HjalmarandHedvigpush the doors of the loft together.
HjalmarandHedvigpush the doors of the loft together.
Ekdal.Another time you can see her properly. (Sitting down in the arm-chair by the stove.) Ah! wild ducks are very wonderful creatures, take my word for it.
Gregers.But how did you catch it, Lieutenant Ekdal?
Ekdal.Didn’t catch her, I didn’t. There’s a certain man in the town here, whom we’ve to thank for her.
Gregers(starting slightly). Surely the man’s not my father?
Ekdal.Yes, he is though. Just your father. H’m!
Hjalmar.It is funny you should have guessed that, Gregers.
Gregers.Why you were telling me that you were indebted to my father for all sorts of things, and so I thought that——
Gina.But we’ve not had the duck from Mr. Werle himself.
Ekdal.It’s Haaken Werle we’ve to thank for her, all the same, Gina. (ToGregers.) He was out in his boat, you know, and he shot her. But your father’s sight is so bad now. H’m; she was only wounded.
Gregers.I see. She got a few shots in her body.
Hjalmar.Yes, she did—two or three shots.
Hedvig.She was hit under the wing, and so she could not fly away.
Gregers.And then, I suppose, she dived to the bottom?
Ekdal(sleepily, with thick utterance). Know all about that. Always so with wild ducks. Made for the bottom—as far as they can get, my lad—get caught in the tangle and the sea-weed—and all the damned stuff that’s down below there. And so they never come to the surface again.
Gregers.But, Lieutenant Ekdal,yourwild duck came to the surface.
Ekdal.He’d got a most remarkably clever dog, had your father. And the dog—dived after the duck and brought her up again.
Gregers(turning toHjalmar). And so you found it here?
Hjalmar.Not directly; first it was taken to your father’s; but the wild thing didn’t thrive there; so Pettersen was ordered to kill it——
Ekdal(half asleep). H’m—yes, Pettersen—idiot——
Hjalmar(speaking in a lower tone). So that was how we got her, you see, for father knows Pettersen a little, and when he heard about the wild duck, he managed to get it handed over to him.
Gregers.And now it thrives so well up here in the loft.
Hjalmar.Yes, wonderfully well. She’s getting fat. Well, she’s been in there so long now she’s forgotten the old wild life; and that’s the main thing.
Gregers.You are right there, Hjalmar. Only never let her see the sky or the sea—— But Imustn’tstay any longer; for I think your father’s asleep.
Hjalmar.Oh! don’t mind him——
Gregers.But—by the way—you said you had a room to let—a spare room?
Hjalmar.Certainly—what then? Do you know anyone——
Gregers.Could I have the room?
Hjalmar.You?
Gina.No, but you, Mr. Werle——
Gregers.Can I have the room? Then I’ll move in early to-morrow.
Hjalmar.Yes, with the greatest pleasure——
Gina.But, Mr. Werle, it’s not at all the sort of room for you.
Hjalmar.But, Gina, how can you say that?
Gina.Yes, for the room’s neither large nor light, and——
Gregers.That doesn’t matter, Mrs. Ekdal.
Hjalmar.I think it’s a very nice room, and not so badly furnished, either.
Gina.But think of those two who live underneath us.
Gregers.What two are they?
Gina.Oh! one of them’s been a tutor.
Hjalmar.That’s Licentiate Molvik.
Gina.And then there’s a doctor calling Relling.
Gregers.Relling? I used to know him a little. He practiced for a time up at the Works.
Gina.They’re a pair of dissipated good-for-nothings. They’re often out on the loose of an evening, and they come home very late at night, and then they’re not always as——
Gregers.One soon gets used to that. I hope I shall be like the wild duck.
Gina.H’m, I think you’d better sleep on it first, all the same.
Gregers.You seem extremely unwilling to have me in the house, Mrs. Ekdal.
Gina.Lord, no! How can you think that?
Hjalmar.Yes, it’s really very extraordinary of you.
Gina(toGregers). But tell me, are you thinking of stopping in town then for the present?
Gregers(putting on his overcoat). Yes, now I think of stopping here.
Hjalmar.But not at home with your father? What do you mean to do?
Gregers.Ah! If only I knewthatI should not be so badly off. But when one has the misfortune to be called Gregers—“Gregers”—and then“Werle” after it; have you ever heard anything so hideous?
Hjalmar.Oh! I don’t think that so bad.
Gregers.Huh! Pish! I should feel inclined to spit at a fellow with such a name. But when one has the misfortune to be Gregers—Werle here on earth, as I have——
Hjalmar(laughing). Ha—ha! If you weren’t Gregers Werle, what else would you be?
Gregers.If I had my choice, I should prefer being a clever dog.
Gina.A dog!
Hedvig(involuntarily). Oh! not that!
Gregers.Yes, a real uncommonly clever dog; such a one as can dive under after wild ducks, when they go to the bottom, and get fast in all the tangle and sea-weeds down in the mud below.
Hjalmar.I’ll tell you what, Gregers—I don’t understand a word of all this.
Gregers.Oh, no! It doesn’t mean anything in particular. Early to-morrow, then, I’ll move in. (ToGina.) Don’t you trouble about me; I do everything for myself. (ToHjalmar.) We’ll talk over the rest to-morrow. Good night, Mrs. Ekdal. (Nodding toHedvig.) Good night!
Gina.Good night, Mr. Werle.
Hedvig.Good night.
Hjalmar(who has lighted a candle). Wait a moment, I must light you down, for it’s very dark on the stairs.
GregersandHjalmargo out together through the entrance-door.
GregersandHjalmargo out together through the entrance-door.
Gina(looking straight in front of her, with her work on her lap). Wasn’t that strange talk about his wanting to be a dog?
Hedvig.I’ll tell you what, mother—I think he meant something else by that.
Gina.What couldthatbe?
Hedvig.Why, I don’t know, but it was just as if he meant something different from what he was saying—all the time.
Gina.Do you think so? It was certainly strange.
Hjalmar(returning). The lamp was still alight. (Puts out the light and puts it down.) Ah, at last one can get a mouthful to eat. (Begins eating the bread and butter.) Now, you see, Gina, if one only makes a little effort——
Gina.How, effort?
Hjalmar.Yes, for it’s a blessing after all we’ve at last let that room for a time. And only think—to a fellow like Gregers—a dear, old friend.
Gina.I hardly know what to say about it, I don’t.
Hedvig.Oh, mother, you’ll see it’ll be such fun.
Hjalmar.Youarestrange. First you were so anxious to let it, and now you don’t like it.
Gina.Yes, Ekdal; if it had only been to some one else, but what do you think Mr. Werle will say?
Hjalmar.Old Werle? It’s no business of his.
Gina.But you may be sure there’s something up between them again, as the young one’s moving out of the house. You know well enough how things are between those two.
Hjalmar.Yes, that may be, but——
Gina.And now, perhaps, Mr. Werle’ll think you’re at the bottom of it——
Hjalmar.Let him think so as long as he likes! Mr. Werle has done an immense deal for me. Good heavens! I don’t deny it—but I can’t on that account remain his dependent all my life.
Gina.But, dear Ekdal, perhaps grandfather may have to suffer for it; he maylosehis poor little earnings that he gets through Graberg.
Hjalmar.I’m almost inclined to say: so much the better! Is it not sufficiently humiliating for a man like me to see his grey-haired father going about as an outcast? But the fullness of time is coming now, I think. (He takes another piece of bread and butter.) As surely as I have a mission in life, so surely I will not shrink from it!
Hedvig.Oh! no, father, don’t!
Gina.Hush! Don’t wake him!
Hjalmar(in a lower tone). I will not shrink from it, I tell you. The day will yet come, when—— And that’s why it’s a good thing we’ve let the room; for that makes me more independent. And a man must bethatwhen he has a mission in life. (Turning towards the arm-chair, with emotion.) My poor white-haired old father! Lean on your Hjalmar. He has broad shoulders—strong shoulders, at any rate. You will awaken one day and—— (ToGina.) Perhaps, you don’t believe it?
Gina(rising). Of course, I do—but in the meantime let’s get him to bed.
Hjalmar.Yes, let us do so.
They take up the old man carefully.
They take up the old man carefully.