ACT IV.

[Hjalmar Ekdal’sstudio. A photograph has just been taken; a camera, with a cloth over it, a pedestal, a few chairs, a console, and so forth are placed down the stage. It is afternoon; the sun is setting; a little later it begins to grow dark.Ginais standing in the open entrance-door with a small box and wet plate in her hands, and speaks to some one outside.]

Gina.Yes, quite certain. When I promise anything I do it. The first dozen shall be ready by Monday. Good day, good day.

Steps are heard going down the stairs.Ginacloses the door, puts the plate in the box, and puts it into the covered camera.

Hedvig(coming in from the kitchen). Are they gone?

Gina(clearing away). Yes, thank goodness, I’ve got rid of them at last.

Hedvig.Can you think why father’s not come home yet?

Gina.Are you sure he’s not down at Relling’s?

Hedvig.No, he’s not; I ran down the kitchen stairs just now and asked.

Gina.And there’s his dinner getting cold for him, too.

Hedvig.Yes, fancy—and father’s who’s always so careful to be home to dinner.

Gina.Oh! he’ll be here directly you’ll see.

Hedvig.I do wish he’d come; for I think everybody’s been so strange.

Gina(exclaims). There he is!

Hjalmar Ekdalcomes in at the entrance door.

Hedvig.Father! Oh, what a time we’ve been waiting for you!

Gina(glancing at him). You’ve been gone a long time, Ekdal.

Hjalmar(without looking at her). I’ve been rather a long time, yes. (He takes off his overcoat.GinaandHedviggo to help him. He waives them off.)

Gina.Perhaps you’ve dined with Werle?

Hjalmar(hanging up his coat). No.

Gina(going to the kitchen-door). Then I’ll bring you in something.

Hjalmar.No, let the dinner be. I’ll not eat anything now.

Hedvig(going close to him). Aren’t you well, father?

Hjalmar.Well? Oh! yes, so, so. We had a fatiguing walk, Gregers and I.

Gina.You shouldn’t have done that, Ekdal; for you’re not used to it.

Hjalmar.H’m; there’s many a thing a man must accustom himself to in this world. (Walks up and down a little while.) Has anyone been here while I was out?

Gina.No one but the two sweethearts.

Hjalmar.No new orders?

Gina.No, not to-day.

Hedvig.You’ll see, there are sure to be some to-morrow, father.

Hjalmar.I hope there may; for to-morrow I mean to set about work in real earnest.

Hedvig.To-morrow! Oh! but don’t you remember what day it is to-morrow?

Hjalmar.Ah! that’s true. Well, then, the day after to-morrow. Henceforth I mean to do everything myself; I alone will do all the work.

Gina.But what’s the good of that, Ekdal? It’ll only make your life a burden to you. I can see to the photographs, and then you can go on with the invention.

Hedvig.And then the wild duck, father, and all the fowls and rabbits and——

Hjalmar.Don’t speak to me of that rubbish!From to-morrow, I’ll never set foot in the loft again.

Hedvig.Yes, but father, you promised me that to-morrow we’d have a little feast.

Hjalmar.H’m, that’s true. Well, then from the day after to-morrow. That damned wild duck, I should like to wring her neck.

Hedvig(shrieks). The wild duck!

Gina.Well I never heard such a thing.

Hedvig(shaking him). Oh! but father—why it’smywild duck.

Hjalmar.And therefore I will not do it. I have not the heart to do it—not the heart to do it for your sake, Hedvig. But I feel so strongly that I ought not to suffer any creature under my roof that has passed through those hands.

Gina.But, good Lord, because grandfather got her from that good-for-nothingPettersen, you——

Hjalmar(walking about). There are certain demands. What shall I call them? Let me say ideal demands—certainclaims that a man can not set aside without wronging his own soul.

Hedvig(following him). But think, the wild duck—the poor wild duck!

Hjalmar(stopping). Why, you hear I shall spare her—for your sake. Not a hair of her head shall be hurt; that is as I was saying, I will spare her. For there are greater problems than that to solve. Now you should go out a little as usual, Hedvig, it’s dark enough now for you.

Hedvig.No, I don’t care about going out now.

Hjalmar.Yes, go along, you seem to me to be blinking so with your eyes to-day; all the vapors in here are not good for you. The air beneath this roof is heavy.

Hedvig.All right, then I’ll run down the kitchen stairs and go out for a little while. My cloak and hat?—Oh! they’re in my own room. Father, now you mustn’t do the wild duck any harm while I’m out.

Hjalmar.Not a feather of its head shall be plucked. (Presses her to him.) You and I, Hedvig,—we two!—Well go now.

Hedvignods to her parents and goes out through the kitchen.

Hjalmar(walking about without looking up). Gina.

Gina.Yes?

Hjalmar.From to-morrow—or let us say, from the day after to-morrow—I should like to keep the household accounts myself.

Gina.Do you want to keep the household accounts too, now?

Hjalmar.Yes, or to keep the accounts of our takings, anyhow.

Gina.Lord help us,that’ssoon done.

Hjalmar.I hardly believe that, for you seem to make the money go a remarkably long way. (Standing still and looking at her.) How do you manage it?

Gina.It is becauseHedvigand I require so little.

Hjalmar.It is true that father’s so liberally paid for the copying he does for Mr. Werle?

Gina.I don’t know that it is so liberally. I don’t know the prices for those sort of things.

Hjalmar.Well, about how much does father get? Tell me!

Gina.Well, it varies so. I should say it’s about as much as he costs us, and just a little pocket money besides.

Hjalmar.As much as he costs us! And you never told me this before.

Gina.No, I could not for you were so happy to think that he had everything from you.

Hjalmar.And so father gets this from Mr. Werle!

Gina.Oh yes! Mr. Werle’s got enough and to spare, he has.

Hjalmar.Light the lamp!

Gina(lighting it). And then we don’t know that it is Mr. Werle himself; it may be Graberg who——

Hjalmar.Why these subterfuges about Graberg?

Gina.I don’t know, I only thought——

Hjalmar.H’m!

Gina.Well, it wasn’t me that got grandfather the writing. Why it was Bertha when she went to the house.

Hjalmar.Your voice seems to me to be trembling.

Gina(putting the shade over the lamp). Does it?

Hjalmar.And your hands are shaking. Aren’t they?

Gina(firmly). Speak straight out, Ekdal. What is it he’s gone and said about me?

Hjalmar.Is it true—canit be true that—that there was a kind of relation between you and Mr. Werle, while you were in service at his house?

Gina.That is not true. Not at that time, no. Mr. Werle was after me, certainly. And the wife fancied there was something in it, and then she made such a hocus-pocus and hurly-burly, and she knocked me about and drove me about so—that she did—and so I left her service.

Hjalmar.—Afterward then!

Gina.Yes. Then I went home. And mother—she wasn’t as good as you thought, Ekdal; and she kept on at me about one thing and another—for Mr. Werle was a widower then.

Hjalmar.Well, and then!

Gina.Well, I suppose it’s best you should know it. He didn’t let me alone until he’d had his will of me.

Hjalmar(clasping his hands). And this is the mother of my child! How could you conceal such a thing from me!

Gina.Yes, that was wrong of me; I ought certainly to have told you long ago.

Hjalmar.You ought to have told it me at once. Then I should have known what sort of a creature you were.

Gina.But would you have married me all the same?

Hjalmar.How can you imagine such a thing!

Gina.No; that is why I did not dare tell you anything then. For I grew to care so very much for you, as you know. And I couldn’t go and make myself absolutely wretched——

Hjalmar(walking about). And this is my Hedvig’s mother. And to know all that I see before my eyes—— (Kicking a chair.)—All my home—I owe it all to a favored predecessor. Ah! that seducer, Werle!

Gina.Do you repent the fourteen or fifteen years that we have lived together?

Hjalmar(standing in front of her). Tell me, have you not repented every day, every hour, for the web of deceit that, like a spider, you have spun around me? Answer me that! Have you not really gone about here remorseful and penitent?

Gina.Ah! dear Ekdal, I’ve had quite enough to think of with the house and all the daily work——

Hjalmar.So you never cast a searching glance at your past?

Gina.No; God knows, I had almost forgotten those old intrigues.

Hjalmar.Ah! This callous, insensible calm! There is something so revolting to me in this! Think—not even remorse.

Gina.But tell me, Ekdal, what would have become of you if you had not found a wife like me?

Hjalmar.Like you——

Gina.Yes, for I’ve always been a little more businesslike and practical than you. Well, of course, that’s natural, for I’m a few years older.

Hjalmar.What would have become of me!

Gina.For you had got into all sorts of bad habits when you first met me; you surely can’t deny that.

Hjalmar.So you call those bad habits! Ah! you don’t understand a man’s feelings, when he is in sorrow and despair—especially a man with my fiery temperament.

Gina.Well, well, that may be. And I’m not regaling about all that either; for you became such a model husband as soon as ever you’d a house and home of your own. And now we’ve made it all so comfortable and cosy here; and Hedvig and I were soon going to spend a little more both for food and clothes.

Hjalmar.In the swamp of deceit, yes.

Gina.Oh! that that abominable fellow should ever have set foot in this house!

Hjalmar.I too thought home good to be in. That was a delusion. Whence now shall I get the needful elasticity of mind to bring the invention into the world of realities. Perhaps it will die with me, and then it will be your past, Gina, that has slain it.

Gina(almost crying). No, you mustn’t say any such thing, Ekdal. I, who all my days have only tried to do the best for you!

Hjalmar.I ask—what becomes now of the bread-winner’s dream? When I lay in there on the sofa pondering over the invention, I already had the presentiment that it would devour my whole powers. I felt, too, that the day when I should hold the patent in my hands—that day would be my last. And so it was my dream that you should be left here the well-to-do widow of the departed inventor.

Gina(drying her tears). No, youmustnot speak like that, Ekdal. God forbid I should live to see the day when I was a widow!

Hjalmar.Ah! ’tis all one. Now all this is past anyhow. All!

Gregers Werleopens the entrance-door cautiously and looks in.

Gregers.May I come in?

Hjalmar.Yes, do.

Gregers(enters with a face beaming with delight and holds out his hands to them). Now, my dear friends (looking at them alternately and whispering toHjalmar) so it is not yet over?

Hjalmar(aloud). Itisover.

Gregers.It is?

Hjalmar.I have passed through the bitterest moments of my life.

Gregers.But the most ennobling, too, I should think.

Hjalmar.Well, at any rate it’s off our hands.

Gina.God forgive you, Mr. Werle.

Gregers(with the utmost astonishment). But I don’t understand this.

Hjalmar.What don’t you understand?

Gregers.So great a reckoning—a reckoning that is to lay the foundation of a new life—the living together in truth and without all deceit——

Hjalmar.Yes, I know that well enough, I know that so well.

Gregers.I felt so sure that as I entered the door, a light of transfiguration and joy from the faces of bothman and wife would shine upon me. And now I see nothing but this dull, dreary, sad——

Gina.Oh, that’s it!

Takes the shade off the lamp.

Gregers.You will not understand me, Mrs. Ekdal, well, well, for you I dare say it will take time. But, you yourself, Hjalmar? You must feel a higher consecration after this great reckoning?

Hjalmar.Yes, of course, I do. That is to say, after a fashion.

Gregers.For surely there is nothing on earth to compare with this, to forgive one who has erred, and lovingly to raise her up to yourself.

Hjalmar.Do you think a man can so easily forget a draught so bitter as that which I have drained.

Gregers.Anordinaryman, no; that may be. But a man like you!

Hjalmar.Yes. Good gracious, I knew that well enough. But youmustn’tdrive me, Gregers. It takes time, you see.

Gregers.You have a great deal of the wild duck in you, Hjalmar.

Rellinghas come in at the entrance door.

Relling.Hallo! Is the wild duck to the fore again?

Hjalmar.Mr. Werle senior’s broken-winged victim of the chase, yes.

Relling.Mr. Werle senior’s? Is it he you are speaking of?

Hjalmar.Of him and of—us others.

Relling(in a low tone toGregers). The devil take you!

Hjalmar.What is that you’re saying?

Relling.I was wishing heartily that the quack would take himself off home. If he stops here he’s just the man to muddle things up for you both.

Gregers.Things will not be muddled for these two, Mr. Relling. I will not speak of Hjalmar now. Him we know. But she, too, at the bottom of her heart must surely have some truth, some sincerity.

Gina(tearfully). You might have let me pass for what Iwasthen?

Relling(toGregers). Would it be impertinent to inquire, what it is you really want in this house?

Gregers.I wish to lay the foundation of a true marriage.

Relling.So you don’t think that the Ekdal’s marriage is good enough as it is?

Gregers.It is certainly quite as good a marriage as most others, unfortunately. But it has not yet become atruemarriage.

Hjalmar.You have never had any sense for the claims of the ideal, Relling.

Relling.Stuff and nonsense, my good fellow! With your permission, Mr. Werle—how many—approximately—how many true marriages have you seen in your life?

Gregers.I hardly think I’ve seen a single one.

Relling.Nor have I.

Gregers.But I have seen such numberless marriages of the opposite kind. And I have had occasions to see,from personal observation, how such marriages can demoralize two human beings.

Hjalmar.The whole moral foundation of a man may give way beneath his feet;thatis the terrible part of it.

Relling.Well, I’ve never exactly been married, so I’m no judge of such things. But this I do know, thechildis part of the marriage too. And you must leave the child at peace.

Hjalmar.Ah! Hedvig! My poor Hedvig!

Relling.Yes, you must be so good as to keep Hedvig out of all this. You two are grown-up people; you can, in God’s name muddle and meddle with your lives, if you feel inclined. But you must be careful with Hedvig, I tell you, else you may do her a mischief.

Hjalmar.A mischief!

Relling.Yes—or she may do herself a mischief!—and perhaps others, too.

Gina.But how canyouknow that, Relling?

Hjalmar.There is no immediate danger to her eyes.

Relling.This has nothing to do with her eyes. But Hedvig is at an awkward age. She might get into all sorts of mischief.

Gina.Yes, just fancy—she does that already! She’s begun carrying on with the fire out in the kitchen. She calls it playing at house on fire. I’m often frightened she’ll set fire to the house.

Relling.There you see, I knew it well enough.

Gregers(toRelling). But how do you account for this?

Relling(sulkily). She is passing through a constitutional change, man.

Hjalmar.As long as the child has me!—So long as my head is above ground——

There is a knock at the door.

Gina.Hush, Ekdal! There is some one in the passage. (Calls out.) Come in!

Mrs. Sorby,in walking costume, comes in.

Mrs. Sorby.Good evening!

Gina(going up to her). What, is it you, Bertha!

Mrs. Sorby.Yes, indeed it is. I hope I’m not in the way.

Hjalmar.Not in the least; an emissary fromthathouse——

Mrs. Sorby.Frankly, I didn’t expect to find your men-folk at home about this time; and so I ran up for a little chat with you, and to bid you good-by.

Gina.Really? Are you going away?

Mrs. Sorby.Yes, early to-morrow; up to Hojdal. Mr. Werle left this afternoon. (Lightly toGregers.) He sent his greetings to you.

Gina.Well, I never!——

Hjalmar.So Mr. Werle has gone away? And now you are going after him!

Mrs. Sorby.Yes, what do you think of that, Ekdal?

Hjalmar.I say, be on your guard.

Gregers.I can explain it to you. My father is going to marry Mrs. Sorby.

Hjalmar.Marry her!

Gina.Really, Bertha, at last then!

Relling(his voice trembles slightly). Surely this isn’t true?

Mrs. Sorby.Yes, dear Relling, it is true enough.

Relling.Are you going to marry again now?

Mrs. Sorby.Yes, it looks like it. Werle has got a special license and so we’re going to keep our wedding quite quietly up at the Works.

Gregers.I suppose as a good step-son I must wish you happiness.

Mrs. Sorby.Thank you—if you really mean it. And I hope it will be for both Werle’s and my own happiness.

Relling.You may certainly hope that. Mr. Werle never gets drunk——so far as I know; and he’s certainly not in the habit of beating his wives either, like the late lamented horse-doctor used to do.

Mrs. Sorby.Ah! let Sorby be in peace where he lies. He also had his good sides; he, too——

Relling.But Mr. Werle has better sides, I dare swear.

Mrs. Sorby.At any rate he hasn’t wasted what was best in him. The man who does that must take the consequences.

Relling.I shall go out this evening with Molvik.

Mrs. Sorby.You shouldn’t do that, Relling. Don’t do it—for my sake.

Relling.There’s nothing else for it. (ToHjalmar.) If you want to make one of us, come along.

Gina.No, thanks. Ekdal doesn’t go in for that sort of divulsions.

Hjalmar(vexed, in a low voice). Ah! be quiet.

Relling.Good-by, Mrs.—— Werle.

He goes out through the entrance-door.

Gregers(toMrs. Sorby). It seems you and Dr. Relling knew one another pretty intimately.

Mrs. Sorby.Yes, we’ve known one another for many a year. Once, indeed, it might have come to something between us, too.

Gregers.It was a good thing for you it didn’t.

Mrs. Sorby.You may well say that. But I have always taken care not to act upon impulse. And a woman can’t throw herself quite away, either.

Gregers.Are you not in the least afraid that I might give my father a hint as to this old acquaintance?

Mrs. Sorby.Surely you understand that I have told him myself.

Gregers.Indeed?

Mrs. Sorby.Your father knows down to the very least detail all that people might fairly say against me.I have told him all this; it was the first thing I did when he let me see his intentions.

Gregers.You are more than commonly frank, I think.

Mrs. Sorby.I have always been frank. That’s the best way for us women.

Hjalmar.What do you say to that, Gina?

Gina.Ah! we women are so different, we are. Some take one way and some another.

Mrs. Sorby.Yes, Gina, but I believe it is wisest to arrange matters as I have done. And Werle, too, has concealed nothing of what concerns himself from me. Indeed, it wasthatwhich chiefly brought us together. Now he can sit and talk to me as frankly as a child.He has never been able to do that all his life. He, the strong man, full of life, heard nothing all through his youth and all through the best years of his life butsermons. And many a time the sermons were about merely imaginary offenses—as I’ve heard say.

Gina.Yes, what they say’s true enough.

Gregers.If you ladies are going to discuss that subject I had better go.

Mrs. Sorby.You needn’t go on that account. I shall not say another word. I only wanted you to know that I had done nothing deceitful or in any way underhand. It may be, perhaps, a great piece of good fortune for me—and so indeed it is in some respects. But still I think I receive no more than I give. Assuredly I shall never fail him. And I shall serve him and tend him as no one else could, now that he is becoming helpless.

Hjalmar.Helpless?

Gregers(toMrs. Sorby). Don’t speak of that here.

Mrs. Sorby.It’s no use hiding it any longer, much as he would like to. He’s going blind.

Hjalmar(starting). Going blind? That’s strange. He is going blind, too?

Gina.So many people do.

Mrs. Sorby.And you can imagine what that means to a business man. Well, I shall try to use my eyes for him as well as I can. But I mustn’t stay any longer, I’m so busy just now—oh! I was to tell you Ekdal, that if there was anything Werle could do for you, you have only to apply to Graberg.

Gregers.I’m sure Hjalmar Ekdal will decline that offer.

Mrs. Sorby.Indeed? I don’t think he used to be so——

Gina.Yes, Bertha, Ekdal wants nothing more from Mr. Werle.

Hjalmar(slowly and emphatically). Will you present my compliments to your future husband, and tell him that I intend very shortly to call upon the book-keeper, Graberg——

Gregers.What! You’ll do that.

Hjalmar.——to call upon the book-keeper, Graberg, I say, and ask for an account of the money I owe his principal. I shall pay back this debt of honor—ha, ha, ha! let us call it a debt of honor! But enough of this. I shall repay the whole with five per cent interest.

Gina.But, dear Ekdal, goodness knows we’ve not the money to do it.

Hjalmar.Will you tell your betrothed that I am working indefatigably at my invention. Will you tell him that what sustained my strength for this exhausting labor, is the desire to be rid of the torture of this load of debt. That’s why I go on with the invention. I shall devote the whole of the profits to the repayment of the pecuniary advances made me by your future consort.

Mrs. Sorby.Something has happened in this house.

Hjalmar.Yes, there has.

Mrs. Sorby.Well, good-bye then. There are lots of things I want to talk to you about, Gina, but they must wait till another time. Good-bye.

HjalmarandGregersbow silently;GinafollowsMrs. Sorbyto the door.

Hjalmar.Not beyond the threshold, Gina! (Mrs. Sorbygoes out,Ginacloses the door after her.)Gregers! Now I am free of this dead weightofindebtedness.

Gregers.At any rate you soon will be.

Hjalmar.I think my attitude may be called correct.

Gregers.You are the man I have always taken you for.

Hjalmar.In certain cases it is impossible to set aside the claims of the ideal. As the bread-winner of a family, I must writhe and agonize beneath this. For believe me, it’s no joke for a man of small means to pay off a debt that has been accumulating for years, over which, so to say, the dust of oblivion lies. But be this as it may, the Man in me too demands his rights.

Gregers(putting his hands on his shoulders). Dear Hjalmar—was it not well that I came?

Hjalmar.Yes.

Gregers.That you were shown clearly your true position—was it not well?

Hjalmar(somewhat impatiently). Yes, of course it was well. But there is one thing against which my sense of justice revolts.

Gregers.And what is that?

Hjalmar.It is this, that—but I really don’t know if I may express myself so freely about your father.

Gregers.Pray do not mind me in the least!

Hjalmar.Very well. You see, it seems to me so revolting to think that now it is not I, but he who will realize the true marriage.

Gregers.How can you say such a thing!

Hjalmar.But it is so. For your father and Mrs. Sorby are entering upon a marriage-contract founded upon complete confidence, founded upon perfect andabsolute frankness on both sides; there are no concealments between them; there’s nothing kept in the background in their relation; the two sinners, if I may so express myself, proclaim mutual forgiveness.

Gregers.Well, and what then?

Hjalmar.But that’s the whole point of the thing. Why it was all these difficulties, as you yourself said, that were needed to found a true marriage.

Gregers.But this is quite another matter, Hjalmar. Surely you would not conjure either yourself or her with those two. Oh! you understand me.

Hjalmar.But I can’t get away from the fact, that in all this there is something that wounds and offends my sense of rectitude. Why, it looks exactly as if there were no righteous providence in the direction of the world.

Gina.Oh! Ekdal, God knows youmustn’tsay such things.

Gregers.H’m, don’t let us enter upon that question.

Hjalmar.But, on the other hand, I seem to behold the guiding finger of Fate. He is going blind.

Gina.Oh! perhaps that’s not so very certain.

Hjalmar.It is indubitable. We, at any rate, ought not to question that, for it is just in this fact that there lies the righteous retribution. He has in his time blinded a trusting fellow-creature.

Gregers.Unfortunately he has blinded many.

Hjalmar.And now Fate, the inexorable, the mysterious, demands his own eyes.

Gina.How can you dare to say such awful things! I’m quite frightened.

Hjalmar.It is good at times to ponder upon the seamy side of existence.

Hedvig,with hat and cloak, delighted and out of breath, comes in at the entrance door.

Gina.Are you back again already?

Hedvig.Yes, I didn’t want to stop any longer. And it’s a good thing I didn’t, for I met somebody at the door.

Hjalmar.I suppose it was that Mrs. Sorby.

Hedvig.Yes.

Hjalmar(walking up and down). I hope you’ve seen her for the last time.

A pause.Hedviglooks shyly from one to the other as if to see what it all means.

Hedvig(going up to him coaxingly). Father!

Hjalmar.Well—what is it, Hedvig?

Hedvig.Mrs. Sorby had brought me something.

Hjalmar(stopping still). For you?

Hedvig.Yes. It’s something for to-morrow.

Gina.Bertha has always brought some little thing for you on that day.

Hjalmar.What is it?

Hedvig.You mustn’t know now; for mother’s to give it me in bed to-morrow morning.

Hjalmar.Ah! All this companionship from which I am shut out!

Hedvig(quickly). No, you can see if you like it. It’s a big letter. (Taking the letter from her cloak pocket.)

Hjalmar.A letter, too?

Hedvig.Yes, it’s only a letter. I suppose the other’s coming later. But fancy—a letter! I’ve never had a letter before. And there’s “Miss” on the outside. (Reads.) “Miss Hedvig Ekdal.” Fancy—that’s me.

Hjalmar.Let me see that letter.

Hedvig(holding it out to him). There, you can see.

Hjalmar.It is Mr. Werle’s hand.

Gina.Are you sure of that, Ekdal?

Hjalmar.See for yourself.

Gina.Oh! Do you think I understand anything about it?

Hjalmar.Hedvig, may I open the letter—and read it?

Hedvig.Yes, of course you may, if you like.

Gina.No, not to-night, Ekdal; why it’s for to-morrow.

Hedvig(in a low tone). Oh! do let him read it! It’s sure to be something nice, and then father’ll be glad and he’ll be in good spirits again.

Hjalmar.Then I may open it.

Hedvig.Yes, please do, father. It’ll be such fun to know what it is.

Hjalmar.Good. (He opens the letter, takes out a paper, reads it through and seems confused.) What is this!——

Gina.What’s in it, then?

Hedvig.Oh, yes, father—tell us!

Hjalmar.Be silent. (Reads it through again; he turns pale but masters himself.) It’s a deed of gift, Hedvig.

Hedvig.Fancy! What is it I’m to have?

Hjalmar.Read it yourself. (Hedviggoes to the lamp and reads a moment.)

Hjalmar(in a low voice, clenching his hands). The eyes! the eyes!—and now this letter!

Hedvig(leaves off reading). Yes, but I think this is meant for grandfather.

Hjalmar(taking the letter from her). You Gina—can you understand this?

Gina.Why, I don’t know anything on earth about it—just tell us.

Hjalmar.Mr. Werle writes to Hedvig that her old grandfather need no longer trouble himself with copying, but that for the future he’s to draw a hundred crowns a month at the office.

Gregers.Aha!

Hedvig.A hundred crowns, mother! I read that.

Gina.That’ll come in very well for grandfather.

Hjalmar.——A hundred crowns as long as he may need it—that means, of course, until he has closed his eyes in death.

Gina.Well, then he’s provided for, poor old fellow.

Hjalmar.But there’s more follows. You didn’t read this, Hedvig. Afterwards it’s to revert to you.

Hedvig.To me! All of it?

Hjalmar.He writes that the same sum is assured to you for your whole life. Do you hear that, Gina?

Gina.Yes, I hear well enough.

Hedvig.Fancy—I’m to have all that money! (Shaking him.) Father, father, aren’t you glad——

Hjalmar(evasively). Glad! (Walking about the room.) Ah! what an out-look!—what a perspective unrollsitself before me! It is Hedvig, it is she whom he endows so richly!

Gina.Why, it’s Hedvig’s birthday——

Hedvig.And it’ll be yours all the same, father! You know that I shall give all the money to you and mother.

Hjalmar.To mother; yes. That’s it.

Gregers.Hjalmar, this is a snare he is laying for you.

Hjalmar.Do you think this is another snare?

Gregers.When he was here this morning he said, “Hjalmar Ekdal is not the man you take him for.”

Hjalmar.Not the man!

Gregers.“You will see that,” he said.

Hjalmar.You were to see that I would allow myself to be bought with money——

Hedvig.But, mother, what’s the matter?

Gina.Go and take off your things.

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