KAIA [Dubiously.]

  Is there any letter——?

  SOLNESS [Curtly.]

  No, of course not.

  [Looks sternly at her.]

  Kaia!

  KAIA [Anxiously, in a low voice.]

  Yes!

  SOLNESS [Points imperatively to a spot on the floor.]

  Come here! At once!

  KAIA [Hesitatingly.]

  Yes.

  SOLNESS [As before.]

  Nearer!

  KAIA [Obeying.]

  What do you want with me?

  SOLNESS [Looks at her for a while.]

  Is it you I have to thank for all this?

  KAIA

  No, no, don’t think that!

  SOLNESS

  But confess now—you want to get married!

  KAIA [Softly.]

  RAGNAR and I have been engaged for four or five years, and so——

  SOLNESS

  And so you think it time there were an end of it. Is not that so?

  KAIA

  RAGNAR and Uncle say I must. So I suppose I shall have to give in.

  SOLNESS [More gently.]

  Kaia, don’t you really care a little bit for Ragnar, too?

  KAIA

  I cared very much for Ragnar once—before I came here to you.

  SOLNESS

  But you don’t now? Not in the least?

  KAIA [Passionately, clasping her hands and holding them out towards him.]

  Oh, you know very well there is only one person I care for now! One, and one only, in all the world! I shall never care for any one else.

  SOLNESS

  Yes, you say that. And yet you go away from me—leave me alone here with everything on my hands.

  KAIA

  But could I not stay with you, even if Ragnar——?

  SOLNESS [Repudiating the idea.]

  No, no, that is quite impossible. If Ragnar leaves me and starts work on his own account, then of course he will need you himself.

  KAIA [Wringing her hands.]

  Oh, I feel as if I could not be separated from you! It’s quite, quite impossible!

  SOLNESS

  Then be sure you get those foolish notions out of Ragnar’s head.

  Marry him as much as you please—

  [Alters his tone.]

  I mean—don’t let him throw up his good situation with me. For

  then I can keep you too, my dear Kaia.

  KAIA

  Oh yes, how lovely that would be, if it could only be managed!

  SOLNESS [Clasps her head with his two hands and whispers.]

  For I cannot get on without you, you see. I must have you with me every single day.

  KAIA [In nervous exaltation.]

  My God! My God!

  SOLNESS [Kisses her hair.]

  Kaia—Kaia!

  KAIA [Sinks down before him.]

  Oh, how good you are to me! How unspeakably good you are!

  SOLNESS [Vehemently.]

  Get up! For goodness’ sake get up! I think I hear some one! [He helps her to rise. She staggers over to the desk.]

  MRS. SOLNESS enters by the door on the right. She looks thin and wasted with grief, but shows traces of bygone beauty. Blonde ringlets. Dressed with good taste, wholly in black. Speaks somewhat slowly and in a plaintive voice.

  MRS. SOLNESS [In the doorway.]

  Halvard!

  SOLNESS [Turns.]

  Oh, are you there, my dear——?

  MRS. SOLNESS [With a glance at KAIA.]

  I am afraid I am disturbing you.

  SOLNESS

  Not in the least. Miss Fosli has only a short letter to write.

  MRS. SOLNESS

  Yes, so I see.

  SOLNESS

  What do you want with me, Aline?

  MRS. SOLNESS

  I merely wanted to tell you that Dr. Herdal is in the drawing-room. Won’t you come and see him, Halvard?

  SOLNESS [Looks suspiciously at her.]

  H’m—is the doctor so very anxious to talk to me?

  MRS. SOLNESS

  Well, not exactly anxious. He really came to see me; but he would like to say how-do-you-do to you at the same time.

  SOLNESS [Laughs to himself.]

  Yes, I daresay. Well, you must ask him to wait a little.

  MRS. SOLNESS

  Then you will come in presently?

  SOLNESS

  Perhaps I will. Presently, presently, dear. In a little while.

  MRS. SOLNESS [Glancing again at KAIA.]

  Well now, don’t forget, Halvard. [Withdraws and closes the door behind her.]

  KAIA [Softly.]

  Oh dear, oh dear—I am sure Mrs. Solness thinks ill of me in some way!

  SOLNESS

  Oh, not in the least. Not more than usual at any rate. But all the same, you had better go now, Kaia.

  KAIA

  Yes, yes, now I must go.

  SOLNESS [Severely.]

  And mind you get that matter settled for me. Do you hear?

  KAIA

  Oh, if it only depended on me——

  SOLNESS

  I will have it settled, I say! And to-morrow too—not a day later!

  KAIA [Terrified.]

  If there’s nothing else for it, I am quite willing to break off the engagement.

  SOLNESS [Angrily.]

  Break it off. Are you mad? Would you think of breaking it off?

  KAIA [Distracted.]

  Yes, if necessary. For I must—I must stay here with you! I can’t leave you! That is utterly—utterly impossible!

  SOLNESS [With a sudden outburst.]

  But deuce take it—how about Ragnar then! It’s Ragnar that I——

  KAIA [Looks at him with terrified eyes.]

  It is chiefly on Ragnar’s account, that—that you——?

  SOLNESS [Collecting himself.]

  No, no, of course not! You don’t understand me either.

  [Gently and softly.]

  Of course it is you I want to keep—you above everything, Kaia.

  But for that very reason, you must prevent Ragnar, too, from

  throwing up his situation. There, there,—now go home.

  KAIA

  Yes, yes—good-night, then.

  SOLNESS

  Good-night.

  [As she is going.]

  Oh, stop a moment! Are Ragnar’s drawings in there?

  KAIA

  I did not see him take them with him.

  SOLNESS

  Then just go and find them for me. I might perhaps glance over them, after all.

  KAIA [Happy.]

  Oh yes, please do!

  SOLNESS

  For your sake, Kaia dear. Now, let me have them at once, please. [KAIA hurries into the draughtstmen’s office, searches anxiously in the table-drawer, finds a portfolio and brings it with her.

  KAIA

  Here are all the drawings.

  SOLNESS

  Good. Put them down there on the table.

  KAIA [Putting down the portfolio.]

  Good-night, then.

  [Beseechingly.]

  And please, please think kindly of me.

  SOLNESS

  Oh, that I always do. Good-night, my dear little Kaia.

  [Glances to the right.]

  Go, go now!

  MRS. SOLNESS and DR. HERDAL enter by the door on the right. He is a stoutish, elderly man, with a round, good-humoured face, clean shaven, with thin, light hair, and gold spectacles.

  MRS. SOLNESS [Still in the doorway.]

  Halvard, I cannot keep the doctor any longer.

  SOLNESS

  Well then, come in here.

  MRS. SOLNESS [To KAIA, who is turning down the desk-lamp.]

  Have you finished the letter already, Miss Fosli?

  KAIA [In confusion.]

  The letter——?

  SOLNESS

  Yes, it was quite a short one.

  MRS. SOLNESS

  It must have been very short.

  SOLNESS

  You may go now, Miss Fosli. And please come in good time to-morrow morning.

  KAIA

  I will be sure to. Good-night, Mrs. Solness.

  [She goes out by the hall-door.]

  MRS. SOLNESS

  She must be quite an acquisition to you, Halvard, this Miss Fosli.

  SOLNESS

  Yes, indeed. She is useful in all sorts of ways.

  MRS. SOLNESS

  So it seems.

  DR. HERDAL

  Is she good at book-keeping too?

  SOLNESS

  Well—of course she has had a good deal of practice during these two years. And then she is so nice and willing to do whatever one asks of her.

  MRS. SOLNESS

  Yes, that must be very delightful——

  SOLNESS

  It is. Especially when one is not too much accustomed to that sort of thing.

  MRS. SOLNESS [In a tone of gentle remonstrance.]

  Can you say that, Halvard?

  SOLNESS

  Oh, no, no, my dear Aline; I beg your pardon.

  MRS. SOLNESS

  There’s no occasion.—Well then, doctor, you will come back later on, and have a cup of tea with us?

  DR. HERDAL

  I have only that one patient to see, and then I’ll come back.

  MRS. SOLNESS

  Thank you.

  [She goes out by the door on the right.]

  SOLNESS

  Are you in a hurry, doctor?

  DR. HERDAL

  No, not at all.

  SOLNESS

  May I have a little chat with you?

  DR. HERDAL

  With the greatest of pleasure.

  SOLNESS

  Then let us sit down.

  [He motions the doctor to take the rocking-chair, and sits down himself in

  the arm-chair. Looks searchingly at him.]

  Tell me—did you notice anything odd about Aline?

  DR. HERDAL

  Do you mean just now, when she was here?

  SOLNESS

  Yes, in her manner to me. Did you notice anything?

  DR. HERDAL [Smiling.]

  Well, I admit—one couldn’t well avoid noticing that your wife—h’m——

  SOLNESS

  Well?

  DR. HERDAL

  —that your wife is not particularly fond of this Miss Fosli.

  SOLNESS

  Is that all? I have noticed that myself.

  DR. HERDAL

  And I must say I am scarcely surprised at it.

  SOLNESS

  At what?

  DR. HERDAL

  That she should not exactly approve of your seeing so much of another woman, all day and every day.

  SOLNESS

  No, no, I suppose you are right there—and Aline too. But it’s impossible to make any change.

  DR. HERDAL

  Could you not engage a clerk?

  SOLNESS

  The first man that came to hand? No, thank you—that would never do for me.

  DR. HERDAL

  But now, if your wife——? Suppose, with her delicate health, all this tries her too much?

  SOLNESS

  Even then—I might almost say—it can make no difference. I must keep Kaia Fosli. No one else could fill her place.

  DR. HERDAL

  No one else?

  SOLNESS [Curtly.]

  No, no one.

  DR. HERDAL [Drawing his chair closer.]

  Now listen to me, my dear Mr. Solness. May I ask you a question, quite between ourselves?

  SOLNESS

  By all means.

  DR. HERDAL

  Women, you see—in certain matters, they have a deucedly keen intuition——

  SOLNESS

  They have, indeed. There is not the least doubt of that. But——?

  DR. HERDAL

  Well, tell me now—if your wife can’t endure this Kaia Fosli——?

  SOLNESS

  Well, what then?

  DR. HERDAL

  —may she not have just—just the least little bit of reason for this instinctive dislike?

  SOLNESS [Looks at him and rises.]

  Oho!

  DR. HERDAL

  Now don’t be offended—but hasn’t she?

  SOLNESS [With curt decision.]

  No.

  DR. HERDAL

  No reason of any sort?

  SOLNESS

  No other reason than her own suspicious nature.

  DR. HERDAL

  I know you have known a good many women in your time.

  SOLNESS

  Yes, I have.

  DR. HERDAL

  And have been a good deal taken with some of them, too.

  SOLNESS

  Oh yes, I don’t deny it.

  DR. HERDAL

  But as regards Miss Fosli, then? There is nothing of that sort in the case?

  SOLNESS

  No; nothing at all—on my side.

  DR. HERDAL

  But on her side?

  SOLNESS

  I don’t think you have any right to ask that question, doctor.

  DR. HERDAL

  Well, you know, we were discussing your wife’s intuition.

  SOLNESS

  So we were. And for that matter—

  [lowers his voice]

  —Aline’s intuition, as you call it—in a certain sense, it has not

  been so far astray.

  DR. HERDAL

  Aha! there we have it!

  SOLNESS [Sits down.]

  Doctor Herdal—I am going to tell you a strange story—if you care to listen to it.

  DR. HERDAL

  I like listening to strange stories.

  SOLNESS

  Very well then. I daresay you recollect that I took Knut Brovik and his son into my employment—after the old man’s business had gone to the dogs.

  DR. HERDAL

  Yes, so I have understood.

  SOLNESS

  You see, they really are clever fellows, these two. Each of them has talent in his own way. But then the son took it into his head to get engaged; and the next thing, of course, was that he wanted to get married—and begin to build on his own account. That is the way with all these young people.

  DR. HERDAL [Laughing.]

  Yes, they have a bad habit of wanting to marry.

  SOLNESS

  Just so. But of course that did not suit my plans; for I needed Ragnar myself—and the old man too. He is exceedingly good at calculating bearing-strains and cubic contents—and all that sort of deviltry, you know.

  DR. HERDAL

  Oh yes, no doubt that’s indispensable.

  SOLNESS

  Yes, it is. But Ragnar was absolutely bent on setting to work for himself. He would hear of nothing else.

  DR. HERDAL

  But he has stayed with you all the same.

  SOLNESS

  Yes, I’ll tell you how that came about. One day this girl, Kaia Fosli, came to see them on some errand or other. She had never been here before. And when I saw how utterly infatuated they were with each other, the thought occurred to me: if I could only get her into the office here, then perhaps Ragnar too would stay where he is.

  DR. HERDAL

  That was not at all a bad idea.

  SOLNESS

  Yes, but at the time I did not breathe a word of what was in my mind. I merely stood and looked at her—and kept on wishing intently that I could have her here. Then I talked to her a little, in a friendly way—about one thing and another. And then she went away.

  DR. HERDAL

  Well?

  SOLNESS

  Well then, next day, pretty late in the evening, when old Brovik and Ragnar had gone home, she came here again, and behaved as if I had made an arrangement with her.

  DR. HERDAL

  An arrangement? What about?

  SOLNESS

  About the very thing my mind had been fixed on. But I hadn’t said one single word about it.

  DR. HERDAL

  That was most extraordinary.

  SOLNESS

  Yes, was it not? And now she wanted to know what she was to do here—whether she could begin the very next morning, and so forth.

  DR. HERDAL

  Don’t you think she did it in order to be with her sweetheart?

  SOLNESS

  That was what occurred to me at first. But no, that was not it. She seemed to drift quite away from him—when once she had come here to me.

  DR. HERDAL

  She drifted over to you, then?

  SOLNESS

  Yes, entirely. If I happen to look at her when her back is turned, I can tell that she feels it. She quivers and trembles the moment I come near her. What do you think of that?