ACT V.

[Hjalmar Ekdal’sstudio. Cold gray morning light. Wet snow on the great panes of the sky-light.Gina,in an apron and bib, with a broom and duster in her hand comes from the kitchen and goes towards the door of the sitting-room. At the same timeHedvigcomes in hurriedly at the entrance-door.]

Gina(stopping). Well?

Hedvig.Oh, mother, I almost believe he’s down at Relling’s——

Gina.There, you see!

Hedvig.For the porter’s wife said she could hear that Relling had two people with him when he came home in the night.

Gina.That’s just what I thought.

Hedvig.But that’s no good if he won’t come up to us.

Gina.At any rate I’ll go down and speak to him.

Old Ekdalin dressing-gown and slippers, and with a lighted pipe comes in by the door of his room.

Ekdal.I say, Hjalmar—— Isn’t Hjalmar at home?

Gina.No, he’s gone out.

Ekdal.So early? And in such a heavy snow-storm? Well, well, give me a hand, please, I can go the morning rounds alone.

He pushes aside the door of the loft,Hedvighelps him; he goes in, she closes the door after him.

Hedvig(in a low voice). Oh, think, mother, when poor grandfather hears that father is going away from us.

Gina.Oh, nonsense! Grandfather mustn’t hear anything about it. It’s a mercy he wasn’t at home yesterday during all that hullaballoo.

Hedvig.Yes, but——

Gregerscomes in at the entrance door.

Gregers.Well? Have you found any trace of him?

Gina.They say he’s down at Relling’s.

Gregers.At Relling’s! Has he really been out with those creatures?

Gina.He has like enough.

Gregers.Yes, but he—so in need of solitude and of thorough self-examination.

Gina.Yes, you may well say that.

Rellingcomes in from the passage.

Hedvig(going up to him). Is father with you?

Gina(at the same time). Is he there?

Relling.Yes, of course he is.

Hedvig.And you never told us!

Relling.Yes, I’m a brute—but I had to get the other brute quiet first—the dæmonic one, of course—and then I fell so sound asleep that——

Gina.What does Ekdal say to-day?

Relling.He doesn’t say anything whatever.

Hedvig.Doesn’t he say anything?

Relling.Not a blessed word.

Gregers.No, no; I can well understand that.

Gina.But what’s he doing then?

Relling.He’s lying on the sofa, snoring.

Gina.Really? Yes, Ekdal’s a great one to snore.

Hedvig.Is he asleep? Can he sleep?

Relling.Well, it looks like it.

Gregers.Very natural after the spiritual strife that has torn him——

Gina.And especially as he’s not accustomed to knocking about at night.

Hedvig.Perhaps it’s as well, mother, that father is able to sleep.

Gina.I think so, too. But now it’s not worth while for us to go and wake him too soon. Thank you, anyhow, Relling. I must first tidy up the rooms and then—— Come and help me, Hedvig.

GinaandHedviggo into the sitting-room.

Gregers(turning toRelling). Can you explain to me the spiritual turmoil now going on in Hjalmar Ekdal?

Relling.Upon my soul I’ve not noticed any spiritual turmoil going on in him.

Gregers.What! At such a juncture, when a new foundation is being laid for his whole life. Now, can you imagine that a man of Hjalmar’s individuality——

Relling.Oh! Individuality—he! If he ever had any tendencies to the abnormal developments that you call individuality, they were extirpated, root and branch, while he was yet a boy; I can assure you of that.

Gregers.That would be strange after the loving care with which he was brought up.

Relling.You mean by those two affected, hysterical maiden aunts?

Gregers.I may tell you they were women who never lost sight of the claims of the ideal—ah! you’ll gibe at me again, I suppose?

Relling.No, I’m in no humor for that.Moreover, I know it all, for he has poured forth any amount of rhetoric about his “two spiritual-mothers.” But I don’t think he has much to thank them for. It is Ekdal’s misfortune that in his circle he has always been taken for a shining light——

Gregers.And isn’t he one? In depth of soul I mean.

Relling.I’ve never noticed anything of the sort. That his father should have believed this—well and good; for the old lieutenant has been a blockhead all his life.

Gregers.All his life he has been a man with a child-like mind—thatis what you can not understand.

Relling.Tut, tut! But as soon as the dear, sweet Hjalmar went to college, his fellow students instantly took him for the coming man. He was good looking, the rascal—red and white—just the sort of thing to delight a school girl—and as he had that mobile temperament and that sympathetic voice, and was so clever at declaiming the verses and ideas of others——

Gregers(indignantly). Is it of Hjalmar Ekdal you are speaking like this?

Relling.Yes, with your permission; that’s how the idol before which you lie prostrate, looks from within.

Gregers.Yet I don’t think I am altogether blind either.

Relling.Oh! you’re not so very far from it. For you are a sick man too, you see.

Gregers.There you are right.

Relling.Exactly. You are suffering from a complicated complaint. First, there’s that troublesomevirtue-fever; and what’s worse, you’re always working yourself up into a delirium of hero-worship. You must always have something to admire outside yourself.

Gregers.Yes, indeed, I must seek it outside myself.

Relling.But you make such woeful blunders about the mighty paragons you think you see and hear about you. Here you’ve been visiting a farmer’s cottage again with your claims of the ideal; but the people in this house aren’t solvent.

Gregers.If you haven’t a better opinion of Hjalmar Ekdal than that, what pleasure can you find in being so constantly in his company?

Relling.Good heavens, I’m ashamed to say I’m supposed to be a sort of a kind of doctor, and so I must look after the poor diseased folk living in the same house.

Gregers.Indeed! Is Hjalmar Ekdal diseased, too?

Relling.Most people are, unfortunately.

Gregers.And what remedy are you applying to Hjalmar?

Relling.My usual one. I take care to keep up his life-lie.

Gregers.The life—lie? Did I hear correctly?

Relling.Yes, I said life-lie. For the life-lie is the stimulating principle, you see.

Gregers.May I ask with what sort of a life-lie Hjalmar is infected?

Relling.No, thanks, I don’t betray such secrets to quacks. You’d be quite capable of muddling him up even more for me. But the method is infallible. I’ve applied it to Molvik, too. I’ve made him “dæmonic.” That’s the phantasy I’ve had to put intohishead.

Gregers.Then he’s not dæmonic?

Relling.What the devil does it mean to be dæmonic? That’s only the gammon I invented to keep him going. If I’d not done that the poor, inoffensive fellow would have succumbed to self-contempt and despair many a long year ago. And then the old lieutenant! But he really hit upon his own cure.

Gregers.Lieutenant Ekdal? What of him?

Relling.Yes, think of it, he, the bear-hunter, goes into that gloomy loft and hunts rabbits! There’s not a sportsman on earth happier than that old man, when he’s bustling about in there with all that rubbish. The four or five withered Christmas trees that he stored up there are to him the same as the whole of the great, fresh Hojdal forest; the cock and the hens are to him game perched on the top of fir trees, and the rabbits hopping about the floor of the loft, they are the bears he grapples with, he, the hardy old hunter.

Gregers.Unfortunate old Lieutenant Ekdal, yes. He certainly has had to modify the ideals of his youth.

Relling.But, by the way, Mr. Werle, junior—don’t use that foreign word “ideals.” We’ve as good a word, “lies.”

Gregers.Do you think the two things are akin, then?

Relling.Yes, much as typhus and putrescent fever are.

Gregers.Doctor Relling, I shall not rest content until I have rescuedHjalmarfrom your clutches!

Relling.That would be worst forhim. If you take away the average man’s life-lie you take away his happiness at the same time. (ToHedvig,who comes in from the sitting-room.) Well, little mother of the wildduck. I’m going down now to see if our father’s still lying there pondering on that wonderful invention.

He goes out at the entrance door.

Gregers(approachingHedvig). I can see from your face that it’s not yet done.

Hedvig.What? Oh! that about the wild duck. No.

Gregers.I suppose your strength of mind failed you when it came to the point.

Hedvig.No, it’s not that exactly. But when I woke up early this morning and thought over what we’d talked about, it seemed to me that it was so strange.

Gregers.Strange?

Hedvig.Yes, I don’t know—— Yesterday evening, directly after, I thought there was something so beautiful about it; but after I’d been to sleep and thought it over again, there seemed to be nothing in it.

Gregers.Ah no! I suppose you couldn’t have grown up here without some falling off.

Hedvig.That doesn’t matter, if only father would come up, I——

Gregers.Ah! If only your eyes had been really opened to that which makes life of value—if you had the real, joyous, brave spirit of sacrifice you would soon see that he would come up to you—— But I still have faith in you, Hedvig.

He goes out at the entrance door.Hedvigwalks about the room; she is going into the kitchen when there is a knock at the door of the loft.Hedviggoes and opens it a little,Old Ekdalcomes out, she pushes the door to again.

Ekdal.H’m. There’s not much fun in going the morning rounds alone.

Hedvig.Didn’t you want to go hunting, grandfather?

Ekdal.Not the weather to-day for hunting. So dark there; you can hardly see your hand before your face.

Hedvig.Haven’t you ever felt inclined to shoot at something besides the rabbits.

Ekdal.Aren’t the rabbits good enough, eh?

Hedvig.Yes, but the wild duck?

Ekdal.Ha, ha! Are you afraid I shall shoot your wild duck? Not for the world, never.

Hedvig.No, I suppose you couldn’t; for they say it’s very difficult to shoot wild ducks.

Ekdal.Couldn’t? Should think I could.

Hedvig.How would you set about it, grandfather—I don’t mean withmywild duck, but with another one?

Ekdal.Would take care to shoot it under the breast, you know, for that’s the safest. And then you must shootagainstthe feathers, you see, notwiththe feathers.

Hedvig.And then they die, grandfather?

Ekdal.Yes, of course, if you shoot properly. Well, now I must go in and get myself up. H’m—you understand—h’m. (He goes into his room.)

Hedvigwaits for a moment, glances at the door of the sitting-room; goes back to the book-case, stands on tip-toe, takes down the double-barreled pistol from the shelf and looks at it.Ginawith broom and duster comes in from the sitting-room.Hedvighurriedly and unnoticed puts away the pistol.

Gina.Don’t stand thererummagingamong your father’s things, Hedvig.

Hedvig(going away from the book-case). I was only tidying it up.

Gina.You’d better go into the kitchen and see if the coffee’s keeping hot; I’ll take the breakfast tray with me when I go down to him.

Hedviggoes out;Ginabegins sweeping and dusting the studio. After a while the entrance-door is open hesitatingly, andHjalmar Ekdallooks in. He has on his overcoat, but no hat, he is unwashed, and his hair is tumbled and disheveled; his eyes are dull and lusterless.

Gina(stands still with the broom in her hand and looks at him). Ah! Ekdal, so you’ve come after all?

Hjalmar(comes in and answers in a hollow voice). I have come—only to depart at once.

Gina.Yes, yes, so I suppose. But, good Lord! what a sight you do look!

Hjalmar.A sight?

Gina.And your good winter-coat, too! Well, that’s done for.

Hedvig(at the kitchen door). Mother, hadn’t I better—— (She seesHjalmar,cries out with delight, and runs towards him.) Oh! Father, father!

Hjalmar(turns from her, and waives her off.) Away, away, away! (ToGina.) Take her away from me, I say!

Gina(in a low voice). Go into the sitting-room, Hedvig.

Hedviggoes in silently.

Hjalmar(busy pulling out the table-drawer). I must have my books—where are my books?

Gina.What books?

Hjalmar.My scientific works, of course—the technical periodicals, that I need for my invention.

Gina(searching in the book-case). Are these the ones without any covers?

Hjalmar.Of course they are.

Gina(putting a heap of magazines on the table). Hadn’t I better tell Hedvig to cut them for you?

Hjalmar.They need not be cut for me.

A short pause.

Gina.Then you’re still determined to leave us, Ekdal?

Hjalmar(running over the books). Surely that’s self understood.

Gina.Very well.

Hjalmar(fiercely). For I can’t stop here to have my heart pierced every hour of the day!

Gina.God forgive you, for thinking so poorly of me.

Hjalmar.Prove——

Gina.I think it’s foryouto prove.

Hjalmar.After a past such as yours? There are certain demands—I am tempted to call them ideal demands——

Gina.But about grandfather? What’s to become of him, poor old fellow?

Hjalmar.I know my duty; the helpless old man goes with me. I will go into the town and make arrangements—— H’m (hesitatingly). Has anyone found my hat on the stairs?

Gina.No. Have you lost it?

Hjalmar.Of course I had it when I came home last night; there’s no doubt about that; but I can’t find it this morning.

Gina.Good Lord! Wheredidyou go with those two ragamuffins?

Hjalmar.Ah! don’t question me on trivial matters. Do you think I am in the mood to remember details?

Gina.So long as you’ve not taken cold, Ekdal——

She goes into the kitchen.

Hjalmar(speaking to himself in a low bitter voice whilst he empties the drawer). You’re a scamp, Relling! A rogue! Ah! shameless tempter! If only I could get some one to kill you!

He lays on one side a number of old letters, comes upon the torn paper of the day before, takes it up and looks at the pieces. He puts them down hurriedly whenGinacomes in.

Gina(putting a breakfast tray on the table). Here’s some hot coffee, if you should want it. And there’s some bread and butter too, and some salt meat.

Hjalmar(glancing at the tray). Salt meat! Never beneath this roof! It is true I’ve partaken of no solid food for four and twenty hours, but no matter. My memoranda! The notes of my autobiography. Where’s my diary and my important papers? (He opens the door of the sitting-room, but draws back.) She is there too!

Gina.Well, good Lord, the child must be somewhere.

Hjalmar.Go out.

He stands aside.Hedvigfrightened comes into the studio.

Hjalmar(with his hand on the door handle toGina). During the last moments I am spending in what was once my home I wished to be spared from interlopers.

He goes into the room.

Hedvig(springing to her mother says in a low trembling voice). Does he mean me?

Gina.Stop in the kitchen, Hedvig; or no, you’d better go to your own room. (Speaking toHjalmaras she goes in to him.) Wait a moment, Ekdal, don’t upset those drawers, I know where all the things are.

Hedvig(stands still for a moment, frightened and irresolute, biting her lips to keep back her tears, then she clenches her hands convulsively and says in a low voice). The wild duck!

She steals to the book-case, and takes the pistol from the shelf, just opens the door of the loft, slips in and closes the door behind her.HjalmarandGinabegin discussing within the sitting-room.

Hjalmar(comes in with several note books and loose papers, which he puts down on the table). Ah! what’s the good of the portmanteau! There are a thousand things I’ve must drag about with me.

Gina(following him with a portmanteau). Why don’t you leave the rest for a while, and take a shirt and a pair of drawers with you.

Hjalmar.Phew!—these wearisome preparations!

He takes off his overcoat and throws it on the sofa.

Gina.And the coffee’s getting cold, too.

Hjalmar.H’m. (Takes a mouthful—abstractedly, and then another.)

Gina(dusting the backs of the chairs). The most difficult thing will be to find such a large loft for the rabbits.

Hjalmar.What! Must I drag all the rabbits about with me, too?

Gina.Yes, grandfather can’t do without the rabbits, I’m sure.

Hjalmar.He will have to get used to that. I have to renounce higher things in life than rabbits.

Gina(dusting the book-case). Shall I put the flute into the portmanteau for you?

Hjalmar.No. No flute for me. But give me the pistol.

Gina.Do you want to take the pigstol?

Hjalmar.Yes. My loaded pistol.

Gina(looking for it). It’s gone. He must have taken it in there with him.

Hjalmar.Is he in the loft.

Gina.Of course he’s in the loft.

Hjalmar.H’m—the lonely old man.

He takes a piece of bread and butter, eats it, and drinks the cup of coffee.

Gina.If only we’d not let that room, you might have moved in there.

Hjalmar.I should remain under the same roof as——! Never, never!

Gina.But couldn’t you stop for a day or two in the sitting-room? You’d have it all to yourself.

Hjalmar.Never within these walls!

Gina.Well, then, down stairs at Relling and Molvik’s?

Hjalmar.Don’t mention those creatures’ names. The mere thought of them takes away my appetite. Ah, no! I must go from house to house seeking shelter for father and myself.

Gina.But you’ve no hat, Ekdal,you’velost it.

Hjalmar.Oh! those two miscreants, so rich in all vices! I must get a hat somehow. (Takes another piece of bread and butter.) Something must be done, for I can’t afford to risk my life. (He looks for something on the tray.)

Gina.What are you looking for.

Hjalmar.Butter.

Gina.I’ll get you some directly.

She goes into the kitchen.

Hjalmar(calls after her). Oh! it doesn’t matter;drybread will do just as well.

Gina(bringing in a butter-dish). Here you are; it’s quite fresh.

She pours him out another cup of coffee, he sits down on the sofa, spreads more butter on his bread, and eats and drinks for a while in silence.

Hjalmar.Could I—without being worried by anyone—no matter whom—could I stop for a day or two in the sitting-room?

Gina.Yes, you could very well, if you would.

Hjalmar.For I can’t see any possibility of getting all father’s things away at once.

Gina.And besides you must tell him first that you won’t go on living with us.

Hjalmar(pushing the cup of coffee from him). That too! I shall have to go into all this complicated business—I must reflect; I must have breathing space; I can not bear all these burdens in one day.

Gina.Especially in such awful weather as it is outside.

Hjalmar(putting away the letter fromWerle). I see the paper’s still lying here.

Gina.Yes, I’ve not touched it.

Hjalmar.The rag doesn’t concern me——

Gina.I’m sureIdon’t intend making any use of it.

Hjalmar.——but all the same there’s no need to throw it away——in all the confusion of my moving it might so easily be——

Gina.I’ll take good care of it, Ekdal.

Hjalmar.The deed of gift belongs first and foremost to father; and it is for him to say if he intends to make use of it.

Gina(sighing). Yes, poor old father——

Hjalmar.For safety’s sake—— Where’s the gum?

Gina(going to the book-case). Here’s the gum-pot.

Hjalmar.And the brush?

Gina.Here’s the brush. (She brings him them.)

Hjalmar(taking up a pair of scissors). Just a bit of paper for the back. (Cuts and gums.) Far be it from me to lay hands upon the property of others—and least of all upon that of a penniless old man. No, nor uponthat of anyone else. That’s it. Let it lie there for a while. And when it’s dry put it away. I never want to set eyes on that document again. Never!

Gregers Werlecomes in from the passage.

Gregers(somewhat astonished). What—are you sitting here, Hjalmar?

Hjalmar(rising hurriedly). I had sunk down from exhaustion.

Gregers.You’ve had breakfast too, I see.

Hjalmar.Corporal needs make themselves felt at times.

Gregers.What have you decided to do?

Hjalmar.For a man like me, there is but one way. I am busy just getting my most important papers together. But, of course, you know that takes time.

Gina(somewhat impatiently). Am I to get the room ready for you, or am I to pack the portmanteau?

Hjalmar(with a vexed side-glance atGregers). Pack—and get the room ready!——

Gina(taking up the portmanteau). All right, then I’ll put in the shirt and the other things.

She goes into the sitting-room and shuts the door after her.

Gregers(after a short pause). I never thought it would end like this. Is it really necessary for you to leave house and home?

Hjalmar(walking about uneasily). What would you have me do? I was not made to bear unhappiness, Gregers. I must have comfort, and security, and peace about me.

Gregers.But can’t you have that? Only try it. Now, it seems to me, there is firm ground here tobuild upon—and begin from the beginning. And remember you’ve the invention to live for.

Hjalmar.Don’t speak of the invention. Perhaps there’s nothing much in it.

Gregers.How so?

Hjalmar.Why, good heavens! What do you really want me to invent? Other men have invented pretty well everything already. It is becoming more difficult every day——

Gregers.And you, who have worked so hard at it——

Hjalmar.It was that debauchee Relling, who made me take it up.

Gregers.Relling?

Hjalmar.Yes, it was he who first called my attention to my aptitude for making some remarkable discovery in photography.

Gregers.Aha! it was Relling!

Hjalmar.Ah! I have been so intensely happy over this. Not so much for the invention or for myself, but because Hedvig believed in it—with all the strength and might of a child’s mind. That is to say I was fool enough to persuade myself she believed in it.

Gregers.Can you really believe that Hedvig would be false to you?

Hjalmar.Now I know what it all means. It is Hedvig who stands in my way. She will blot out the sun from my whole life.

Gregers.Hedvig! Do you mean Hedvig? How could she blot it out for you?

Hjalmar(without answering). I have loved that child beyond all words. I was happy beyond all words whenever I returned to my poor home, and she withher sweet little short-sighted eyes flew to meet me. Confiding fool that I was! I cared for her beyond all words, and, poet-like, I lulled myself in the delusion that she also cared for me beyond all words.

Gregers.And you saythatwas only a delusion?

Hjalmar.How can I tell? I can’t get anything out of Gina. And besides, she lacks all sense of the ideal side of these complications. But I feel impelled to open my heart to you, Gregers. There is that terrible doubt—perhaps Hedvig has never really and truly loved me.

Gregers.You may yet have proof of that. (Listening.) What is that? The wild duck screaming?

Hjalmar.The wild duck’s quacking. Father’s in the loft.

Gregers.It is he! (His eyes brighten with pleasure.) I say again you may yet have proof that poor, misunderstood Hedvig loves you!

Hjalmar.Ah! what proof can she give me! I dare not believe in any protestations from that quarter.

Gregers.Hedvig certainly does not know what deceit is.

Hjalmar.Ah! Gregers, that’s just what is not so certain. Who knows what Gina and that Mrs. Sorby may have sat many a time here whispering and tattling about? And Hedvig keeps her ears open, I can tell you. Perhaps, the deed of gift wasn’t so unexpected after all. I fancy I noticed something of the sort.

Gregers.What has taken possession of you?

Hjalmar.My eyes have been opened. Watch, and you’ll see that the deed of gift is but a beginning. Mrs. Sorby has always done a great deal for Hedvig; and now it’s in her power to do what she likes for thechild. They can take her from me at any time and hour they choose.

Gregers.Not for all the world would Hedvig go away from you.

Hjalmar.Don’t be so sure of that. Suppose they stood there with their hands full, beckoning her—— Ah! I, who have loved her beyond all words! I, who would have found my greatest joy in taking her tenderly by the hand and guiding her as one guides a child frightened at the darkness, through some wild desolate space! Now I feel the gnawing certainty—the poor photographer in his attic-home has never been anything wholly and completely to her. She has only been cunning enough to keep on good terms with him until the right time should come.

Gregers.You don’t believe this yourself, Hjalmar.

Hjalmar.That’s the terrible part of it, that I don’t know what to believe—that I never shall know. But can you really doubt that it must be as I say? Ha, ha!—You rely too much upon the claims of the ideal, my good Gregers! If only the others came, with hands overflowing and cried to the child “leave him, here with us life awaits you.”

Gregers(quickly). Well, what then?

Hjalmar.If then I asked her: “Hedvig, are you willing to forego that life for me?” (Laughs mockingly.) No, thank you—you’d soon hear the answer.

A pistol shot is heard in the loft.

Gregers(loudly and gladly). Hjalmar!

Hjalmar.There! Now he must needs go hunting.

Gina(coming in). Oh! Ekdal, I think grandfather’s a-firing away in the loft by himself.

Hjalmar.I’ll look in.

Gregers(eagerly and moved). One moment! Do you know what that was?

Hjalmar.Of course I do.

Gregers.No, you do not. But I know it. It was the proof!

Hjalmar.What proof?

Gregers.It was a child’s sacrifice. She has got your father to shoot the wild duck.

Hjalmar.Shoot the wild duck!

Gina.Well, I never!

Hjalmar.But what for?

Gregers.She wanted to sacrifice for you the best thing she had on earth; for then she thought you might learn to love her again.

Hjalmar(softly and with emotion). Ah! the child!

Gina.What things she does get hold of.

Gregers.She only wanted to win back your love, Hjalmar; she felt she could not live with out it.

Gina(struggling with her tears). Now you see yourself, Ekdal.

Hjalmar.Gina, where is she?

Gina(sniffling). Poor child, I suppose she’s sitting out in the kitchen.

Hjalmar(goes to the kitchen door and opens it). Hedvig—come! Come in to me! (Looking in.) No, she’s not here.

Gina.Then she’s sitting in her little room.

Hjalmar(outside). No, she’s not here either. (Coming in.) She must have gone out.

Gina.Yes, you know you wouldn’t have her about the house.

Hjalmar.Ah! if only she will return home soon—that I may really tell her—— Now all shall be well, Gregers, for I believe now we can start life afresh.

Gregers(quietly). I knew it; I knew the regeneration would come through the child.

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