MRS. SOLNESS

  A debt to me?

  SOLNESS

  Chiefly to you.

  MRS. SOLNESS

  Then you are—ill after all, Halvard.

  SOLNESS [Gloomily.]

  I suppose I must be—or not far from it.

  [Looks towards the door to the right, which is opened at this moment.]

  Ah! now it grows lighter.

  HILDA WANGEL comes in. She has made some alteration in her dress, and let down her skirt.

  HILDA

  Good morning, Mr. Solness!

  SOLNESS [Nods.]

  Slept well?

  HILDA

  Quite deliciously! Like a child in a cradle. Oh—I lay and stretched myself like—like a princess!

  SOLNESS [Smiles a little.]

  You were thoroughly comfortable then?

  HILDA

  I should think so.

  SOLNESS

  And no doubt you dreamed, too.

  HILDA

  Yes, I did. But that was horrid.

  SOLNESS

  Was it?

  HILDA

  Yes, for I dreamed I was falling over a frightfully high, sheer precipice. Do you never have that kind of dream?

  SOLNESS

  Oh yes—now and then——

  HILDA

  It’s tremendously thrilling—when you fall and fall——

  SOLNESS

  It seems to make one’s blood run cold.

  HILDA

  Do you draw your legs up under you while you are falling?

  SOLNESS

  Yes, as high as ever I can.

  HILDA

  So do I.

  MRS. SOLNESS [Takes her parasol.]

  I must go into town now, Halvard.

  [To HILDA.]

  And I’ll try to get one or two things that you may require.

  HILDA [Making a motion to throw her arms round her neck.]

  Oh, you dear, sweet Mrs. Solness! You are really much too kind to me! Frightfully kind——

  MRS. SOLNESS [Deprecatingly, freeing herself.]

  Oh, not at all. It’s only my duty, so I am very glad to do it.

  HILDA [Offended, pouts.]

  But really, I think I am quite fit to be seen in the streets—now that I’ve put my dress to rights. Or do you think I am not?

  MRS. SOLNESS

  To tell you the truth, I think people would stare at you a little.

  HILDA [Contemptuously.]

  Pooh! Is that all? That only amuses me.

  SOLNESS [With suppressed ill-humour.]

  Yes, but people might take it into their heads that you were mad too, you see.

  HILDA

  Mad? Are there so many mad people here in town, then?

  SOLNESS [Points to his own forehead.]

  Here you see one at all events.

  HILDA

  You—Mr. Solness!

  MRS. SOLNESS

  Oh, don’t talk like that, my dear Halvard!

  SOLNESS

  Have you not noticed that yet?

  HILDA

  No, I certainly have not.

  [Reflects and laughs a little.]

  And yet—perhaps in one single thing.

  SOLNESS

  Ah, do you hear that, Aline?

  MRS. SOLNESS

  What is that one single thing, Miss Wangel?

  HILDA

  No, I won’t say.

  SOLNESS

  Oh yes, do!

  HILDA

  No thank you—I am not so mad as that.

  MRS. SOLNESS

  When you and Miss Wangel are alone, I daresay she will tell you, Halvard.

  SOLNESS

  Ah—you think she will?

  MRS. SOLNESS

  Oh yes, certainly. For you have known her so well in the past.

  Ever since she was a child—you tell me.

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

  HILDA [After a little while.]

  Does your wife dislike me very much?

  SOLNESS

  Did you think you noticed anything of the kind?

  HILDA

  Did you not notice it yourself?

  SOLNESS [Evasively.]

  Aline has become exceedingly shy with strangers of late years.

  HILDA

  Has she really?

  SOLNESS

  But if only you could get to know her thoroughly——! Ah, she is so good—so kind—so excellent a creature——

  HILDA [Impatiently.]

  But if she is all that—what made her say that about her duty?

  SOLNESS

  Her duty?

  HILDA

  She said that she would go out and buy something for me, because it was her duty. Oh I can’t bear that ugly, horrid word!

  SOLNESS

  Why not?

  HILDA

  It sounds so cold, and sharp, and stinging. Duty—duty—duty. Don’t you think so, too? Doesn’t it seem to sting you?

  SOLNESS

  H’m—haven’t thought much about it.

  HILDA

  Yes, it does. And if she is so good—as you say she is—why should she talk in that way?

  SOLNESS

  But, good Lord, what would you have had her say, then?

  HILDA

  She might have said she would do it because she had taken a tremendous fancy to me. She might have said something like that—something really warm and cordial, you understand.

  SOLNESS [Looks at her.]

  Is that how you would like to have it?

  HILDA

  Yes, precisely.

  [She wanders about the room, stops at the bookcase and looks at the books.]

  What a lot of books you have.

  SOLNESS

  Yes, I have got together a good many.

  HILDA

  Do you read them all, too?

  SOLNESS

  I used to try to. Do you read much?

  HILDA

  No, never! I have given it up. For it all seems so irrelevant.

  SOLNESS

  That is just my feeling.

  [HILDA wanders about a little, stops at the small table, opens the portfo

  lio and turns over the contents.

  HILDA

  Are all these drawings yours?

  SOLNESS

  No, they are drawn by a young man whom I employ to help me.

  HILDA

  Some one you have taught?

  SOLNESS

  Oh yes, no doubt he has learnt something from me, too.

  HILDA [Sits down.]

  Then I suppose he is very clever.

  [Looks at a drawing.]

  Isn’t he?

  SOLNESS

  Oh, he might be worse. For my purpose——

  HILDA

  Oh yes—I’m sure he is frightfully clever.

  SOLNESS

  Do you think you can see that in the drawings?

  HILDA

  Pooh—these scrawlings! But if he has been learning from you——

  SOLNESS

  Oh, so far as that goes——there are plenty of people here that have learnt from me, and have come to little enough for all that.

  HILDA [Looks at him and shakes her head.]

  No, I can’t for the life of me understand how you can be so stupid.

  SOLNESS

  Stupid? Do you think I am so very stupid?

  HILDA

  Yes, I do indeed. If you are content to go about here teaching all these people——

  SOLNESS [With a slight start.]

  Well, and why not?

  HILDA [Rises, half serious, half laughing.]

  No indeed, Mr. Solness! What can be the good of that? No one but you should be allowed to build. You should stand quite alone—do it all yourself. Now you know it.

  SOLNESS [Involuntarily.]

  Hilda——!

  HILDA

  Well!

  SOLNESS

  How in the world did that come into your head?

  HILDA

  Do you think I am so very far wrong then?

  SOLNESS

  No, that’s not what I mean. But now I’ll tell you something.

  HILDA

  Well?

  SOLNESS

  I keep on—incessantly—in silence and alone—brooding on that very thought.

  HILDA

  Yes, that seems to me perfectly natural.

  SOLNESS [Looks somewhat searchingly at her.]

  Perhaps you have noticed it already?

  HILDA

  No, indeed I haven’t.

  SOLNESS

  But just now—when you said you thought I was—off my balance? In one thing, you said——

  HILDA

  Oh, I was thinking of something quite different.

  SOLNESS

  What was it?

  HILDA

  I am not going to tell you.

  SOLNESS [Crosses the room.]

  Well, well—as you please.

  [Stops at the bow-window.]

  Come here, and I will show you something.

  HILDA [Approaching.]

  What is it?

  SOLNESS

  Do you see—over there in the garden——?

  HILDA

  Yes?

  SOLNESS [Points.]

  Right above the great quarry——?

  HILDA

  That new house, you mean?

  SOLNESS

  The one that is being built, yes. Almost finished.

  HILDA

  It seems to have a very high tower.

  SOLNESS

  The scaffolding is still up.

  HILDA

  Is that your new house?

  SOLNESS

  Yes.

  HILDA

  The house you are soon going to move into?

  SOLNESS

  Yes.

  HILDA [Looks at him.]

  Are there nurseries in that house, too?

  SOLNESS

  Three, as there are here.

  HILDA

  And no child.

  SOLNESS

  And there never will be one.

  HILDA [With a half-smile.]

  Well, isn’t it just as I said——?

  SOLNESS

  That——?

  HILDA

  That you are a little—a little mad after all.

  SOLNESS

  Was that what you were thinking of?

  HILDA

  Yes, of all the empty nurseries I slept in.

  SOLNESS [Lowers his voice.]

  We have had children—Aline and I.

  HILDA [Looks eagerly at him.]

  Have you——?

  SOLNESS

  Two little boys. They were of the same age.

  HILDA

  Twins, then.

  SOLNESS

  Yes, twins. It’s eleven or twelve years ago now.

  HILDA [Cautiously.]

  And so both of them——? You have lost both the twins, then?

  SOLNESS [With quiet emotion.]

  We kept them only about three weeks. Or scarcely so much.

  [Bursts forth.]

  Oh, Hilda, I can’t tell you what a good thing it is for me that you

  have come! For now at last I have some one I can talk to!

  HILDA

  Can you not talk to—her, too?

  SOLNESS

  Not about this. Not as I want to talk and must talk.

  [Gloomily.]

  And not about so many other things, either.

  HILDA [In a subdued voice.]

  Was that all you meant when you said you needed me?

  SOLNESS

  That was mainly what I meant—at all events, yesterday. For

  to-day I am not so sure—

  [Breaking off.]

  Come here and let us sit down, Hilda. Sit there on the sofa—so

  that you can look into the garden.

  [HILDA seats herself in the corner of the sofa. SOLNESS brings a chair

  closer.]

  Should you like to hear about it?

  HILDA

  Yes, I shall love to sit and listen to you.

  SOLNESS [Sits down.]

  Then I will tell you all about it.

  HILDA

  Now I can see both the garden and you, Mr. Solness. So now, tell away! Begin!

  SOLNESS [Points towards the bow-window.]

  Out there on the rising ground—where you see the new house——

  HILDA

  Yes?

  SOLNESS

  Aline and I lived there in the first years of our married life. There was an old house up there that had belonged to her mother; and we inherited it, and the whole of the great garden with it.

  HILDA

  Was there a tower on that house, too?

  SOLNESS

  No, nothing of the kind. From the outside it looked like a great, dark, ugly wooden box; but all the same, it was snug and comfortable enough inside.

  HILDA

  Then did you pull down the ramshackle old place?

  SOLNESS

  No, it was burnt down.

  HILDA

  The whole of it?

  SOLNESS

  Yes.

  HILDA

  Was that a great misfortune for you?

  SOLNESS

  That depends on how you look at it. As a builder, the fire was the making of me——

  HILDA

  Well, but——?

  SOLNESS

  It was just after the birth of the two little boys——

  HILDA

  The poor little twins, yes.

  SOLNESS

  They came healthy and bonny into the world. And they were growing too—you could see the difference from day to day.

  HILDA

  Little children do grow quickly at first.

  SOLNESS

  It was the prettiest sight in the world to see Aline lying with the two of them in her arms.—But then came the night of the fire——

  HILDA [Excitedly.]

  What happened? Do tell me! Was any one burnt?

  SOLNESS No, not that. Every one got safe and sound out of the house——

  HILDA

  Well, and what then——?

  SOLNESS

  The fright had shaken Aline terribly. The alarm—the escape—the break-neck hurry—and then the ice-cold night air—for they had to be carried out just as they lay—both she and the little ones.

  HILDA

  Was it too much for them?

  SOLNESS

  Oh no, they stood it well enough. But Aline fell into a fever, and

  it affected her milk. She would insist on nursing them herself;

  because it was her duty, she said. And both our little boys,

  they—

  [Clenching his hands.]

  —they—oh!

  HILDA

  They did not get over that?

  SOLNESS

  No, that they did not get over. That was how we lost them.

  HILDA

  It must have been terribly hard for you.

  SOLNESS

  Hard enough for me: but ten times harder for Aline.

  [Clenching his hands in suppressed fury.]

  Oh, that such things should be allowed to happen here in the

  world!

  [Shortly and firmly.]

  From the day I lost them, I had no heart for building churches.

  HILDA

  Did you not like building the church-tower in our town?

  SOLNESS

  I didn’t like it. I know how free and happy I felt when that tower was finished.

  HILDA

  I know that, too.

  SOLNESS

  And now I shall never—never build anything of that sort again! Neither churches nor church-towers.

  HILDA [Nods slowly.]

  Nothing but houses for people to live in.

  SOLNESS

  Homes for human beings, Hilda.

  HILDA

  But homes with high towers and pinnacles upon them.

  SOLNESS

  If possible.

  [Adopts a lighter tone.]

  But, as I said before, that fire was the making of me—as a

  builder, I mean.

  HILDA

  Why don’t you call yourself an architect, like the others?

  SOLNESS

  I have not been systematically enough taught for that. Most of what I know I have found out for myself.

  HILDA

  But you succeeded all the same.

  SOLNESS

  Yes, thanks to the fire. I laid out almost the whole of the garden in villa lots; and there I was able to build after my own heart. So I came to the front with a rush.