  Why, great heavens, what would you have me invent? Other people have invented almost everything already. It becomes more and more difficult every day——

  GREGERS

  And you have devoted so much labour to it.

  HIALMAR

  It was that blackguard Relling that urged me to it.

  GREGERS

  Relling?

  HIALMAR

  Yes, it was he that first made me realise my aptitude for making some notable discovery in photography.

  GREGERS

  Aha—it was Relling!

  HIALMAR

  Oh, I have been so truly happy over it! Not so much for the sake of the invention itself, as because Hedvig believed in it—believed in it with a child’s whole eagerness of faith.—At least, I have been fool enough to go and imagine that she believed in it.

  GREGERS

  Can you really think that Hedvig has been false towards you?

  HIALMAR

  I can think anything now. It is Hedvig that stands in my way. She will blot out the sunlight from my whole life.

  GREGERS

  Hedvig! Is it Hedvig you are talking of? How should she blot out your sunlight?

  HIALMAR [Without answering.]

  How unutterably I have loved that child! How unutterably happy I have felt every time I came home to my humble room, and she flew to meet me, with her sweet little blinking eyes. Oh, confiding fool that I have been! I loved her unutterably;—and I yielded myself up to the dream, the delusion, that she loved me unutterably in return.

  GREGERS

  Do you call that a delusion?

  HIALMAR

  How should I know? I can get nothing out of Gina; and besides, she is totally blind to the ideal side of these complications. But to you I feel impelled to open my mind, Gregers. I cannot shake off this frightful doubt—perhaps Hedvig has never really and honestly loved me.

  GREGERS

  What would you say if she were to give you a proof of her love? [Listens.]

  What’s that? I thought I heard the wild duck——?

  HIALMAR

  It’s the wild duck quacking. Father’s in the garret.

  GREGERS

  Is he?

  [His face lights up with joy.]

  I say you may yet have proof that your poor misunderstood

  Hedvig loves you!

  HIALMAR

  Oh, what proof can she give me? I dare not believe in any assurances from that quarter.

  GREGERS

  Hedvig does not know what deceit means.

  HIALMAR

  Oh Gregers, that is just what I cannot be sure of. Who knows what Gina and that Mrs. Sörby may many a time have sat here whispering and tattling about? And Hedvig usually has her ears open, I can tell you. Perhaps the deed of gift was not such a surprise to her, after all. In fact, I’m not sure but that I noticed something of the sort.

  GREGERS

  What spirit is this that has taken possession of you?

  HIALMAR

  I have had my eyes opened. Just you notice;—you’ll see, the deed of gift is only a beginning. Mrs. Sörby has always been a good deal taken up with Hedvig; and now she has the power to do whatever she likes for the child. They can take her from me whenever they please.

  GREGERS

  Hedvig will never, never leave you.

  HIALMAR

  Don’t be so sure of that. If only they beckon to her and throw out a golden bait——! And oh! I have loved her so unspeakably! I would have counted it my highest happiness to take her tenderly by the hand and lead her, as one leads a timid child through a great dark empty room!—I am cruelly certain now that the poor photographer in his humble attic has never really and truly been anything to her. She has only cunningly contrived to keep on a good footing with him until the time came.

  GREGERS

  You don’t believe that yourself, Hialmar.

  HIALMAR

  That is just the terrible part of it—I don’t know what to believe,—I never can know it. But can you really doubt that it must be as I say? Ho-ho, you have far too much faith in the claim of the ideal, my good Gregers! If those others came, with the glamour of wealth about them, and called to the child:—“Leave him: come to us: here life awaits you——”

  GREGERS [Quickly.]

  Well, what then?

  HIALMAR

  If I then asked her: Hedvig, are you willing to renounce that life for me?

  [Laughs scornfully.]

  No thank you! You would soon hear what answer I should get. [A pistol shot is heard from within the garret.]

  GREGERS [Loudly and joyfully.]

  Hialmar!

  HIALMAR

  There now; he must needs go shooting too.

  GINA [Comes in.]

  Oh Ekdal, I can hear grandfather blazing away in the garret by hisself.

  HIALMAR

  I’ll look in——

  GREGERS [Eagerly, with emotion.]

  Wait a moment! Do you know what that was?

  HIALMAR

  Yes, of course I know.

  GREGERS

  No you don’t know. But I do. That was the proof!

  HIALMAR

  What proof?

  GREGERS

  It was a child’s free-will offering. She has got your father to shoot the wild duck.

  HIALMAR

  To shoot the wild duck!

  GINA

  Oh, think of that——!

  HIALMAR

  What was that for?

  GREGERS

  She wanted to sacrifice to you her most cherished possession; for then she thought you would surely come to love her again.

  HIALMAR [Tenderly, with emotion.]

  Oh, poor child!

  GINA

  What things she does think of!

  GREGERS

  She only wanted your love again, Hialmar. She could not live without it.

  GINA [Struggling with her tears.]

  There, you can see for yourself, Ekdal.

  HIALMAR

  Gina, where is she?

  GINA [Sniffs.]

  Poor dear, she’s sitting out in the kitchen, I dare say.

  HIALMAR [Goes over, tears open the kitchen door, and says:]

  Hedvig, come, come in to me!

  [Looks round.]

  No, she’s not here.

  GINA

  Then she must be in her own little room.

  HIALMAR [Without.]

  No, she’s not here either.

  [Comes in.]

  She must have gone out.

  GINA

  Yes, you wouldn’t have her anywheres in the house.

  HIALMAR

  Oh, if she would only come home quickly, so that I can tell her——Everything will come right now, Gregers; now I believe we can begin life afresh.

  GREGERS [Quietly.]

  I knew it; I knew the child would make amends.

  OLD EKDAL appears at the door of his room; he is in full uniform, and is busy buckling on his sword.

  HIALMAR [Astonished.]

  Father! Are you there?

  GINA

  Have you been firing in your room?

  EKDAL [Resentfully, approaching.]

  So you go shooting alone, do you, Hialmar?

  HIALMAR [Excited and confused.]

  Then it wasn’t you that fired that shot in the garret?

  EKDAL

  Me that fired? H’m.

  GREGERS [Calls out to HIALMAR.]

  She has shot the wild duck herself!

  HIALMAR

  What can it mean?

  [Hastens to the garret door, tears it aside, looks in and calls loudly:] Hedvig!

  GINA [Runs to the door.]

  Good God, what’s that!

  HIALMAR [Goes in.]

  She’s lying on the floor!

  GREGERS

  Hedvig! lying on the floor!

  [Goes in to HIALMAR.]

  GINA [At the same time.]

  Hedvig!

  [Inside the garret.]

  No, no, no!

  EKDAL

  Ho-ho! does she go shooting too, now?

  [HIALMAR, GINA, and GREGERS carry HEDVIG into the studio; in her dangling right hand she holds the pistol fast clasped in her fingers.]

  HIALMAR [Distracted.]

  The pistol has gone off. She has wounded herself. Call for help! Help!

  GINA [Runs into the passage and calls down.]

  Relling! Relling! Doctor Relling; come up as quick as you can! [HIALMAR and GREGERS lay HEDVIG down on the sofa.]

  EKDAL [Quietly.]

  The woods avenge themselves.

  HIALMAR [On his knees beside HEDVIG.]

  She’ll soon come to now. She’s coming to——; yes, yes, yes.

  GINA [Who has come in again.]

  Where has she hurt herself? I can’t see anything——

  [RELLING comes hurriedly, and immediately after him MOLVIK; the latter without his waistcoat and necktie, and with his coat open.]

  RELLING

  What’s the matter here?

  GINA

  They say Hedvig has shot herself.

  HIALMAR

  Come and help us!

  RELLING

  Shot herself!

  [He pushes the table aside and begins to examine her.]

  HIALMAR [Kneeling and looking anxiously up at him.]

  It can’t be dangerous? Speak, Relling! She is scarcely bleeding at all. It can’t be dangerous?

  RELLING

  How did it happen?

  HIALMAR

  Oh, we don’t know——!

  GINA

  She wanted to shoot the wild duck.

  RELLING

  The wild duck?

  HIALMAR

  The pistol must have gone off.

  RELLING

  H’m. Indeed.

  EKDAL

  The woods avenge themselves. But I’m not afraid, all the same. [Goes into the garret and closes the door after him.]

  HIALMAR

  Well, Relling,—why don’t you say something?

  RELLING

  The ball has entered the breast.

  HIALMAR

  Yes, but she’s coming to!

  RELLING

  Surely you can see that Hedvig is dead.

  GINA [Bursts into tears.]

  Oh my child, my child!

  GREGERS [Huskily.]

  In the depths of the sea——

  HIALMAR [ Jumps up.]

  No, no, she must live! Oh, for God’s sake, Relling—only a moment—only just till I can tell her how unspeakably I loved her all the time!

  RELLING

  The bullet has gone through her heart. Internal hemorrhage. Death must have been instantaneous.

  HIALMAR

  And I! I hunted her from me like an animal! And she crept terrified into the garret and died for love of me!

  [Sobbing.]

  I can never atone to her! I can never tell her——!

  [Clenches his hands and cries, upwards.]

  O thou above——! If thou be indeed! Why hast thou done this thing to me?

  GINA

  Hush, hush, you mustn’t go on that awful way. We had no right to keep her, I suppose.

  MOLVIK

  The child is not dead, but sleepeth.

  RELLING

  Bosh!

  HIALMAR [Becomes calm, goes over to the sofa, folds his arms, and looks at HEDVIG.]

  There she lies so stiff and still.

  RELLING [Tries to loosen the pistol.]

  She’s holding it so tight, so tight.

  GINA

  No, no, Relling, don’t break her fingers; let the pigstol be.

  HIALMAR

  She shall take it with her.

  GINA

  Yes, let her. But the child mustn’t lie here for a show. She shall go to her own room, so she shall. Help me, Ekdal.