But I shall wait till you have received your appointment.

  TESMAN

  Will you wait? Yes but—yes but—are you not going to compete with me? Eh?

  LÖVBORG

  No; it is only the moral victory I care for.

  TESMAN

  Why, bless me—then Aunt Julia was right after all! Oh yes—I knew it! Hedda! Just fancy—Eilert Lövborg is not going to stand in our way!

  HEDDA [Curtly.]

  Our way? Pray leave me out of the question. [She goes up towards the inner room, where BERTA is placing a tray with decanters and glasses on the table. HEDDA nods approval, and comes forward again. BERTA goes out.]

  TESMAN [At the same time.]

  And you, Judge Brack—what do you say to this? Eh?

  BRACK

  Well, I say that a moral victory—h’m—may be all very fine——

  TESMAN

  Yes, certainly. But all the same——

  HEDDA [Looking at TESMAN with a cold smile.]

  You stand there looking as if you were thunder-struck——

  TESMAN

  Yes—so I am—I almost think——

  BRACK

  Don’t you see, Mrs. Tesman, a thunderstorm has just passed over?

  HEDDA [Pointing towards the inner room.]

  Will you not take a glass of cold punch, gentlemen?

  BRACK [Looking at his watch.]

  A stirrup-cup? Yes, it wouldn’t come amiss.

  TESMAN

  A capital idea, Hedda! Just the thing! Now that the weight has been taken off my mind——

  HEDDA

  Will you not join them, Mr. Lövborg?

  LÖVBORG [With a gesture of refusal.]

  No, thank you. Nothing for me.

  BRACK

  Why bless me—cold punch is surely not poison.

  LÖVBORG

  Perhaps not for every one.

  HEDDA

  I will keep Mr. Lövborg company in the meantime.

  TESMAN

  Yes, yes, Hedda dear, do. [He and BRACK go into the inner room, seat themselves, drink punch, smoke cigarettes, and carry on a lively conversation during what follows. EILERT LÖVBORG remains standing beside the stove. HEDDA goes to the writing-table.]

  HEDDA [Raising her voice a little.]

  Do you care to look at some photographs, Mr. Lövborg? You know Tesman and I made a tour in the Tyrol on our way home?

  [She takes up an album, and places it on the table beside the sofa, in the further corner of which she seats herself. EILERT LÖVBORG approaches, stops, and looks at her.Then he takes a chair and seats himself to her left, with his back towards the inner room.]

  HEDDA [Opening the album.]

  Do you see this range of mountains, Mr. Lövborg? It’s the Ortler group. Tesman has written the name underneath. Here it is: “The Ortler group near Meran.”

  LÖVBORG [Who has never taken his eyes off her, says softly and slowly:]

  Hedda—Gabler!

  HEDDA [Glancing hastily at him.]

  Ah! Hush!

  LÖVBORG [Repeats softly.]

  Hedda Gabler!

  HEDDA [Looking at the album.]

  That was my name in the old days—when we two knew each other.

  LÖVBORG

  And I must teach myself never to say Hedda Gabler again—never, as long as I live.

  HEDDA [Still turning over the pages.]

  Yes, you must. And I think you ought to practise in time. The sooner the better, I should say.

  LÖVBORG [In a tone of indignation.]

  Hedda Gabler married? And married to—George Tesman!

  HEDDA

  Yes—so the world goes.

  LÖVBORG

  Oh, Hedda, Hedda—how could you153 throw yourself away!

  HEDDA [Looks sharply at him.]

  What? I can’t allow this!

  LÖVBORG

  What do you mean?

  [TESMAN comes into the room and goes towards the sofa.]

  HEDDA [Hears him coming and says in an indifferent tone.]

  And this is a view from the Val d’Ampezzo, Mr. Lövborg. Just

  look at these peaks!

  [Looks affectionately up at TESMAN.]

  What’s the name of these curious peaks, dear?

  TESMAN

  Let me see. Oh, those are the Dolomites.

  HEDDA

  Yes, that’s it!—Those are the Dolomites, Mr. Lövborg.

  TESMAN

  Hedda dear,—I only wanted to ask whether I shouldn’t bring you a little punch after all? For yourself at any rate—eh?

  HEDDA

  Yes, do, please; and perhaps a few biscuits.

  TESMAN

  No cigarettes?

  HEDDA

  No.

  TESMAN

  Very well.

  [He goes into the inner room and out to the right. BRACK sits in the inner room, and keeps an eye from time to time on HEDDA and LÖVBORG.]

  LÖVBORG [Softly, as before.]

  Answer me, Hedda—how could you go and do this?

  HEDDA [Apparently absorbed in the album.]

  If you continue to say du to me I won’t talk to you.

  LÖVBORG

  May I not say du even when we are alone?

  HEDDA

  No. You may think it; but you mustn’t say it.

  LÖVBORG

  Ah, I understand. It is an offence against George Tesman, whom you154—love.

  HEDDA [Glances at him and smiles.]

  Love? What an idea!

  LÖVBORG

  You don’t love him then!

  HEDDA

  But I won’t hear of any sort of unfaithfulness! Remember that.

  LÖVBORG

  Hedda—answer me one thing——

  HEDDA

  Hush!

  [TESMAN enters with a small tray from the inner room.]

  TESMAN

  Here you are! Isn’t this tempting?

  [He puts the tray on the table.]

  HEDDA

  Why do you bring it yourself?

  TESMAN [Filling the glasses.]

  Because I think it’s such fun to wait upon you, Hedda.

  HEDDA

  But you have poured out two glasses. Mr. Lövborg said he wouldn’t have any——

  TESMAN

  No, but Mrs. Elvsted will soon be here, won’t she?

  HEDDA

  Yes, by-the-bye—Mrs. Elvsted——

  TESMAN

  Had you forgotten her? Eh?

  HEDDA

  We were so absorbed in these photographs.

  [Shows him a picture.]

  Do you remember this little village?

  TESMAN

  Oh, it’s that one just below the Brenner Pass. It was there we passed the night——

  HEDDA

  ——and met that lively party of tourists.

  TESMAN

  Yes, that was the place. Fancy—if we could only have had you

  with us, Eilert! Eh?

  [He returns to the inner room and sits beside BRACK.

  LÖVBORG

  Answer me this one thing, Hedda——

  HEDDA

  Well?

  LÖVBORG

  Was there no love in your friendship for me either? Not a spark—not a tinge of love in it?

  HEDDA

  I wonder if there was? To me it seems as though we were two

  good comrades—two thoroughly intimate friends.

  [Smilingly.]

  You especially were frankness itself.

  LÖVBORG

  It was you that made me so.

  HEDDA

  As I look back upon it all, I think there was really something beautiful, something fascinating—something daring—in—in that secret intimacy—that comradeship which no living creature so much as dreamed of.

  LÖVBORG

  Yes, yes, Hedda! Was there not?—When I used to come to your father’s in the afternoon—and the General sat over at the window reading his papers—with his back towards us——

  HEDDA

  And we two on the corner sofa——

  LÖVBORG

  Always with the same illustrated paper before us——

  HEDDA

  For want of an album, yes.

  LÖVBORG

  Yes, Hedda, and when I made my confessions to you—told you about myself, things that at that time no one else knew! There I would sit and tell you of my escapades—my days and nights of devilment. Oh, Hedda—what was the power in you that forced me to confess these things?

  HEDDA

  Do you think it was any power in me?

  LÖVBORG

  How else can I explain it? And all those—those roundabout questions you used to put to me——

  HEDDA

  Which you understood so particularly well——

  LÖVBORG

  How could you sit and question me like that? Question me quite frankly——

  HEDDA

  In roundabout terms, please observe.

  LÖVBORG

  Yes, but frankly nevertheless. Cross-question me about—all that sort of thing?

  HEDDA

  And how could you answer, Mr. Lövborg?

  LÖVBORG

  Yes, that is just what I can’t understand—in looking back upon it. But tell me now, Hedda—was there not love at the bottom of our friendship? On your side, did you not feel as though you might purge my stains away—if I made you my confessor? Was it not so?

  HEDDA

  No, not quite.

  LÖVBORG

  What was your motive, then?

  HEDDA

  Do you think it quite incomprehensible that a young girl—when it can be done—without any one knowing——

  LÖVBORG

  Well?

  HEDDA

  ——should be glad to have a peep, now and then, into a world which——

  LÖVBORG

  Which——?

  HEDDA

  ——which she is forbidden to know anything about?

  LÖVBORG

  So that was it?

  HEDDA

  Partly. Partly—I almost think.

  LÖVBORG

  Comradeship in the thirst for life. But why should not that, at any rate, have continued?

  HEDDA

  The fault was yours.

  LÖVBORG

  It was you that broke with me.

  HEDDA

  Yes, when our friendship threatened to develop into something more serious. Shame upon you, Eilert Lövborg! How could you think of wronging your—your frank comrade?

  LÖVBORG [Clenching his hands.]

  Oh, why did you not carry out your threat? Why did you not shoot me down?

  HEDDA

  Because I have such a dread of scandal.

  LÖVBORG

  Yes, Hedda, you are a coward at heart.

  HEDDA

  A terrible coward.

  [Changing her tone.]

  But it was a lucky thing for you. And now you have found ample

  consolation at the Elvsteds’.

  LÖVBORG

  I know what Thea has confided to you.

  HEDDA

  And perhaps you have confided to her something about us?

  LÖVBORG

  Not a word. She is too stupid to understand anything of that sort.

  HEDDA

  Stupid?

  LÖVBORG

  She is stupid about matters of that sort.

  HEDDA

  And I am cowardly.

  [Bends over towards him, without looking him in the face, and says more softly:]

  But now I will confide something to you.

  LÖVBORG [Eagerly.]

  Well?

  HEDDA

  The fact that I dared not shoot you down——

  LÖVBORG

  Yes!

  HEDDA

  —that was not my most arrant cowardice—that evening.

  LÖVBORG [Looks at her a moment, understands, and whispers passionately .]

  Oh, Hedda! Hedda Gabler! Now I begin to see a hidden reason beneath our comradeship! You155 and I——! After all, then, it was your craving for life——

  HEDDA [Softly, with a sharp glance.]

  Take care! Believe nothing of the sort!

  [Twilight has begun to fall. The hall door is opened from without by BERTA.]

  HEDDA [Closes the album with a bang and calls smilingly:]

  Ah, at last! My darling Thea,—come along!

  MRS. ELVSTED enters from the hall. She is in evening dress. The door is closed behind her.

  HEDDA [On the sofa, stretches out her arms towards her.]

  My sweet Thea—you can’t think how I have been longing for you!

  [MRS. ELVSTED, in passing, exchanges slight salutations with the gentlemen in the inner room, then goes up to the table and gives HEDDA her hand. EILERT LÖVBORG has risen. He and MRS. ELVSTED greet each other with a silent nod.]

  MRS. ELVSTED

  Ought I to go in and talk to your husband for a moment?

  HEDDA

  Oh, not at all. Leave those two alone. They will soon be going.

  MRS. ELVSTED

  Are they going out?

  HEDDA

  Yes, to a supper-party.

  MRS. ELVSTED [Quickly, to LÖVBORG.]

  Not you?

  LÖVBORG

  No.

  HEDDA

  Mr. Lövborg remains with us.

  MRS. ELVSTED [Takes a chair and is about to seat herself at his side.]

  Oh, how nice it is here!

  HEDDA

  No, thank you, my little Thea! Not there! You’ll be good enough to come over here to me. I will sit between you.

  MRS. ELVSTED

  Yes, just as you please.

  [She goes round the table and seats herself on the sofa on HEDDA’s right.

  LÖVBORG re-seats himself on his chair.]

  LÖVBORG [After a short pause, to HEDDA.]

  Is not she lovely to look at?

  HEDDA [Lightly stroking her hair.]

  Only to look at?

  LÖVBORG

  Yes. For we two—she and I—we are two real comrades. We have absolute faith in each other; so we can sit and talk with perfect frankness——

  HEDDA

  Not round about, Mr. Lövborg?

  LÖVBORG

  Well——

  MRS. ELVSTED [Softly clinging close to HEDDA.]

  Oh, how happy I am, Hedda! For, only think, he says I have inspired him too!

  HEDDA [Looks at her with a smile.]

  Ah! Does he say that, dear?

  LÖVBORG

  And then she is so brave, Mrs. Tesman!

  MRS. ELVSTED

  Good heavens—am I brave?

  LÖVBORG

  Exceedingly—where your comrade is concerned.

  HEDDA

  Ah yes—courage! If one only had that!

  LÖVBORG

  What then? What do you mean?

  HEDDA

  Then life would perhaps be liveable, after all.

  [With a sudden change of tone.]

  But now, my dearest Thea, you really must have a glass of cold

  punch.

  MRS. ELVSTED

  No, thanks—I never take anything of that kind.

  HEDDA

  Well then, you, Mr. Lövborg.

  LÖVBORG

  Nor I, thank you.

  MRS. ELVSTED

  No, he doesn’t either.

  HEDDA [Looks fixedly at him.]

  But if I say you shall?

  LÖVBORG

  It would be no use.

  HEDDA [Laughing.]

  Then I, poor creature, have no sort of power over you?

  LÖVBORG

  Not in that respect.

  HEDDA

  But seriously, I think you ought to—for your own sake.

  MRS. ELVSTED

  Why, Hedda——!

  LÖVBORG

  How so?

  HEDDA

  Or rather on account of other people.

  LÖVBORG

  Indeed?

  HEDDA

  Otherwise people might be apt to suspect that—in your heart of hearts—you did not feel quite secure—quite confident in yourself.

  MRS. ELVSTED [Softly.]

  Oh please, Hedda——!

  LÖVBORG

  People may suspect what they like—for the present.

  MRS. ELVSTED [Joyfully.]

  Yes, let them!

  HEDDA

  I saw it plainly in Judge Brack’s face a moment ago.

  LÖVBORG

  What did you see?

  HEDDA

  His contemptuous smile, when you dared not go with them into the inner room.