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diff --git a/old/pllrs10.txt b/old/pllrs10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..66a6cf4 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/pllrs10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5281 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext Pillars of Society, by Henrik Ibsen +#2 in our series by Henrik Ibsen + + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world, be sure to check +the copyright laws for your country before posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. We need your donations. + +Pillars of Society + +A play in four acts. + +by Henrik Ibsen + +Translated by R. 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Farquharson Sharp + + + + +DRAMATIS PERSONAE + +Karsten Bernick, a shipbuilder. +Mrs. Bernick, his wife. +Olaf, their son, thirteen years old. +Martha Bernick, Karsten Bernick's sister. +Johan Tonnesen, Mrs. Bernick's younger brother. +Lona Hessel, Mrs. Bernick's elder half-sister. +Hilmar Tonnesen, Mrs. Bernick's cousin. +Dina Dorf, a young girl living with the Bernicks. +Rorlund, a schoolmaster. +Rummel, a merchant. +Vigeland and Sandstad, tradesman +Krap, Bernick's confidential clerk. +Aune, foreman of Bernick's shipbuilding yard. +Mrs.Rummel. +Hilda Rummel, her daughter. +Mrs.Holt. +Netta Holt, her daughter. +Mrs.Lynge. + +Townsfolk and visitors, foreign sailors, steamboat passengers, etc., +etc. + +(The action takes place at the Bernicks' house in one of the smaller +coast towns in Norway) + + +ACT I. + +(SCENE.--A spacious garden-room in the BERNICKS' house. In the +foreground on the left is a door leading to BERNICK'S business room; +farther back in the same wall, a similar door. In the middle of the +opposite wall is a large entrance-door, which leads to the street. The +wall in the background is almost wholly composed of plate-glass; a door +in it opens upon a broad flight of steps which lead down to the garden; +a sun-awning is stretched over the steps.Below the steps a part of the +garden is visible,bordered by a fence with a small gate in it. On the +other side of the fence runs a street, the opposite side of which is +occupied by small wooden houses painted in bright colours. It is +summer, and the sun is shining warmly. People are seen, every now and +then, passing along the street and stopping to talk to one another; +others going in and out of a shop at the corner, etc. + +In the room a gathering of ladies is seated round a table. MRS. BERNICK +is presiding; on her left side are MRS. HOLT and her daughter NETTA, +and next to them MRS. RUMMEL and HILDA RUMMEL. On MRS. BERNICK'S right +are MRS. LYNGE, MARTHA BERNICK and DINA DORF. All the ladies are busy +working. On the table lie great piles of linen garments and other +articles of clothing, some half finished, and some merely cut out. +Farther back, at a small table on which two pots of flowers and a glass +of sugared water are standing, RORLUND is sitting, reading aloud from a +book with gilt edges, but only loud enough for the spectators to catch +a word now and then. Out in the garden OLAF BERNICK is running about +and shooting at a target with a toy crossbow. + +After a moment AUNE comes in quietly through the door on the right. +There is a slight interruption in the reading. MRS. BERNICK nods to him +and points to the door on the left. AUNE goes quietly across, knocks +softly at the door of BERNICK'S room, and after a moment's pause, +knocks again. KRAP comes out of the room, with his hat in his hand and +some papers under his arm.) + +Krap: Oh, it was you knocking? + +Aune: Mr. Bernick sent for me. + +Krap: He did--but he cannot see you. He has deputed me to tell you-- + +Aune: Deputed you? All the same, I would much rather-- + +Krap: --deputed me to tell you what he wanted to say to you. You must +give up these Saturday lectures of yours to the men. + +Aune: Indeed? I supposed I might use my own time-- + +Krap: You must not use your own time in making the men useless in +working hours. Last Saturday you were talking to them of the harm that +would be done to the workmen by our new machines and the new working +methods at the yard. What makes you do that? + +Aune: I do it for the good of the community. + +Krap: That's curious, because Mr. Bernick says it is disorganising the +community. + +Aune: My community is not Mr. Bernick's, Mr. Krap! As President of the +Industrial Association, I must-- + +Krap: You are, first and foremost, President of Mr. Bernick's +shipbuilding yard; and, before everything else, you have to do your +duty to the community known as the firm of Bernick & Co.; that is what +every one of us lives for. Well, now you know what Mr. Bernick had to +say to you. + +Aune: Mr. Bernick would not have put it that way, Mr. Krap! But I know +well enough whom I have to thank for this. It is that damned American +boat. Those fellows expect to get work done here the way they are +accustomed to it over there, and that-- + +Krap: Yes, yes, but I can't go into all these details. You know now +what Mr. Bernick means, and that is sufficient. Be so good as to go +back to the yard; probably you are needed there. I shall be down myself +in a little while. --Excuse me, ladies! (Bows to the ladies and goes +out through the garden and down the street. AUNE goes quietly out to +the right. RORLUND, who has continued his reading during the foregoing +conversation, which has been carried on in low tones, has now come to +the end of the book, and shuts it with a bang.) + +Rorlund: There, my dear ladies, that is the end of it. + +Mrs. Rummel: What an instructive tale! + +Mrs. Holt: And such a good moral! + +Mrs. Bernick: A book like that really gives one something to think +about. + +Rorlund: Quite so; it presents a salutary contrast to what, +unfortunately, meets our eyes every day in the newspapers and +magazines. Look at the gilded and painted exterior displayed by any +large community, and think what it really conceals!--emptiness and +rottenness, if I may say so; no foundation of morality beneath it. In a +word, these large communities of ours now-a-days are whited sepulchres. + +Mrs. Holt: How true! How true! + +Mrs. Rummel: And for an example of it, we need look no farther than at +the crew of the American ship that is lying here just now. + +Rorlund: Oh, I would rather not speak of such offscourings of humanity +as that. But even in higher circles--what is the case there? A spirit +of doubt and unrest on all sides; minds never at peace, and instability +characterising all their behaviour. Look how completely family life is +undermined over there! Look at their shameless love of casting doubt on +even the most serious truths! + +Dina (without looking up from her work): But are there not many big +things done there too? + +Rorlund: Big things done--? I do not understand--. + +Mrs. Holt (in amazement): Good gracious, Dina--! + +Mrs. Rummel (in the same breath): Dina, how can you--? + +Rorlund: I think it would scarcely be a good thing for us if such "big +things" became the rule here. No, indeed, we ought to be only too +thankful that things are as they are in this country. It is true enough +that tares grow up amongst our wheat here too, alas; but we do our best +conscientiously to weed them out as well as we are able. The important +thing is to keep society pure, ladies--to ward off all the hazardous +experiments that a restless age seeks to force upon us. + +Mrs.Holt: And there are more than enough of them in the wind, +unhappily. + +Mrs.Rummel: Yes, you know last year we only by a hair's breadth escaped +the project of having a railway here. + +Mrs.Bernick: Ah, my husband prevented that. + +Rorlund: Providence, Mrs. Bernick. You may be certain that your husband +was the instrument of a higher Power when he refused to have anything +to do with the scheme. + +Mrs.Bernick: And yet they said such horrible things about him in the +newspapers! But we have quite forgotten to thank you, Mr. Rorlund. It +is really more than friendly of you to sacrifice so much of your time +to us. + +Rorlund: Not at all. This is holiday time, and-- + +Mrs.Bernick: Yes, but it is a sacrifice all the same, Mr. Rorlund. + +Rorlund (drawing his chair nearer): Don't speak of it, my dear lady. +Are you not all of you making some sacrifice in a good cause?--and that +willingly and gladly? These poor fallen creatures for whose rescue we +are working may be compared to soldiers wounded on the field of battle; +you, ladies, are the kind-hearted sisters of mercy who prepare the lint +for these stricken ones, lay the bandages softly on their wounds, heal +them and cure them. + +Mrs.Bernick: It must be a wonderful gift to be able to see everything +in such a beautiful light. + +Rorlund: A good deal of it is inborn in one--but it can be to a great +extent acquired, too. All that is needful is to see things in the light +of a serious mission in life. (To MARTHA:) What do you say, Miss +Bernick? Have you not felt as if you were standing on firmer ground +since you gave yourself up to your school work? + +Martha: I really do not know what to say. There are times, when I am in +the schoolroom down there, that I wish I were far away out on the +stormy seas. + +Rorlund: That is merely temptation, dear Miss Bernick. You ought to +shut the doors of your mind upon such disturbing guests as that. By the +"stormy seas"--for of course you do not intend me to take your words +literally--you mean the restless tide of the great outer world, where +so many are shipwrecked. Do you really set such store on the life you +hear rushing by outside? Only look out into the street. There they go, +walking about in the heat of the sun, perspiring and tumbling about +over their little affairs. No, we undoubtedly have the best of it, who +are able to sit here in the cool and turn our backs on the quarter from +which disturbance comes. + +Martha: Yes,I have no doubt you are perfectly right. + +Rorlund: And in a house like this,in a good and pure home, where family +life shows in its fairest colours--where peace and harmony rule-- (To +MRS. BERNICK:) What are you listening to, Mrs. Bernick? + +Mrs.Bernick (who has turned towards the door of BERNICK'S room): They +are talking very loud in there. + +Rorlund: Is there anything particular going on? + +Mrs.Bernick: I don't know. I can hear that there is somebody with my +husband. + +(HILMAR TONNESEN, smoking a cigar, appears in the doorway on the right, +but stops short at the sight of the company of ladies.) + +Hilmar: Oh, excuse me-- (Turns to go back.) + +Mrs.Bernick: No, Hilmar, come along in; you are not disturbing us. Do +you want something? + +Hilmar: No, I only wanted to look in here--Good morning, ladies. (To +MRS. BERNICK :) Well, what is the result? + +Mrs.Bernick: Of what? + +Hilmar: Karsten has summoned a meeting, you know. + +Mrs.Bernick: Has he? What about? + +Hilmar: Oh, it is this railway nonsense over again. + +Mrs.Rummel: Is it possible? + +Mrs.Bernick: Poor Karsten, is he to have more annoyance over that? + +Rorlund: But how do you explain that, Mr. Tonnesen? You know that last +year Mr. Bernick made it perfectly clear that he would not have a +railway here. + +Hilmar: Yes, that is what I thought, too; but I met Krap, his +confidential clerk, and he told me that the railway project had been +taken up again, and that Mr. Bernick was in consultation with three of +our local capitalists. + +Mrs.Rummel: Ah, I was right in thinking I heard my husband's voice. + +Hilmar: Of course Mr. Rummel is in it, and so are Sandstad and Michael +Vigeland,"Saint Michael", as they call him. + +Rorlund: Ahem! + +Hilmar: I beg your pardon, Mr. Rorlund? + +Mrs.Bernick: Just when everything was so nice and peaceful. + +Hilmar: Well, as far as I am concerned, I have not the slightest +objection to their beginning their squabbling again. It will be a +little diversion, any way. + +Rorlund: I think we can dispense with that sort of diversion. + +Hilmar: It depends how you are constituted. Certain natures feel the +lust of battle now and then. But unfortunately life in a country town +does not offer much in that way, and it isn't given to every one to +(turns the leaves of the book RORLUND has been reading). " Woman as the +Handmaid of Society." What sort of drivel is this? + +Mrs.Bernick: My dear Hilmar, you must not say that. You certainly have +not read the book. + +Hilmar: No, and I have no intention of reading it, either. + +Mrs.Bernick: Surely you are not feeling quite well today. + +Hilmar: No, I am not. + +Mrs.Bernick: Perhaps you did not sleep well last night? + +Hilmar: No, I slept very badly. I went for a walk yesterday evening for +my health's sake; and I finished up at the club and read a book about a +Polar expedition. There is something bracing in following the +adventures of men who are battling with the elements. + +Mrs.Rummel: But it does not appear to have done you much good, Mr. +Tonnesen. + +Hilmar: No, it certainly did not. I lay all night tossing about, only +half asleep, and dreamt that I was being chased by a hideous walrus. + +Olaf (who meanwhile has come up the steps from the garden): Have you +been chased by a walrus, uncle? + +Hilmar: I dreamt it, you duffer! Do you mean to say you are still +playing about with that ridiculous bow? Why don't you get hold of a +real gun? + +Olaf: I should like to, but-- + +Hilmar: There is some sense in a thing like that; it is always an +excitement every time you fire it off. + +Olaf: And then I could shoot bears, uncle. But daddy won't let me. + +Mrs.Bernick: You really mustn't put such ideas into his head, Hilmar. + +Hilmar: Hm! It's a nice breed we are educating up now-a-days, isn't +it! We talk a great deal about manly sports, goodness knows--but we +only play with the question, all the same; there is never any serious +inclination for the bracing discipline that lies in facing danger +manfully. Don't stand pointing your crossbow at me, blockhead--it might +go off! + +Olaf: No, uncle, there is no arrow in it. + +Hilmar: You don't know that there isn't--there may be, all the same. +Take it away, I tell you !--Why on earth have you never gone over to +America on one of your father's ships? You might have seen a buffalo +hunt then, or a fight with Red Indians. + +Mrs.Bernick: Oh, Hilmar--! + +Olaf: I should like that awfully, uncle; and then perhaps I might meet +Uncle Johan and Aunt Lona. + +Hilmar: Hm!--Rubbish. + +Mrs.Bernick: You can go down into the garden again now, Olaf. + +Olaf: Mother, may I go out into the street too? + +Mrs.Bernick: Yes, but not too far, mind. + +(OLAF runs down into the garden and out through the gate in the fence.) + +Rorlund: You ought not to put such fancies into the child's head, Mr. +Tonnesen. + +Hilmar: No, of course he is destined to be a miserable stay-at-home, +like so many others. + +Rorlund: But why do you not take a trip over there yourself? + +Hilmar: I? With my wretched health? Of course I get no consideration on +that account. But putting that out of the question, you forget that one +has certain obligations to perform towards the community of which one +forms a part. There must be some one here to hold aloft the banner of +the Ideal.--Ugh, there he is shouting again ! + +The Ladies: Who is shouting? + +Hilmar: I am sure I don't know. They are raising their voices so loud +in there that it gets on my nerves. + +Mrs.Bernick: I expect it is my husband, Mr. Tonnesen. But you must +remember he is so accustomed to addressing large audiences. + +Rorlund: I should not call the others low-voiced, either. + +Hilmar: Good Lord, no!--not on any question that touches their +pockets. Everything here ends in these petty material considerations. +Ugh! + +Mrs.Bernick: Anyway, that is a better state of things than it used to +be when everything ended in mere frivolity. + +Mrs.Lynge: Things really used to be as bad as that here? + +Mrs.Rummel: Indeed they were, Mrs. Lynge. You may think yourself lucky +that you did not live here then. + +Mrs.Holt: Yes, times have changed, and no mistake, when I look back to +the days when I was a girl. + +Mrs. Rummel: Oh, you need not look back more than fourteen or fifteen +years. God forgive us, what a life we led! There used to be a Dancing +Society and a Musical Society-- + +Mrs.Bernick: And the Dramatic Club. I remember it very well. + +Mrs.Rummel: Yes, that was where your play was performed, Mr. Tonnesen. + +Hilmar (from the back of the room): What, what? + +Rorlund: A play by Mr. Tonnesen? + +Mrs.Rummel: Yes, it was long before you came here, Mr. Rorlund. And it +was only performed once. + +Mrs.Lynge: Was that not the play in which you told me you took the part +of a young man's sweetheart, Mrs. Rummel? + +Mrs.Rummel (glancing towards RORLUND): I? I really cannot remember, +Mrs.Lynge. But I remember well all the riotous gaiety that used to go +on. + +Mrs.Holt: Yes, there were houses I could name in which two large +dinner-parties were given in one week. + +Mrs.Lynge: And surely I have heard that a touring theatrical company +came here, too? + +Mrs.Rummel: Yes, that was the worst thing of the lot. + +Mrs.Holt (uneasily): Ahem! + +Mrs.Rummel: Did you say a theatrical company? No, I don't remember that +at all. + +Mrs.Lynge: Oh yes, and I have been told they played all sorts of mad +pranks. What is really the truth of those stories? + +Mrs.Rummel: There is practically no truth in them, Mrs. Lynge. + +Mrs.Holt: Dina, my love, will you give me that linen? + +Mrs.Bernick (at the same time): Dina, dear, will you go and ask Katrine +to bring us our coffee? + +Martha: I will go with you, Dina. +(DINA and MARTHA go out by the farther door on, the left.) + +Mrs. Bernick (getting up): Will you excuse me for a few minutes? +I think we will have our coffee outside. (She goes out to the +verandah and sets to work to lay a table. RORLUND stands in the +doorway talking to her. HILMAR sits outside, smoking.) + +Mrs. Rummel (in a low voice): My goodness, Mrs. Lynge, how you +frightened me! + +Mrs.Lynge: I? + +Mrs.Holt: Yes, but you know it was you that began it, Mrs. +Rummel. + +Mrs.Rummel: I? How can you say such a thing, Mrs. Holt? Not a +syllable passed my lips! + +Mrs.Lynge: But what does it all mean? + +Mrs.Rummel: What made you begin to talk about--? Think--did you +not see that Dina was in the room? + +Mrs.Lynge: Dina? Good gracious, is there anything wrong with--? + +Mrs.Holt: And in this house, too! Did you not know it was Mrs. +Bernick's brother--? + +Mrs.Lynge: What about him? I know nothing about it at all; I am +quite new to the place, you know. + +Mrs.Rummel: Have you not heard that--? Ahem! +(To her daughter) Hilda, dear, you can go for a little stroll in the +garden? + +Mrs.Holt: You go too, Netta. And be very kind to poor Dina when +she comes back. (HILDA and NETTA go out into the garden.) + +Mrs.Lynge: Well, what about Mrs. Bernick's brother? + +Mrs.Rummel: Don't you know the dreadful scandal about him? + +Mrs.Lynge: A dreadful scandal about Mr. Tonnesen? + +Mrs.Rummel: Good Heavens, no. Mr. Tonnesen is her cousin, of +course, Mrs. Lynge. I am speaking of her brother-- + +Mrs.Holt: The wicked Mr. Tonnesen-- + +Mrs.Rummel: His name was Johan. He ran away to America. + +Mrs.Holt: Had to run away, you must understand. + +Mrs.Lynge: Then it is he the scandal is about? + +Mrs.Rummel: Yes; there was something--how shall I put it?--there +was something of some kind between him and Dina's mother. I +remember it all as if it were yesterday. Johan Tonnesen was in +old Mrs. Bernick's office then; Karsten Bernick had just come +back from Paris--he had not yet become engaged-- + +Mrs.Lynge: Yes, but what was the scandal? + +Mrs.Rummel: Well, you must know that Moller's company were +acting in the town that winter-- + +Mrs.Holt: And Dorf, the actor, and his wife were in the company. +All the young men in the town were infatuated with her. + +Mrs.Rummel: Yes, goodness knows how they could think her pretty. +Well, Dorf came home late one evening-- + +Mrs.Holt: Quite unexpectedly. + +Mrs.Rummel: And found his-- No, really it isn't a thing one can +talk about. + +Mrs.Holt: After all, Mrs. Rummel, he didn't find anything, +because the door was locked on the inside. + +Mrs.Rummel: Yes, that is just what I was going to say--he found +the door locked. And--just think of it--the man that was in the +house had to jump out of the window. + +Mrs.Holt: Right down from an attic window. + +Mrs.Lynge: And that was Mrs. Bernick's brother? + +Mrs.Rummel: Yes, it was he. + +Mrs.Lynge: And that was why he ran away to America? + +Mrs.Holt: Yes, he had to run away, you may be sure. + +Mrs.Rummel: Because something was discovered afterwards that was +nearly as bad; just think--he had been making free with the cash- +box... + +Mrs.Holt: But, you know, no one was certain of that, Mrs. +Rummel; perhaps there was no truth in the rumour. + +Mrs.Rummel: Well, I must say--! Wasn't it known all over the +town? Did not old Mrs. Bernick nearly go bankrupt as the result +of it? However, God forbid I should be the one to spread such +reports. + +Mrs.Holt: Well, anyway, Mrs. Dorf didn't get the money, because +she-- + +Mrs.Lynge: Yes, what happened to Dina's parents afterwards? + +Mrs.Rummel: Well, Dorf deserted both his wife and his child. But +madam was impudent enough to stay here a whole year. Of course +she had not the face to appear at the theatre any more, but she +kept herself by taking in washing and sewing-- + +Mrs.Holt: And then she tried to set up a dancing school. + +Mrs.Rummel: Naturally that was no good. What parents would trust +their children to such a woman? But it did not last very long. +The fine madam was not accustomed to work; she got something +wrong with her lungs and died of it. + +Mrs.Lynge: What a horrible scandal! + +Mrs.Rummel: Yes, you can imagine how hard it was upon the +Bernicks. It is the dark spot among the sunshine of their good +fortune, as Rummel once put it. So never speak about it in this +house, Mrs. Lynge. + +Mrs.Holt: And for heaven's sake never mention the stepsister, +either! + +Mrs.Lynge: Oh, so Mrs. Bernick has a step-sister, too? + +Mrs.Rummel: Had, luckily-- for the relationship between them is +all over now. She was an extraordinary person too! Would you +believe it, she cut her hair short, and used to go about in men's +boots in bad weather! + +Mrs.Holt: And when her step-brother,the black sheep, had gone +away, and the whole town naturally was talking about him--what do +you think she did? She went out to America to him! + +Mr.Rummel: Yes, but remember the scandal she caused before she +went, Mrs. Holt. + +Mrs.Holt: Hush, don't speak of it. + +Mrs.Lynge: My goodness, did she create a scandal too? + +Mrs.Rummel: I think you ought to hear it, Mrs. Lynge. Mr. +Bernick had just got engaged to Betty Tonnesen, and the two of +them went arm in arm into her aunt's room to tell her the news-- + +Mrs.Holt: The Tonnesens' parents were dead, you know-- + +Mrs.Rummel: When, suddenly, up got Lona Hessel from her chair +and gave our refined and well-bred Karsten Bernick such a box on +the ear that his head swam. + +Mrs.Lynge: Well, I am sure I never-- + +Mrs.Holt: It is absolutely true. + +Mrs.Rummel: And then she packed her box and went away to +America. + +Mrs.Lynge: I suppose she had had her eye on him for herself. + +Mrs.Rummel: Of course she had. She imagined that he and she +would make a match of it when he came back from Paris. + +Mrs.Holt: The idea of her thinking such a thing! Karsten +Bernick--a man of the world and the pink of courtesy, a perfect +gentleman, the darling of all the ladies... + +Mrs.Rummel: And, with it all, such an excellent young man, Mrs. +Holt--so moral. + +Mrs.Lynge: But what has this Miss Hessel made of herself in +America? + +Mrs.Rummel: Well, you see, over that (as my husband once put it) +has been drawn a veil which one should hesitate to lift. + +Mrs.Lynge: What do you mean? + +Mrs.Rummel: She no longer has any connection with the family, as +you may suppose; but this much the whole town knows, that she has +sung for money in drinking saloons over there-- + +Mrs.Holt: And has given lectures in public-- + +Mrs.Rummel: And has published some mad kind of book. + +Mrs.Lynge: You don't say so! + +Mrs.Rummel: Yes, it is true enough that Lona Hessel is one of +the spots on the sun of the Bernick family's good fortune. Well, +now you know the whole story, Mrs. Lynge. I am sure I would never +have spoken about it except to put you on your guard. + +Mrs.Lynge: Oh, you may be sure I shall be most careful. But that +poor child Dina Dorf! I am truly sorry for her. + +Mrs.Rummel: Well, really it was a stroke of good luck for her. +Think what it would have meant if she had been brought up by such +parents! Of course we did our best for her, every one of us, and +gave her all the good advice we could. Eventually Miss Bernick +got her taken into this house. + +Mrs.Holt: But she has always been a difficult child to deal +with. It is only natural--with all the bad examples she had had +before her. A girl of that sort is not like one of our own; one +must be lenient with her. + +Mrs.Rummel: Hush--here she comes. (In a louder voice.) Yes, Dina +is really a clever girl. Oh, is that you, Dina? We are just +putting away the things. + +Mrs.Holt: How delicious your coffee smells, my dear Dina. A nice +cup of coffee like that-- + +Mrs.Bernick (calling in from the verandah): Will you come out +here? (Meanwhile MARTHA and DINA have helped the Maid to bring +out the coffee. All the ladies seat themselves on the verandah, +and talk with a great show of kindness to DINA. In a few moments +DINA comes back into the room and looks for her sewing.) + +Mrs. Bernick(from the coffee table): Dina, won't you--? + +Dina: No, thank you. (Sits down to her sewing. MRS. BERNICK and +RORLUND exchange a few words; a moment afterwards he comes back +into the room, makes a pretext for going up to the table, and +begins speaking to DINA in low tones.) + +Rorlund: Dina. + +Dina: Yes? + +Rorlund: Why don't you want to sit with the others? + +Dina: When I came in with the coffee, I could see from the +strange lady's face that they had been talking about me. + +Rorlund: But did you not see as well how agreeable she was to you +out there? + +Dina: That is just what I will not stand + +Rorlund: You are very self-willed, Dina. + +Dina: Yes. + +Rorlund: But why? + +Dina: Because it is my nature. + +Rorlund: Could you not try to alter your nature? + +Dina: No. + +Rorlund: Why not? + +Dina (looking at him): Because I am one of the "poor fallen +creatures", you know. + +Rorlund: For shame, Dina. + +Dina: So was my mother. + +Rorlund: Who has spoken to you about such things? + +Dina: No one; they never do. Why don't they? They all handle me +in such a gingerly fashion, as if they thought I should go to +pieces if they---. Oh, how I hate all this kind-heartedness. + +Rorlund: My dear Dina, I can quite understand that you feel +repressed here, but-- + +Dina: Yes; if only I could get right away from here. I could make +my own way quite well, if only I did not live amongst people who +are so--so-- + +Rorlund: So what? + +Dina: So proper and so moral. + +Rorlund: Oh but, Dina, you don't mean that. + +Dina: You know quite well in what sense I mean it. Hilda and +Netta come here every day, to be exhibited to me as good +examples. I can never be so beautifully behaved as they; I don't +want to be. If only I were right away from it all, I should grow +to be worth something. + +Rorlund: But you are worth a great deal, Dina dear. + +Dina: What good does that do me here? + +Rorlund: Get right away, you say? Do you mean it seriously? + +Dina: I would not stay here a day longer, if it were not for you. + +Rorlund: Tell me, Dina--why is it that you are fond of being with +me? + +Dina: Because you teach me so much that is beautiful. + +Rorlund: Beautiful? Do you call the little I can teach you, +beautiful? + +Dina: Yes. Or perhaps, to be accurate, it is not that you teach +me anything; but when I listen to you talking I see beautiful +visions. + +Rorlund: What do you mean exactly when you call a thing +beautiful? + +Dina: I have never thought it out. + +Rorlund: Think it out now, then. What do you understand by a +beautiful thing? + +Dina: A beautiful thing is something that is great--and far off. + +Rorlund: Hm!--Dina, I am so deeply concerned about you, my dear. + +Dina: Only that? + +Rorlund: You know perfectly well that you are dearer to me than I +can say. + +Dina: If I were Hilda or Netta, you would not be afraid to let +people see it. + +Rorlund: Ah, Dina, you can have no idea of the number of things I +am forced to take into consideration. When it is a man's lot to +be a moral pillar of the community he lives in, he cannot be too +circumspect. If only I could be certain that people would +interpret my motives properly. But no matter for that; you must, +and shall be, helped to raise yourself. Dina, is it a bargain +between us that when I come--when circumstances allow me to come - +-to you and say: "Here is my hand," you will take it and be my +wife? Will you promise me that, Dina? + +Dina: Yes. + +Rorlund: Thank you, thank you! Because for my part, too--oh, +Dina, I love you so dearly. Hush! Some one is coming. Dina--for my +sake--go out to the others.(She goes out to the coffee table. At +the same moment RUMMEL, SANDSTAD and VIGELAND come out of +BERNICK'S room, followed by Bernick, who has a bundle of papers +in his hand.) + +Bernick: Well, then, the matter is settled. + +Vigeland: Yes, I hope to goodness it is. + +Rummel: It is settled, Bernick. A Norseman's word stands as firm +as the rocks on Dovrefjeld, you know! + +Bernick: And no one must falter, no one give way, no matter what +opposition we meet with. + +Rummel: We will stand or fall together, Bernick. + +Hilmar (coming in from the verandah): Fall? If I may ask, isn't +it the railway scheme that is going to fall? + +Bernick: No, on the contrary, it is going to proceed-- + +Rummel: Full steam, Mr. Tonnesen. + +Hilmar (coming nearer): Really? + +Rorlund: How is that? + +Mrs. Bernick(at the verandah door): Karsten, dear, what is it +that--? + +Bernick: My dear Betty, how can it interest you? (To the three +men.) We must get out lists of subscribers, and the sooner the +better. Obviously our four names must head the list. The +positions we occupy in the community makes it our duty to make +ourselves as prominent as possible in the affair. + +Sandstad: Obviously, Mr. Bernick. + +Rummel: The thing shall go through, Bernick; I swear it shall! + +Bernick: Oh, I have not the least anticipation of failure. We +must see that we work, each one among the circle of his own +acquaintances; and if we can point to the fact that the scheme is +exciting a lively interest in all ranks of society, then it +stands to reason that our Municipal Corporation will have to +contribute its share. + +Mrs.Bernick: Karsten, you really must come out here and tell us-- + +Bernick: My dear Betty, it is an affair that does not concern +ladies at all. + +Hilmar: Then you are really going to support this railway scheme +after all? + +Bernick: Yes, naturally. + +Rorlund: But last year, Mr. Bernick-- + +Bernick: Last year it was quite another thing. At that time it +was a question of a line along the coast-- + +Vigeland: Which would have been quite superfluous, Mr. Rorlund; +because, of course, we have our steamboat service-- + +Sandstad: And would have been quite unreasonably costly-- + +Rummel: Yes, and would have absolutely ruined certain important +interests in the town. + +Bernick: The main point was that it would not have been to the +advantage of the community as a whole. That is why I opposed it, +with the result that the inland line was resolved upon. + +Hilmar: Yes, but surely that will not touch the towns about here. + +Bernick: It will eventually touch our town, my dear Hilmar, +because we are going to build a branch line here. + +Hilmar: Aha--a new scheme, then? + +Rummel: Yes, isn't it a capital scheme? What? + +Rorlund: Hm!-- + +Vigeland: There is no denying that it looks as though Providence +had just planned the configuration of the country to suit a +branch line. + +Rorlund: Do you really mean it, Mr. Vigeland? + +Bernick: Yes, I must confess it seems to me as if it had been the +hand of Providence that caused me to take a journey on business +this spring, in the course of which I happened to traverse a +valley through which I had never been before. It came across my +mind like a flash of lightning that this was where we could carry +a branch line down to our town. I got an engineer to survey the +neighbourhood, and have here the provisional calculations and +estimate; so there is nothing to hinder us. + +Mrs.Bernick (who is still with the other ladies at the verandah +door): But, my dear Karsten, to think that you should have kept +it all a secret from us! + +Bernick: Ah, my dear Betty, I knew you would not have been able +to grasp the exact situation. Besides, I have not mentioned it to +a living soul until today. But now the decisive moment has come, +and we must work openly and with all our might. Yes, even if I +have to risk all I have for its sake, I mean to push the matter +through. + +Rummel: And we will back you up, Bernick; you may rely upon that. + +Rorlund: Do you really promise us so much, then, from this +undertaking, gentlemen? + +Bernick: Yes, undoubtedly. Think what a lever it will be to raise +the status of our whole community. Just think of the immense +tracts of forest-land that it will make accessible; think of all +the rich deposits of minerals we shall be able to work; think of +the river with one waterfall above another! Think of the +possibilities that open out in the way of manufactories! + +Rorlund: And are you not afraid that an easier intercourse with +the depravity of the outer world--? + +Bernick: No, you may make your mind quite easy on that score, Mr. +Rorlund. Our little hive of industry rests now-a-days, God be +thanked, on such a sound moral basis; we have all of us helped to +drain it, if I may use the expression; and that we will continue +to do, each in his degree. You, Mr. Rorlund, will continue your +richly blessed activity in our schools and our homes. We, the +practical men of business, will be the support of the community +by extending its welfare within as wide a radius as possible; and +our women--yes, come nearer ladies--you will like to hear it-- our +women, I say, our wives and daughters--you, ladies-- will work on +undisturbed in the service of charity, and moreover will be a +help and a comfort to your nearest and dearest, as my dear Betty +and Martha are to me and Olaf.(Looks around him.) Where is Olaf +today? + +Mrs. Bernick: Oh, in the holidays it is impossible to keep him at +home. + +Bernick: I have no doubt he is down at the shore again. You will +see he will end by coming to some harm there. + +Hilmar: Bah! A little sport with the forces of nature + +Mrs.Rummel: Your family affection is beautiful, Mr. Bernick! + +Bernick: Well, the family is the kernel of society. A good home, +honoured and trusty friends, a little snug family circle where no +disturbing elements can cast their shadow-- (KRAP comes in from +the right, bringing letters and papers.) + +Krap: The foreign mail, Mr. Bernick--and a telegram from New +York. + +Bernick (taking the telegram): Ah--from the owners of the "Indian +Girl". + +Rummel: Is the mail in? Oh, then you must excuse me. + +Vigeland: And me too. + +Sandstad: Good day, Mr. Bernick. + +Bernick: Good day, good day, gentlemen. And remember, we have a +meeting this afternoon at five o'clock. + +The Three Men: Yes--quite so--of course. (They go out to the +right.) + +Bernick (who has read the telegram): This is thoroughly American! +Absolutely shocking! + +Mrs.Bernick: Good gracious, Karsten, what is it? + +Bernick: Look at this, Krap! Read it! + +Krap (reading): "Do the least repairs possible. Send over 'Indian +Girl' as soon as she is ready to sail; good time of year; at a +pinch her cargo will keep her afloat." Well, I must say-- + +Rorlund: You see the state of things in these vaunted great +communities! + +Bernick: You are quite right; not a moment's consideration for +human life, when it is a question of making a profit. (To KRAP:) +Can the "Indian Girl" go to sea in four--or five--days? + +Krap: Yes, if Mr. Vigeland will agree to our stopping work on the +"Palm Tree" meanwhile. + +Bernick: Hm--he won't. Well, be so good as to look through the +letters. And look here, did you see Olaf down at the quay? + +Krap: No, Mr. Bernick. (Goes into BERNICK'S room.) + +Bernick (looking at the telegram again): These gentlemen think +nothing of risking eight men's lives-- + +Hilmar: Well, it is a sailor's calling to brave the elements; it +must be a fine tonic to the nerves to be like that, with only a +thin plank between one and the abyss-- + +Bernick: I should like to see the ship-owner amongst us who would +condescend to such a thing! There is not one that would do it-- +not a single one! (Sees OLAF coming up to the house.) Ah, thank +Heaven, here he is, safe and sound. (OLAF, with a fishing-line in +his hand, comes running up the garden and in through the +verandah.) + +Olaf: Uncle Hilmar, I have been down and seen the steamer. + +Bernick: Have you been down to the quay again? + +Olaf: No, I have only been out in a boat. But just think, Uncle +Hilmar, a whole circus company has come on shore, with horses and +animals; and there were such lots of passengers. + +Mrs.Rummel: No, are we really to have a circus? + +Rorlund: We? I certainly have no desire to see it. + +Mrs.Rummel: No, of course I don't mean we, but-- + +Dina: I should like to see a circus very much. + +Olaf: So should I. + +Hilmar: You are a duffer. Is that anything to see? Mere tricks. +No, it would be something quite different to see the Gaucho +careering over the Pampas on his snorting mustang. But,Heaven +help us, in these wretched little towns of ours. + +Olaf (pulling at MARTHA'S dress): Look, Aunt Martha! Look, there +they come! + +Mrs.Holt: Good Lord, yes--here they come. + +Mrs.Lynge: Ugh, what horrid people! + +(A number of passengers and a whole crowd of townsfolk, are seen +coming up the street.) + +Mrs.Rummel: They are a set of mountebanks, certainly. Just look +at that woman in the grey dress, Mrs. Holt--the one with a +knapsack over her shoulder. + +Mrs.Holt: Yes--look--she has slung it on the handle of her +parasol. The manager's wife, I expect. + +Mrs.Rummel: And there is the manager himself, no doubt. He +looks a regular pirate. Don't look at him, Hilda! + +Mrs.Holt: Nor you, Netta! + +Olaf: Mother, the manager is bowing to us. + +Bernick: What? + +Mrs. Bernick: What are you saying, child? + +Mrs. Rummel: Yes, and--good Heavens--the woman is bowing to us +too. + +Bernick: That is a little too cool-- + +Martha (exclaims involuntarily): Ah--! + +Mrs.Bernick: What is it, Martha? + +Martha: Nothing, nothing. I thought for a moment-- + +Olaf (shrieking with delight): Look, look, there are the rest of +them, with the horses and animals! And there are the Americans, +too! All the sailors from the "Indian Girl"! (The strains of +"Yankee Doodle," played on a clarinet and a drum, are heard.) + +Hilmar (stopping his ears): Ugh, ugh, ugh! + +Rorlund: I think we ought to withdraw ourselves from sight a +little, ladies; we have nothing to do with such goings on. Let us +go to our work again. + +Mrs.Bernick: Do you think we had better draw the curtains? + +Rorlund: Yes, that was exactly what I meant. + +(The ladies resume their places at the work-table; RORLUND shuts +the verandah door, and draws the curtains over it and over the +windows, so that the room becomes half dark.) + +Olaf (peeping out through the curtains): Mother, the manager's +wife is standing by the fountain now, washing her face. + +Mrs.Bernick: What? In the middle of the marketplace? + +Mrs.Rummel: And in broad daylight, too! + +Hilmar: Well, I must say if I were travelling across a desert +waste and found myself beside a well, I am sure I should not stop +to think whether--. Ugh, that frightful clarinet! + +Rorlund: It is really high time the police interfered. + +Bernick: Oh no; we must not be too hard on foreigners. Of course +these folk have none of the deep-seated instincts of decency +which restrain us within proper bounds. Suppose they do behave +outrageously, what does it concern us? Fortunately this spirit of +disorder, that flies in the face of all that is customary and +right, is absolutely a stranger to our community, if I may say +so--. What is this! (LONA HESSEL walks briskly in from the door +on the right.) + +The Ladies (in low, frightened tones): The circus woman! The +manager's wife! + +Mrs.Bernick: Heavens, what does this mean? + +Martha (jumping up): Ah--! + +Lona: How do you do, Betty dear! How do you do, Martha! How do +you do, brother-in-law! + +Mrs.Bernick (with a cry): Lona--! + +Bernick (stumbling backwards): As sure as I am alive--! + +Mrs.Holt: Mercy on us--! + +Mrs.Rummel: It cannot possibly be--! + +Hilmar: Well! Ugh! + +Mrs.Bernick: Lona--! Is it really--? + +Lona: Really me? Yes, indeed it is; you may fall on my neck if +you like. + +Hilmar: Ugh, ugh! + +Mrs.Bernick: And coming back here as--? + +Mrs.Bernick: And actually mean to appear in--? + +Lona: Appear? Appear in what? + +Bernick: Well, I mean--in the circus-- + +Lona: Ha, ha, ha! Are you mad, brother-in-law? Do you think I +belong to the circus troupe? No,certainly I have turned my hand +to a good many things and made a fool of myself in a good many +ways-- + +Mrs.Rummel: Hm! + +Lona: But I have never tried circus riding. + +Bernick: Then you are not--? + +Mrs.Bernick: Thank Heaven! + +Lona: No, we travelled like other respectable folk, second-class, +certainly, but we are accustomed to that. + +Mrs.Bernick: We, did you say? + +Bernick (taking a step for-ward): Whom do you mean by "we"? + +Lona: I and the child, of course. + +The Ladies (with a cry): The child! + +Hilmar: What? + +Rorlund: I really must say--! + +Mrs.Bernick: But what do you mean, Lona? + +Lona: I mean John, of course; I have no other child, as far as I +know, but John, or Johan as you used to call him. + +Mrs.Bernick: Johan-- + +Mrs.Rummel (in an undertone to MRS. LYNGE): The scapegrace +brother! + +Bernick (hesitatingly): Is Johan with you? + +Lona: Of course he is; I certainly would not come without him. +Why do you look so tragical? And why are you sitting here in the +gloom, sewing white things? There has not been a death in the +family, has there? + +Rorlund: Madam,you find yourself in the Society for Fallen Women. + +Lona (half to herself): What? Can these nice, quiet-looking +ladies possibly be--? + +Mrs.Rummel: Well, really--! + +Lona: Oh, I understand! But, bless my soul, that is surely Mrs. +Rummel? And Mrs. Holt sitting there too! Well, we three have not +grown younger since the last time we met. But listen now, good +people; let the Fallen Women wait for a day--they will be none +the worse for that. A joyful occasion like this-- + +Rorlund: A home-coming is not always a joyful occasion. + +Lona: Indeed? How do you read your Bible, Mr. Parson? + +Rorlund: I am not a parson. + +Lona: Oh, you will grow into one, then. But--faugh!--this moral +linen of yours smells tainted,just like a winding-sheet. I am +accustomed to the air of the prairies, let me tell you. + +Bernick (wiping his forehead): Yes, it certainly is rather close +in here. + +Lona: Wait a moment; we will resurrect ourselves from this vault. +(Pulls the curtains to one side) We must have broad daylight in +here when the boy comes. Ah, you will see a boy then that has +washed himself. + +Hilmar: Ugh! + +Lona (opening the verandah door and window): I should say, when +he has washed himself, up at the hotel--for on the boat he got +piggishly dirty. + +Hilmar: Ugh, ugh! + +Lona: Ugh? Why, surely isn't that--? (Points at HILDAR and asks +the others): Is he still loafing about here saying "Ugh"? + +Hilmar: I do not loaf; it is the state of my health that keeps me +here. + +Rorlund: Ahem! Ladies, I do not think-- + +Lona (who has noticed OLAF): Is he yours, Betty? Give me a paw, +my boy! Or are you afraid of your ugly old aunt? + +Rorlund (putting his book under his arm): Ladies, I do not think +any of us is in the mood for any more work today. I suppose we +are to meet again tomorrow? + +Lona (while the others are getting up and taking their leave): +Yes, let us. I shall be on the spot. + +Rorlund: You? Pardon me, Miss Hessel, but what do you propose to +do in our Society? + +Lona: I will let some fresh air into it, Mr. Parson. + + +ACT II + +SCENE.--The same room. MRS. BERNICK is sitting alone at the work- +table, sewing. BERNICK comes in from the right, wearing his hat +and gloves and carrying a stick.) + +Mrs. Bernick: Home already, Karsten? + +Bernick: Yes, I have made an appointment with a man. + +Mrs. Bernick (with a sigh): Oh yes, I suppose Johan is coming up +here again. + +Bernick: With a man, I said. (Lays down his hat.) What has become +of all the ladies today? + +Mrs. Bernick: Mrs. Rummel and Hilda hadn't time to come. + +Bernick: Oh !--did they send any excuse? + +Mrs. Bernick: Yes, they had so much to do at home. + +Bernick: Naturally. And of course the others are not coming +either? + +Mrs. Bernick: No, something has prevented them today, too. + +Bernick: I could have told you that, beforehand. Where is Olaf? + +Mrs. Bernick: I let him go out a little with Dina. + +Bernick: Hm--she is a giddy little baggage. Did you see how she +at once started making a fuss of Johan yesterday? + +Mrs. Bernick: But, my dear Karsten, you know Dina knows nothing +whatever of-- + +Bernick: No, but in any case Johan ought to have had sufficient +tact not to pay her any attention. I saw quite well, from his +face, what Vigeland thought of it. + +Mrs. Bernick (laying her sewing down on her lap): Karsten, can +you imagine what his objective is in coming here? + +Bernick: Well--I know he has a farm over there, and I fancy he is +not doing particularly well with it; she called attention +yesterday to the fact that they were obliged to travel second +class-- + +Mrs. Bernick: Yes, I am afraid it must be something of that sort. +But to think of her coming with him! She! After the deadly insult +she offered you! + +Bernick: Oh, don't think about that ancient history. + +Mrs. Bernick: How can I help thinking of it just now? After all, +he is my brother--still, it is not on his account that I am +distressed, but because of all the unpleasantness it would mean +for you. Karsten, I am so dreadfully afraid! + +Bernick: Afraid of what? + +Mrs. Bernick: Isn't it possible that they may send him to prison +for stealing that money from your mother? + +Bernick: What rubbish! Who can prove that the money was stolen? + +Mrs. Bernick: The whole town knows it, unfortunately; and you +know you said yourself. + +Bernick: I said nothing. The town knows nothing whatever about +the affair; the whole thing was no more than idle rumour. + +Mrs. Bernick: How magnanimous you are, Karsten! + +Bernick: Do not let us have any more of these reminiscences, +please! You don't know how you torture me by raking all that up. +(Walks up and down; then flings his stick away from him.) And to +think of their coming home now--just now, when it is particularly +necessary for me that I should stand well in every respect with +the town and with the Press. Our newspaper men will be sending +paragraphs to the papers in the other towns about here. Whether I +receive them well, or whether I receive them ill, it will all be +discussed and talked over. They will rake up all those old +stories--as you do. In a community like ours--(Throws his gloves +down on the table.) And I have not a soul here to whom I can talk +about it and to whom I can go for support. + +Mrs. Bernick: No one at all, Karsten? + +Bernick: No--who is there? And to have them on my shoulders just +at this moment! Without a doubt they will create a scandal in +some way or another--she, in particular. It is simply a calamity +to be connected with such folk in any way! + +Mrs. Bernick: Well, I can't help their-- + +Bernick: What can't you help? Their being your relations? No, +that is quite true. + +Mrs. Bernick: And I did not ask them to come home. + +Bernick: That's it--go on! "I did not ask them to come home; I did +not write to them; I did not drag them home by the hair of their +heads!" Oh, I know the whole rigmarole by heart. + +Mrs. Bernick (bursting into tears): You need not be so unkind-- + +Bernick: Yes, that's right--begin to cry, so that our neighbours +may have that to gossip about too. Do stop being so foolish, +Betty. Go and sit outside; some one may come in here. I don't +suppose you want people to see the lady of the house with red +eyes? It would be a nice thing, wouldn't it, if the story got out +about that--. There, I hear some one in the passage. (A knock is +heard at the door.) Come in! (MRS. BERNICK takes her sewing and +goes out down the garden steps. AUNE comes in from the right.) + +Aune: Good morning, Mr. Bernick. + +Bernick: Good morning. Well, I suppose you can guess what I want +you for? + +Aune: Mr. Krap told me yesterday that you were not pleased with-- + +Bernick: I am displeased with the whole management of the yard, +Aune. The work does not get on as quickly as it ought. The "Palm +Tree" ought to have been under sail long ago. Mr. Vigeland comes +here every day to complain about it; he is a difficult man to +have with one as part owner. + +Aune: The "Palm Tree" can go to sea the day after tomorrow. + +Bernick: At last. But what about the American ship, the "Indian +Girl," which has been laid up here for five weeks and-- + +Aune: The American ship? I understood that, before everything +else, we were to work our hardest to get your own ship ready. + +Bernick: I gave you no reason to think so. You ought to have +pushed on as fast as possible with the work on the American ship +also; but you have not. + +Aune: Her bottom is completely rotten, Mr. Bernick; the more we +patch it, the worse it gets. + +Bernick: That is not the reason. Krap has told me the whole +truth. You do not understand how to work the new machines I have +provided--or rather, you will not try to work them. + +Aune: Mr. Bernick, I am well on in the fifties; and ever since I +was a boy I have been accustomed to the old way of working-- + +Bernick: We cannot work that way now-a-days. You must not +imagine, Aune, that it is for the sake of making profit; I do not +need that, fortunately; but I owe consideration to the community +I live in, and to the business I am at the head of. I must take +the lead in progress, or there would never be any. + +Aune: I welcome progress too, Mr. Bernick. + +Bernick: Yes, for your own limited circle--for the working class. +Oh, I know what a busy agitator you are; you make speeches, you +stir people up; but when some concrete instance of progress +presents itself--as now, in the case of our machines--you do not +want to have anything to do with it; you are afraid. + +Aune: Yes, I really am afraid, Mr. Bernick. I am afraid for the +number of men who will have the bread taken out of their mouths +by these machines. You are very fond, sir, of talking about the +consideration we owe to the community; it seems to me, however, +that the community has its duties too. Why should science and +capital venture to introduce these new discoveries into labour, +before the community has had time to educate a generation up to +using them? + +Bernick: You read and think too much, Aune; it does you no good, +and that is what makes you dissatisfied with your lot. + +Aune: It is not, Mr. Bernick; but I cannot bear to see one good +workman dismissed after another, to starve because of these +machines. + +Bernick: Hm! When the art of printing was discovered, many a +quill-driver was reduced to starvation. + +Aune: Would you have admired the art so greatly if you had been a +quill-driver in those days, sir? + +Bernick: I did not send for you to argue with you. I sent for you +to tell you that the "Indian Girl" must be ready to put to sea +the day after tomorrow. + +Aune: But, Mr. Bernick-- + +Bernick: The day after tomorrow, do you hear?--at the same time +as our own ship, not an hour later. I have good reasons for +hurrying on the work. Have you seen today's paper? Well, then +you know the pranks these American sailors have been up to again. +The rascally pack are turning the whole town upside down. Not a +night passes without some brawling in the taverns or the streets- +-not to speak of other abominations. + +Aune: Yes, they certainly are a bad lot. + +Bernick: And who is it that has to bear the blame for all this +disorder? It is I! Yes, it is I who have to suffer for it. These +newspaper fellows are making all sorts of covert insinuations +because we are devoting all our energies to the "Palm Tree." I, +whose task in life it is to influence my fellow-citizens by the +force of example, have to endure this sort of thing cast in my +face. I am not going to stand that. I have no fancy for having my +good name smirched in that way. + +Aune: Your name stands high enough to endure that and a great +deal more, sir. + +Bernick: Not just now. At this particular moment I have need of +all the respect and goodwill my fellow-citizens can give me. I +have a big undertaking on, the stocks, as you probably have +heard; but, if it should happen that evil-disposed persons +succeeded in shaking the absolute confidence I enjoy, it might +land me in the greatest difficulties. That is why I want, at any +price, to avoid these shameful innuendoes in the papers, and that +is why I name the day after tomorrow as the limit of the time I +can give you. + +Aune: Mr. Bernick, you might just as well name this afternoon as +the limit. + +Bernick: You mean that I am asking an impossibility? + +Aune: Yes, with the hands we have now at the yard. + +Bernick: Very good; then we must look about elsewhere. + +Aune: Do you really mean, sir, to discharge still more of your +old workmen? + +Bernick: No, I am not thinking of that. + +Aune: Because I think it would cause bad blood against you both +among the townsfolk and in the papers, if you did that. + +Bernick: Very probably; therefore, we will not do it. But, if the +"Indian Girl" is not ready to sail the day after tomorrow, I +shall discharge you. + +Aune (with a start): Me! (He laughs.) You are joking, Mr. +Bernick. + +Bernick: I should not be so sure of that, if I were you. + +Aune: Do you mean that you can contemplate discharging me?--Me, +whose father and grandfather worked in your yard all their lives, +as I have done myself--? + +Bernick: Who is it that is forcing me to do it? + +Aune: You are asking what is impossible, Mr. Bernick. + +Bernick: Oh, where there's a will there's a way. Yes or no; give +me a decisive answer, or consider yourself discharged on the +spot. + +Aune (coming a step nearer to him): Mr. Bernick, have you ever +realised what discharging an old workman means? You think he can +look about for another job? Oh, yes, he can do that; but does +that dispose of the matter? You should just be there once, in the +house of a workman who has been discharged, the evening he comes +home bringing all his tools with him. + +Bernick: Do you think I am discharging you with a light heart? +Have I not always been a good master to you? + +Aune: So much the worse, Mr. Bernick. Just for that very reason +those at home will not blame you; they will say nothing to me, +because they dare not; but they will look at me when I am not +noticing, and think that I must have deserved it. You see, sir, +that is--that is what I cannot bear. I am a mere nobody, I know; +but I have always been accustomed to stand first in my own home. +My humble home is a little community too, Mr. Bernick--a little +community which I have been able to support and maintain because +my wife has believed in me and because my children have believed +in me. And now it is all to fall to pieces. + +Bernick: Still, if there is nothing else for it, the lesser must +go down before the greater; the individual must be sacrificed to +the general welfare. I can give you no other answer; and that, +and no other, is the way of the world. You are an obstinate man, +Aune! You are opposing me, not because you cannot do otherwise, +but because you will not exhibit 'the superiority of machinery +over manual labour'. + +Aune: And you will not be moved, Mr. Bernick, because you know +that if you drive me away you will at all events have given the +newspapers proof of your good will. + +Bernick: And suppose that were so? I have told you what it means +for me--either bringing the Press down on my back, or making them +well-disposed to me at a moment when I am working for an objective +which will mean the advancement of the general welfare. Well, +then, can I do otherwise than as I am doing? The question, let me +tell you, turns upon this--whether your home is to be supported, +as you put it, or whether hundreds of new homes are to be +prevented from existing--hundreds of homes that will never be +built, never have a fire lighted on their hearth, unless I +succeed in carrying through the scheme I am working for now. That +is the reason why I have given you your choice. + +Aune: Well, if that is the way things stand, I have nothing more +to say. + +Bernick: Hm--my dear Aune, I am extremely grieved to think that +we are to part. + +Aune: We are not going to part, Mr. Bernick. + +Bernick: How is that? + +Aune: Even a common man like myself has something he is bound to +maintain. + +Bernick: Quite so, quite so--then I presume you think you may +promise--? + +Aune: The "Indian Girl" shall be ready to sail the day after +tomorrow. (Bows and goes out to the right.) + +Bernick: Ah, I have got the better of that obstinate fellow! I +take it as a good omen. (HILMAR comes in through the garden door, +smoking a cigar.) + +Hilmar (as he comes up the steps to the verandah): Good morning, +Betty! Good morning, Karsten! + +Mrs. Bernick: Good morning. + +Hilmar: Ah, I see you have been crying, so I suppose you know all +about it too? + +Mrs. Bernick: Know all about what? + +Hilmar: That the scandal is in full swing. Ugh! + +Bernick: What do you mean? + +Hilmar (coming into the room): Why, that our two friends from +America are displaying themselves about the streets in the +company of Dina Dorf. + +Mrs. Bernick (coming in after him): Hilmar, is it possible? + +Hilmar: Yes, unfortunately, it is quite true. Lona was even so +wanting in tact as to call after me, but of course I appeared not +to have heard her. + +Bernick: And no doubt all this has not been unnoticed. + +Hilmar: You may well say that. People stood still and looked at +them. It spread like wildfire through the town--just like a +prairie fire out West. In every house people were at the windows +waiting for the procession to pass, cheek by jowl behind the +curtains--ugh! Oh, you must excuse me, Betty, for saying "ugh"-- +this has got on my nerves. If it is going on, I shall be forced +to think about getting right away from here. + +Mrs. Bernick: But you should have spoken to him and represented +to him that-- + +Hilmar: In the open street? No, excuse me, I could not do that. +To think that the fellow should dare to show himself in the town +at all! Well, we shall see if the Press doesn't put a stopper on +him; yes--forgive me, Betty, but-- + +Bernick: The Press, do you say? Have you heard a hint of anything +of the sort? + +Hilmar: There are such things flying about. When I left here +yesterday evening I looked in at the club, because I did not feel +well. I saw at once, from the sudden silence that fell when I +went in, that our American couple had been the subject of +conversation. Then that impudent newspaper fellow, Hammer, came +in and congratulated me at the top of his voice on the return of +my rich cousin. + +Bernick: Rich? + +Hilmar: Those were his words. Naturally I looked him up and down +in the manner he deserved, and gave him to understand that I knew +nothing about Johan Tonnesen's being rich. "Really," he said, +"that is very remarkable. People usually get on in America when +they have something to start with, and I believe your cousin did +not go over there quite empty-handed." + +Bernick: Hm--now will you oblige me by-- + +Mrs. Bernick (distressed): There, you see, Karsten! + +Hilmar: Anyhow, I have spent a sleepless night because of them. +And here he is, walking about the streets as if nothing were the +matter. Why couldn't he disappear for good and all? It really is +insufferable how hard some people are to kill. + +Mrs. Bernick: My dear Hilmar, what are you saying P + +Hilmar: Oh, nothing. But here this fellow escapes with a whole +skin from railway accidents and fights with California grizzlies +and Blackfoot Indians--has not even been scalped--. Ugh, here +they come! + +Bernick (looking down the street): Olaf is with them too! + +Hilmar: Of course! They want to remind everybody that they belong +to the best family in the town. Look there!--look at the crowd of +loafers that have come out of the chemist's to stare at them and +make remarks. My nerves really won't stand it; how a man is to be +expected to keep the banner of the Ideal flying under such +circumstances, I-- + +Bernick: They are coming here. Listen, Betty; it is my particular +wish that you should receive them in the friendliest possible +way. + +Mrs. Bernick: Oh, may I, Karsten. + +Bernick: Certainly, certainly--and you too, Hilmar. It is to be +hoped they will not stay here very long; and when we are quite by +ourselves--no allusions to the past; we must not hurt their +feelings in any way. + +Mrs. Bernick: How magnanimous you are, Karsten! + +Bernick: Oh, don't speak of that. + +Mrs. Bernick: But you must let me thank you; and you must forgive +me for being so hasty. I am sure you had every reason to-- + +Bernick: Don't talk about it, please. + +Hilmar: Ugh! + +(JOHAN TONNESEN and DINA come up through the garden, followed by +LONA and OLAF.) + +Lona: Good morning, dear people! + +Johan: We have been out having a look round the old place, +Karsten. + +Bernick: So I hear. Greatly altered, is it not? + +Lona: Mr. Bernick's great and good works everywhere. We have been +up into the Recreation Ground you have presented to the town. + +Bernick: Have you been there? + +Lona: "The gift of Karsten Bernick," as it says over the gateway. +You seem to be responsible for the whole place here. + +Johan: Splendid ships you have got, too. I met my old +schoolfellow, the captain of the "Palm Tree." + +Lona: And you have built a new school-house too; and I hear that +the town has to thank you for both the gas supply and the water +supply. + +Bernick: Well, one ought to work for the good of the community +one lives in. + +Lona: That is an excellent sentiment, brother-in-law, but it is a +pleasure, all the same, to see how people appreciate you. I am +not vain, I hope; but I could not resist reminding one or two of +the people we talked to that we were relations of yours. + +Hilmar: Ugh! + +Lona: Do you say "ugh" to that? + +Hilmar: No, I said "ahem." + +Lona: Oh, poor chap, you may say that if you like. But are you +all by yourselves today? + +Bernick: Yes, we are by ourselves today. + +Lona: Ah, yes, we met a couple of members of your Morality +Society up at the market; they made out they were very busy. You +and I have never had an opportunity for a good talk yet. +Yesterday you had your three pioneers here, as well as the parson. + +Hilmar: The schoolmaster. + +Lona: I call him the parson. But now tell me what you think of my +work during these fifteen years? Hasn't he grown a fine fellow? +Who would recognise the madcap that ran away from home? + +Hilmar: Hm! + +Johan: Now, Lona, don't brag too much about me. + +Lona: Well, I can tell you I am precious proud of him. Goodness +knows it is about the only thing I have done in my life; but it +does give me a sort of right to exist. When I think, Johan, how +we two began over there with nothing but our four bare fists. + +Hilmar: Hands. + +Lona: I say fists; and they were dirty fists. + +Hilmar: Ugh! + +Lona: And empty, too. + +Hilmar: Empty? Well, I must say-- + +Lona: What must you say? + +Bernick: Ahem! + +Hilmar: I must say--ugh! (Goes out through the garden.) + +Lona: What is the matter with the man? + +Bernick: Oh, do not take any notice of him; his nerves are rather +upset just now. Would you not like to take a look at the garden? +You have not been down there yet, and I have got an hour to +spare. + +Lona: With pleasure. I can tell you my thoughts have been with +you in this garden many and many a time. + +Mrs. Bernick: We have made a great many alterations there too, as +you will see. (BERNICK, MRS. BERNICK, and LONA go down to the +garden, where they are visible every now and then during the +following scene.) + +Olaf (coming to the verandah door): Uncle Hilmar, do you know +what uncle Johan asked me? He asked me if I would go to America +with him. + +Hilmar: You, you duffer, who are tied to your mother's apron +strings--! + +Olaf: Ah, but I won't be that any longer. You will see, when I +grow big. + +Hilmar: Oh, fiddlesticks! You have no really serious bent towards +the strength of character necessary to--. + +(They go down to the garden. DINA meanwhile has taken off her hat +and is standing at the door on the right, shaking the dust off +her dress.) + +Johan (to DINA): The walk has made you pretty warm. + +Dina: Yes, it was a splendid walk. I have never had such a +splendid walk before. + +Johan: Do you not often go for a walk in the morning? + +Dina: Oh, yes--but only with Olaf. + +Johan: I see.--Would you rather go down into the garden than stay +here? + +Dina: No, I would rather stay here. + +Johan.: So would I. Then shall we consider it a bargain that we +are to go for a walk like this together every morning? + +Dina: No, Mr. Tonnesen, you mustn't do that. + +Johan: What mustn't I do? You promised, you know. + +Dina: Yes, but--on second thought--you mustn't go out with me. + +Johan: But why not? + +Dina: Of course, you are a stranger--you cannot understand; but I +must tell you-- + +Johan: Well? + +Dina: No, I would rather not talk about it. + +Johan: Oh, but you must; you can talk to me about whatever you +like. + +Dina: Well, I must tell you that I am not like the other young +girls here. There is something--something or other about me. That +is why you mustn't. + +Johan: But I do not understand anything about it. You have not +done anything wrong? + +Dina: No, not I, but--no, I am not going to talk any more about +it now. You will hear about it from the others, sure enough. + +Johan: Hm! + +Dina: But there is something else I want very much to ask you. + +Johan: What is that? + +Dina: I suppose it is easy to make a position for oneself over in +America? + +Johan: No, it is not always easy; at first you often have to +rough it and work very hard. + +Dina: I should be quite ready to do that. + +Johan: You? + +Dina: I can work now; I am strong and healthy; and Aunt Martha +taught me a lot. + +Johan: Well, hang it, come back with us! + +Dina: Ah, now you are only making fun of me; you said that to +Olaf too. But what I wanted to know is if people are so very--so +very moral over there? + +Johan: Moral? + +Dina: Yes; I mean are they as--as proper and as well-behaved as +they are here? + +Johan: Well, at all events they are not so bad as people here +make out. You need not be afraid on that score. + +Dina: You don't understand me. What I want to hear is just that +they are not so proper and so moral. + +Johan: Not? What would you wish them to be, then? + +Dina: I would wish them to be natural. + +Johan: Well, I believe that is just what they are. + +Dina: Because in that case I should get on if I went there. + +Johan: You would, for certain!--and that is why you must come +back with us. + +Dina: No, I don't want to go with you; I must go alone. Oh, I +would make something of my life; I would get on-- + +Bernick (speaking to LONA and his wife at the foot of the garden +steps): Wait a moment--I will fetch it, Betty dear; you might so +easily catch cold. (Comes into the room and looks for his wife's +shawl.) + +Mrs. Bernick (from outside): You must come out too, Johan; we are +going down to the grotto. + +Bernick: No, I want Johan to stay here. Look here, Dina; you take +my wife's shawl and go with them. Johan is going to stay here +with me, Betty dear. I want to hear how he is getting on over +there. + +Mrs. Bernick: Very well--then you will follow us; you know where +you will find us. (MRS. BERNICK, LONA and DINA go out through the +garden, to the left. BERNICK looks after them for a moment, then +goes to the farther door on the left and locks it, after which he +goes up to JOHAN, grasps both his hands, and shakes them warmly.) + +Bernick: Johan, now that we are alone, you must let me thank you. + +Johan: Oh, nonsense! + +Bernick: My home and all the happiness that it means to me--my +position here as a citizen--all these I owe to you. + +Johan: Well, I am glad of it, Karsten; some good came of that mad +story after all, then. + +Bernick (grasping his hands again): But still you must let me +thank you! Not one in ten thousand would have done what you did +for me. + +Johan: Rubbish! Weren't we, both of us, young and thoughtless? +One of us had to take the blame, you know. + +Bernick: But surely the guilty one was the proper one to do that? + +Johan: Stop! At the moment the innocent one happened to be the +proper one to do it. Remember, I had no ties--I was an orphan; it +was a lucky chance to get free from the drudgery of the office. +You, on the other hand, had your old mother still alive; and, +besides that, you had just become secretly engaged to Betty, who +was devoted to you. What would have happened between you and her +if it had come to her ears? + +Bernick: That is true enough, but still-- + +Johan: And wasn't it just for Betty's sake that you broke off +your acquaintance with Mrs. Dorf? Why, it was merely in order to +put an end to the whole thing that you were up there with her +that evening. + +Bernick: Yes, that unfortunate evening when that drunken creature +came home! Yes, Johan, it was for Betty's sake; but, all the +same, it was splendid of you to let all the appearances go +against you, and to go away. + +Johan: Put your scruples to rest, my dear Karsten. We agreed that +it should be so; you had to be saved, and you were my friend. I +can tell you, I was uncommonly proud of that friendship. Here was +I, drudging away like a miserable stick-in-the-mud, when you came +back from your grand tour abroad, a great swell who had been to +London and to Paris; and you chose me for your chum, although I +was four years younger than you--it is true it was because you +were courting Betty, I understand that now--but I was proud of +it! Who would not have been? Who would not willingly have +sacrificed himself for you?--especially as it only meant a +month's talk in the town, and enabled me to get away into the +wide world. + +Bernick: Ah, my dear Johan, I must be candid and tell you that +the story is not so completely forgotten yet. + +Johan: Isn't it? Well, what does that matter to me, once I am +back over there on my farm again? + +Bernick: Then you mean to go back? + +Johan: Of course. + +Bernick: But not immediately, I hope? + +Johan: As soon as possible. It was only to humour Lona that I +came over with her, you know. + +Bernick: Really? How so? + +Johan: Well, you see, Lona is no longer young, and lately she +began to be obsessed with home-sickness; but she never would +admit it. (Smiles.) How could she venture to risk leaving such a +flighty fellow as me alone, who before I was nineteen had been +mixed up in... + +Bernick: Well, what then? + +Johan: Well, Karsten, now I am coming to a confession that I am +ashamed to make. + +Bernick: You surely haven't confided the truth to her? + +Johan: Yes. It was wrong of me, but I could not do otherwise. You +can have no conception what Lona has been to me. You never could +put up with her; but she has been like a mother to me. The first +year we were out there, when things went so badly with us, you +have no idea how she worked! And when I was ill for a long time, +and could earn nothing and could not prevent her, she took to +singing ballads in taverns, and gave lectures that people laughed +at; and then she wrote a book that she has both laughed and cried +over since then--all to keep the life in me. Could I look on when +in the winter she, who had toiled and drudged for me, began to +pine away? No, Karsten, I couldn't. And so I said, "You go home +for a trip, Lona; don't be afraid for me, I am not so flighty as +you think." And so--the end of it was that she had to know. + +Bernick: And how did she take it? + +Johan: Well, she thought, as was true, that as I knew I was +innocent nothing need prevent me from taking a trip over here +with her. But make your mind easy; Lona will let nothing out, and +I shall keep my mouth shut as I did before. + +Bernick: Yes, yes I rely on that. + +Johan: Here is my hand on it. And now we will say no more about +that old story; luckily it is the only mad prank either of us has +been guilty of, I am sure. I want thoroughly to enjoy the few +days I shall stay here. You cannot think what a delightful walk +we had this morning. Who would have believed that that little +imp, who used to run about here and play angels' parts on the +stage--! But tell me, my dear fellow, what became of her parents +afterwards? + +Bernick: Oh, my boy, I can tell you no more than I wrote to you +immediately after you went away. I suppose you got my two +letters? + +Johan: Yes, yes, I have them both. So that drunken fellow +deserted her? + +Bernick: And drank himself to death afterwards. + +Johan: And she died soon afterwards, too? + +Bernick: She was proud; she betrayed nothing, and would accept +nothing. + +Johan: Well, at all events you did the right thing by taking Dina +into your house. + +Bernick: I suppose so. As a matter of fact it was Martha that +brought that about. + +Johan: So it was Martha? By the way, where is she today? + +Bernick: She? Oh, when she hasn't her school to look after, she +has her sick people to see to. + +Johan: So it was Martha who interested herself in her. + +Bernick: Yes, you know Martha has always had a certain liking for +teaching; so she took a post in the boarding-school. It was very +ridiculous of her. + +Johan: I thought she looked very worn yesterday; I should be +afraid her health was not good enough for it. + +Bernick: Oh, as far as her health goes, it is all right enough. +But it is unpleasant for me; it looks as though I, her brother, +were not willing to support her. + +Johan: Support her? I thought she had means enough of her own. + +Bernick: Not a penny. Surely you remember how badly off our +mother was when you went away? She carried things on for a time +with my assistance, but naturally I could not put up with that +state of affairs permanently. I made her take me into the firm, +but even then things did not go well. So I had to take over the +whole business myself, and when we made up our balance-sheet, it +became evident that there was practically nothing left as my +mother's share. And when mother died soon afterwards, of course +Martha was left penniless. + +Johan: Poor Martha! + +Bernick: Poor! Why? You surely do not suppose I let her want for +anything? No, I venture to say I am a good brother. Of course she +has a home here with us; her salary as a teacher is more than +enough for her to dress on; what more could she want? + +Johan: Hm--that is not our idea of things in America. + +Bernick: No, I dare say not--in such a revolutionary state of +society as you find there. But in our small circle--in which, +thank God, depravity has not gained a footing, up to now at all +events--women are content to occupy a seemly, as well as modest, +position. Moreover, it is Martha's own fault; I mean, she might +have been provided for long ago, if she had wished. + +Johan: You mean she might have married? + +Bernick: Yes, and married very well, too. She has had several +good offers--curiously enough, when you think that she is a poor +girl, no longer young, and, besides, quite an insignificant +person. + +Johan: Insignificant? + +Bernick: Oh, I am not blaming her for that. I most certainly +would not wish her otherwise. I can tell you it is always a good +thing to have a steady-going person like that in a big house like +this--some one you can rely on in any contingency. + +Johan: Yes, but what does she--? + +Bernick: She? How? Oh well, of course she has plenty to interest +herself in; she has Betty and Olaf and me. People should not +think first of themselves--women least of all. We have all got +some community, great or small, to work for. That is my +principle, at all events. (Points to KRAP, who has come in from +the right.) Ah, here is an example of it, ready to hand. Do you +suppose that it is my own affairs that are absorbing me just now? +By no means. (Eagerly to KRAP.) Well? + +Krap (in an undertone, showing him a bundle of papers): Here are +all the sale contracts, completed. + +Bernick: Capital! Splendid!--Well, Johan, you must really excuse +me for the present. (In a low voice, grasping his hand.) Thanks, +Johan, thanks! And rest assured that anything I can do for you-- +Well, of course you understand. Come along, Krap. (They go into +BERNICK'S room.) + +Johan (looking after them for a moment): Hm!-- (Turns to go down +to the garden. At the same moment MARTHA comes in from the right, +with a little basket over her arm.) Martha! + +Martha: Ah, Johan--is it you? + +Johan: Out so early? + +Martha: Yes. Wait a moment; the others are just coming. (Moves +towards the door on the left.) + +Johan: Martha, are you always in such a hurry? + +Martha: I? + +Johan: Yesterday you seemed to avoid me, so that I never managed +to have a word with you--we two old playfellows. + +Martha: Ah, Johan; that is many, many years ago. + +Johan: Good Lord--why, it is only fifteen years ago, no more and +no less. Do you think I have changed so much? + +Martha: You? Oh yes, you have changed too, although-- + +Johan: What do you mean? + +Martha: Oh, nothing. + +Johan: You do not seem to be very glad to see me again. + +Martha: I have waited so long, Johan--too long. + +Johan: Waited? For me to come? + +Martha: Yes. + +Johan. And why did you think I would come? + +Martha: To atone for the wrong you had done. + +Johan: I? + +Martha: Have you forgotten that it was through you that a woman +died in need and in shame? Have you forgotten that it was through +you that the best years of a young girl's life were embittered? + +Johan: And you can say such things to me? Martha, has your +brother never--? + +Martha: Never what? + +Johan: Has he never--oh, of course, I mean has he never so much +as said a word in my defence? + +Martha: Ah, Johan, you know Karsten's high principles. + +Johan: Hm--! Oh, of course; I know my old friend Karsten's high +principles! But really this is--. Well, well. I was having a talk +with him just now. He seems to me to have altered considerably. + +Martha: How can you say that? I am sure Karsten has always been +an excellent man. + +Johan: Yes, that was not exactly what I meant--but never mind. +Hm! Now I understand the light you have seen me in; it was the +return of the prodigal that you were waiting for. + +Martha: Johan, I will tell you what light I have seen you in. +(Points down to the garden.) Do you see that girl playing on the +grass down there with Olaf? That is Dina. Do you remember that +incoherent letter you wrote me when you went away? You asked me +to believe in you. I have believed in you, Johan. All the +horrible things that were rumoured about you after you had gone +must have been done through being led astray--from +thoughtlessness, without premeditation. + +Johan: What do you mean? + +Martha: Oh! you understand me well enough--not a word more of +that. But of course you had to go away and begin afresh--a new +life. Your duties here which you never remembered to undertake-- +or never were able to undertake--I have undertaken for you. I +tell you this, so that you shall not have that also to reproach +yourself with. I have been a mother to that much-wronged child; I +have brought her up as well as I was able. + +Johan: And have wasted your whole life for that reason. + +Martha: It has not been wasted. But you have come late, Johan. + +Johan: Martha--if only I could tell you--. Well, at all events +let me thank you for your loyal friendship. + +Martha (with a sad smile): Hm.--Well, we have had it out now, +Johan. Hush, some one is coming. Goodbye, I can't stay now. (Goes +out through the farther door on the left. LONA comes in from the +garden, followed by MRS. BERNICK.) + +Mrs. Bernick: But good gracious, Lona--what are you thinking of? + +Lona: Let me be, I tell you! I must and will speak to him. + +Mrs. Bernick: But it would be a scandal of the worst sort! Ah, +Johan--still here? + +Lona: Out with you, my boy; don't stay here in doors; go down +into the garden and have a chat with Dina. + +Johan: I was just thinking of doing so. + +Mrs. Bernick: But-- + +Lona: Look here, Johan--have you had a good look at Dina? + +Johan: I should think so! + +Lona: Well, look at her to some purpose, my boy. That would be +somebody for you! + +Mrs. Bernick: But, Lona! + +Johan: Somebody for me? + +Lona: Yes, to look at, I mean. Be off with you! + +Johan: Oh, I don't need any pressing. (Goes down into the +garden.) + +Mrs. Bernick: Lona, you astound me! You cannot possibly be +serious about it? + +Lona: Indeed I am. Isn't she sweet and healthy and honest? She is +exactly the wife for Johan. She is just what he needs over there; +it will be a change from an old step-sister. + +Mrs. Bernick: Dina? Dina Dorf? But think-- + +Lona: I think first and foremost of the boy's happiness. Because, +help him I must; he has not much idea of that sort of thing; he +has never had much of an eye for girls or women. + +Mrs. Bernick: He? Johan? Indeed I think we have had only too sad +proofs that-- + +Lona: Oh, devil take all those stupid stories! Where is Karsten? +I mean to speak to him. + +Mrs. Bernick: Lona, you must not do it, I tell you. + +Lona: I am going to. If the boy takes a fancy to her--and she to +him--then they shall make a match of it. Karsten is such a clever +man, he must find some way to bring it about. + +Mrs. Bernick: And do you think these American indecencies will be +permitted here? + +Lona: Bosh, Betty! + +Mrs. Bernick: Do you think a man like Karsten, with his strictly +moral way of thinking-- + +Lona: Pooh! he is not so terribly moral. + +Mrs. Bernick: What have you the audacity to say? + +Lona: I have the audacity to say that Karsten is not any more +particularly moral than anybody else. + +Mrs. Bernick: So you still hate him as deeply as that! But what +are you doing here, if you have never been able to forget that? I +cannot understand how you, dare look him in the face after the +shameful insult you put upon him in the old days. + +Lona: Yes, Betty, that time I did forget myself badly. + +Mrs. Bernick: And to think how magnanimously he has forgiven +you--he, who had never done any wrong! It was not his fault that +you encouraged yourself with hopes. But since then you have +always hated me too. (Bursts into tears.) You have always begrudged +me my good fortune. And now you come here to heap all this on my +head--to let the whole town know what sort of a family I have +brought Karsten into. Yes, it is me that it all falls upon, and +that is what you want. Oh, it is abominable of you! (Goes out by +the door on the left, in tears.) + +Lona (looking after her): Poor Betty! (BERNICK comes in from his +room. He stops at the door to speak to KRAP.) + +Bernick: Yes, that is excellent, Krap--capital! Send twenty pounds +to the fund for dinners to the poor. (Turns round.) Lona! (Comes +forward.) Are you alone? Is Betty not coming in? + +Lona: No. Would you like me to call her? + +Bernick: No, no--not at all. Oh, Lona, you don't know how anxious +I have been to speak openly to you--after having begged for your +forgiveness. + +Lona: Look here, Karsten--do not let us be sentimental; it +doesn't suit us. + +Bernick: You must listen to me, Lona. I know only too well how +much appearances are against me, as you have learnt all about +that affair with Dina's mother. But I swear to you that it was +only a temporary infatuation; I was really, truly and honestly, +in love with you once. + +Lona: Why do you think I have come home? + +Bernick: Whatever you have in your mind, I entreat, you to do +nothing until I have exculpated myself. I can do that, Lona; at +all events I can excuse myself. + +Lona: Now you are frightened. You once were in love with me, you +say. Yes, you told me that often enough in your letters; and +perhaps it was true, too--in a way--as long as you were living +out in the great, free world which gave you the courage to think +freely and greatly. Perhaps you found in me a little more +character and strength of will and independence than in most of +the folk at home here. And then we kept it secret between us; +nobody could make fun of your bad taste. + +Bernick: Lona, how can you think--? + +Lona: But when you came back--when you heard the gibes that were +made at me on all sides--when you noticed how people laughed at +what they called my absurdities... + +Bernick: You were regardless of people's opinion at that time. + +Lona: Chiefly to annoy the petticoated and trousered prudes that +one met at every turn in the town. And then, when you met that +seductive young actress-- + +Bernick: It was a boyish escapade--nothing more; I swear to you +that there was no truth in a tenth part of the rumours and gossip +that went about. + +Lona: Maybe. But then, when Betty came home--a pretty young girl, +idolised by every one--and it became known that she would inherit +all her aunt's money and that I would have nothing! + +Bernick: That is just the point, Lona; and now you shall have the +truth without any beating about the bush. I did not love Betty +then; I did not break off my engagement with you because of any +new attachment. It was entirely for the sake of the money. I +needed it; I had to make sure of it. + +Lona: And you have the face to tell me that? + +Bernick: Yes, I have. Listen, Lona. + +Lona: And yet you wrote to me that an unconquerable passion for +Betty had overcome you--invoked my magnanimity--begged me, for +Betty's sake, to hold my tongue about all that had been between +us. + +Bernick: I had to, I tell you. + +Lona: Now, by Heaven, I don't regret that I forgot myself as I +did that time-- + +Bernick: Let me tell you the plain truth of how things stood with +me then. My mother, as you remember, was at the head of the +business, but she was absolutely without any business ability +whatever. I was hurriedly summoned home from Paris; times were +critical, and they relied on me to set things straight. What did +I find? I found--and you must keep this a profound secret--a +house on the brink of ruin. Yes--as good as on the brink of ruin, +this old respected house which had seen three generations of us. +What else could I--the son, the only son--do than look about for +some means of saving it? + +Lona: And so you saved the house of Bernick at the cost of a +woman. + +Bernick: You know quite well that Betty was in love with me. + +Lona: But what about me? + +Bernick: Believe me, Lona, you would never have been happy with +me. + +Lona: Was it out of consideration for my happiness that you +sacrificed me? + +Bernick: Do you suppose I acted as I did from selfish motives? If +I had stood alone then, I would have begun all over again with +cheerful courage. But you do not understand how the life of a man +of business, with his tremendous responsibilities, is bound up +with that of the business which falls to his inheritance. Do you +realise that the prosperity or the ruin of hundreds--of +thousands--depends on him? Can you not take into consideration +the fact that the whole community in which both you and I were +born would have been affected to the most dangerous extent if the +house of Bernick had gone to smash? + +Lon: Then is it for the sake of the community that you have +maintained your position these fifteen years upon a lie? + +Bernick: Upon a lie? + +Lona: What does Betty know of all this...that underlies her union +with you? + +Bernick: Do you suppose that I would hurt her feelings to no +purpose by disclosing the truth? + +Lona: To no purpose, you say? Well, well--You are a man of +business; you ought to understand what is to the purpose. But +listen to me, Karsten--I am going to speak the plain truth now. +Tell me, are you really happy? + +Bernick: In my family life, do you mean? + +Lona: Yes. + +Bernick: I am, Lona. You have not been a self-sacrificing friend +to me in vain. I can honestly say that I have grown happier every +year. Betty is good and willing; and if I were to tell you how, +in the course of years, she has learned to model her character on +the lines of my own-- + +Lona: Hm! + +Bernick: At first, of course, she had a whole lot of romantic +notions about love; she could not reconcile herself to the idea +that, little by little, it must change into a quiet comradeship. + +Lona: But now she is quite reconciled to that? + +Bernick: Absolutely. As you can imagine, daily intercourse with +me has had no small share in developing her character. Every one, +in their degree, has to learn to lower their own pretensions, if +they are to live worthily of the community to which they belong. +And Betty, in her turn, has gradually learned to understand this; +and that is why our home is now a model to our fellow citizens. + +Lona: But your fellow citizens know nothing about the lie? + +Bernick: The lie? + +Lona: Yes--the lie you have persisted in for these fifteen years. + +Bernick: Do you mean to say that you call that--? + +Lona: I call it a lie--a threefold lie: first of all, there is the +lie towards me; then, the lie towards Betty; and then, the lie +towards Johan. + +Bernick: Betty has never asked me to speak. + +Lona: Because she has known nothing. + +Bernick: And you will not demand it--out of consideration for +her. + +Lona: Oh, no--I shall manage to put up with their gibes well +enough; I have broad shoulders. + +Bernick: And Johan will not demand it either; he has promised me +that. + +Lona: But you yourself, Karsten? Do you feel within yourself no +impulse urging you to shake yourself free of this lie? + +Bernick: Do you suppose that of my own free will I would +sacrifice my family happiness and my position in the world? + +Lona: What right have you to the position you hold? + +Bernick: Every day during these fifteen years I have earned some +little right to it--by my conduct, and by what I have achieved by +my work. + +Lona: True, you have achieved a great deal by your work, for +yourself as well as for others. You are the richest and most +influential man in the town; nobody in it dares do otherwise than +defer to your will, because you are looked upon as a man without +spot or blemish; your home is regarded as a model home, and your +conduct as a model of conduct. But all this grandeur, and you +with it, is founded on a treacherous morass. A moment may come +and a word may be spoken, when you and all your grandeur will be +engulfed in the morass, if you do not save yourself in time. + +Bernick: Lona--what is your object in coming here? + +Lona: I want to help you to get firm ground under your feet, +Karsten. + +Bernick: Revenge!--you want to revenge yourself! I suspected it. +But you won't succeed! There is only one person here that can +speak with authority, and he will be silent. + +Lona: You mean Johan? + +Bernick: Yes, Johan. If any one else accuses me, I shall deny +everything. If any one tries to crush me, I shall fight for my +life. But you will never succeed in that, let me tell you! The +one who could strike me down will say nothing--and is going away. + +(RUMMEL and VIGELAND come in from the right.) + +Rummel: Good morning, my dear Bernick, good morning. You must +come up with us to the Commercial Association. There is a meeting +about the railway scheme, you know. + +Bernick: I cannot. It is impossible just now. + +Vigeland: You really must, Mr. Bernick. + +Rummel: Bernick, you must. There is an opposition to us on foot. +Hammer, and the rest of those who believe in a line along the +coast, are declaring that private interests are at the back of +the new proposals. + +Bernick: Well then, explain to them-- + +Vigeland: Our explanations have no effect, Mr. Bernick. + +Rummel: No, no, you must come yourself. Naturally, no one would +dare to suspect you of such duplicity. + +Lona: I should think not. + +Bernick: I cannot, I tell you; I am not well. Or, at all events, +wait--let me pull myself together. (RORLUND comes in from the +right.) + +Rorlund: Excuse me, Mr. Bernick, but I am terribly upset. + +Bernick: Why, what is the matter with you? + +Rorlund. I must put a question to you, Mr. Bernick. Is it with +your consent that the young girl who has found a shelter under +your roof shows herself in the open street in the company of a +person who-- + +Lona: What person, Mr. Parson? + +Rorlund: With the person from whom, of all others in the world, +she ought to be kept farthest apart! + +Lona: Ha! ha! + +Rorlund: Is it with your consent, Mr. Bernick? + +Bernick (looking for his hat and gloves). I know nothing about +it. You must excuse me; I am in a great hurry. I am due at the +Commercial Association. + +(HILMAR comes up from the garden and goes over to the farther +door on the left.) + +Hilmar: Betty-- Betty, I want to speak to you. + +Mrs. Bernick (coming to the door): What is it? + +Hilmar: You ought to go down into the garden and put a stop to +the flirtation that is going on between a certain person and Dina +Dorf! It has quite got on my nerves to listen to them. + +Lona: Indeed! And what has the certain person been saying? + +Hilmar: Oh, only that he wishes she would go off to America with +him. Ugh! + +Rorlund: Is it possible? + +Mrs. Bernick: What do you say? + +Lona: But that would be perfectly splendid! + +Bernick: Impossible! You cannot have heard right. + +Hilmar: Ask him yourself, then. Here comes the pair of them. +Only, leave me out of it, please. + +Bernick (to RUMMEL and VIGELAND): I will follow you--in a moment. +(RUMMEL and VIGELAND go out to the right. JOHAN and DINA come up +from the garden.) + +Johan: Hurrah, Lona, she is going with us! + +Mrs. Bernick: But, Johan--are you out of your senses? + +Rorlund: Can I believe my ears! Such an atrocious scandal! By +what arts of seduction have you--? + +Johan: Come, come, sir--what are you saying? + +Rorlund: Answer me, Dina; do you mean to do this--entirely of +your own free will? + +Dina: I must get away from here. + +Rorlund: But with him!--with him! + +Dina: Can you tell me of any one else here who would have the +courage to take me with him? + +Rorlund: Very well, then--you shall learn who he is. + +Johan: Do not speak! + +Bernick: Not a word more! + +Rorlund: If I did not, I should be unworthy to serve a community +of whose morals I have been appointed a guardian, and should be +acting most unjustifiably towards this young girl, in whose +upbringing I have taken a material part, and who is to me-- + +Johan: Take care what you are doing! + +Rorlund: She shall know! Dina, this is the man who was the cause +of all your mother's misery and shame. + +Bernick: Mr. Rorlund--? + +Dina: He! (TO JOHAN.) Is this true? + +Johan: Karsten, you answer. + +Bernick: Not a word more! Do not let us say another word about it +today. + +Dina: Then it is true. + +Rorlund: Yes, it is true. And more than that, this fellow-- whom +you were going to trust-- did not run away from home empty-handed; +ask him about old Mrs. Bernick's cash-box.... Mr. Bernick can bear +witness to that! + +Lona: Liar + +Bernick: Ah! + +Mrs. Bernick: My God! my God! + +Johan (rushing at RORLUND with uplifted arm): And you dare to-- + +Lona (restraining him): Do not strike him, Johan! + +Rorlund: That is right, assault me! But the truth will out; and +it is the truth--Mr. Bernick has admitted it-- and the whole town +knows it. Now, Dina, you know him. (A short silence.) + +Johan (softly, grasping BERNICK by the arm): Karsten, Karsten, +what have you done? + +Mrs. Bernick (in tears): Oh, Karsten, to think that I should have +mixed you up in all this disgrace! + +Sandstad (coming in hurriedly from the right, and calling out, +with his hand still on the door-handle): You positively must come +now, Mr. Bernick. The fate of the whole railway is hanging by a +thread. + +Bernick (abstractedly): What is it? What have I to-- + +Lona (earnestly and with emphasis): You have to go and be a +pillar of society, brother-in-law. + +Sandstad: Yes, come along; we need the full weight of your moral +excellence on our side. + +Johan (aside, to BERNICK): Karsten, we will have a talk about +this tomorrow. (Goes out through the garden. BERNICK, looking +half dazed, goes out to the right with SANDSTAD.) + + +ACT III + + +(SCENE--The same room. BERNICK, with a cane in his hand and +evidently in a great rage, comes out of the farther room on the +left, leaving the door half-open behind him.) + +Bernick (speaking to his wife, who is in the other room): There! +I have given it him in earnest now; I don't think he will forget +that thrashing! What do you say?--And I say that you are an +injudicious mother! You make excuses for him, and countenance any +sort of rascality on his part--Not rascality? What do you call +it, then? Slipping out of the house at night, going out in a +fishing boat, staying away till well on in the day, and giving me +such a horrible fright when I have so much to worry me! And then +the young scamp has the audacity to threaten that he will run +away! Just let him try it!--You? No, very likely; you don't +trouble yourself much about what happens to him. I really believe +that if he were to get killed--! Oh, really? Well, I have work to +leave behind me in the world; I have no fancy for being left +childless--Now, do not raise objections, Betty; it shall be as I +say--he is confined to the house. (Listens.) Hush; do not let any +one notice anything. (KRAP comes in from the right.) + +Krap: Can you spare me a moment, Mr. Bernick? + +Bernick (throwing away the cane): Certainly, certainly. Have you +come from the yard? + +Krap: Yes. Ahem--! + +Bernick: Well? Nothing wrong with the "Palm Tree," I hope? + +Krap: The "Palm Tree " can sail tomorrow, but + +Bernick: It is the "Indian Girl," then? I had a suspicion that +that obstinate fellow-- + +Krap: The "Indian Girl" can sail tomorrow, too; but I am sure +she will not get very far. + +Bernick: What do you mean? + +Krap: Excuse me, sir; that door is standing ajar, and I think +there is some one in the other room-- + +Bernick (shutting the door): There, then! But what is this that +no one else must hear? + +Krap: Just this--that I believe Aune intends to let the "Indian +Girl" go to the bottom with every mother's son on board. + +Bernick: Good God!--what makes you think that? + +Krap: I cannot account for it any other way, sir. + +Bernick: Well, tell me as briefly as you can + +Krap: I will. You know yourself how slowly the work has gone on +in the yard since we got the new machines and the new +inexperienced hands? + +Bernick: Yes, yes. + +Krap: But this morning, when I went down there, I noticed that +the repairs to the American boat had made extraordinary progress; +the great hole in the bottom--the rotten patch, you know-- + +Bernick: Yes, yes--what about it? + +Krap: Was completely repaired--to all appearance at any rate, +covered up--looked as good as new. I heard that Aune himself had +been working at it by lantern light the whole night. + +Bernick: Yes, yes--well? + +Krap: I turned it over in my head for a bit; the hands were away +at their breakfast, so I found an opportunity to have a look +around the boat, both outside and in, without anyone seeing me. +I had a job to get down to the bottom through the cargo, but I +learned the truth. There is something very suspicious going on, +Mr. Bernick. + +Bernick: I cannot believe it, Krap. I cannot and will not believe +such a thing of Aune. + +Krap: I am very sorry--but it is the simple truth. Something very +suspicious is going on. No new timbers put in, as far as I could +see, only stopped up and tinkered at, and covered over with +sailcloth and tarpaulins and that sort of thing--an absolute +fraud. The "Indian Girl" will never get to New York; she will go +to the bottom like a cracked pot. + +Bernick: This is most horrible! But what can be his object, do +you suppose? + +Krap: Probably he wants to bring the machines into discredit-- +wants to take his revenge--wants to force you to take the old +hands on again. + +Bernick: And to do this he is willing to sacrifice the lives of +all on board. + +Krap: He said the other day that there were no men on board the +"Indian Girl"--only wild beasts. + +Bernick: Yes, but--apart from that--has he no regard for the +great loss of capital it would mean? + +Krap: Aune does not look upon capital with a very friendly eye, +Mr. Bernick. + +Bernick: That is perfectly true; he is an agitator and a fomenter +of discontent; but such an unscrupulous thing as this--Look here, +Krap; you must look into the matter once more. Not a word of it +to any one. The blame will fall on our yard if any one hears +anything of it. + +Krap: Of course, but-- + +Bernick: When the hands are away at their dinner you must manage +to get down there again; I must have absolute certainty about it. + +Krap: You shall, sir; but, excuse me, what do you propose to do? + +Bernick: Report the affair, naturally. We cannot, of course, let +ourselves become accomplices in such a crime. I could not have +such a thing on my conscience. Moreover, it will make a good +impression, both on the press and on the public in general, if it +is seen that I set all personal interests aside and let justice +take its course. + +Krap: Quite true, Mr. Bernick. + +Bernick: But first of all I must be absolutely certain. And +meanwhile, do not breathe a word of it. + +Krap: Not a word, sir. And you shall have your certainty. (Goes +out through the garden and down the street.) + +Bernick (half aloud): Shocking!--But no, it is impossible! +Inconceivable! + +(As he turns to go into his room, HILMAR comes in from the +right.) + +Hilmar: Good morning, Karsten. Let me congratulate you on your +triumph at the Commercial Association yesterday. + +Bernick: Thank you. + +Hilmar: It was a brilliant triumph, I hear; the triumph of +intelligent public spirit over selfishness and prejudice-- +something like a raid of French troops on the Kabyles. It is +astonishing that after that unpleasant scene here, you could-- + +Bernick: Yes, yes--quite so. + +Hilmar: But the decisive battle has not been fought yet. + +Bernick: In the matter of the railway, do you mean? + +Hilmar: Yes; I suppose you know the trouble that Hammer is +brewing? + +Bernick (anxiously): No, what is that? + +Hilmar: Oh, he is greatly taken up with the rumour that is going +around, and is preparing to dish up an article about it. + +Bernick: What rumour? + +Hilmar: About the extensive purchase of property along the branch +line, of course. + +Bernick: What? Is there such a rumour as that going about? + +Hilmar: It is all over the town. I heard it at the club when I +looked in there. They say that one of our lawyers has quietly +bought up, on commission, all the forest land, all the mining +land, all the waterfalls-- + +Bernick: Don't they say whom it was for? + +Hilmar: At the club they thought it must be for some company, not +connected with this town, that has got a hint of the scheme you +have in hand, and has made haste to buy before the price of these +properties went up. Isn't it villainous?--ugh! + +Bernick: Villainous? + +Hilmar: Yes, to have strangers putting their fingers into our +pie--and one of our own local lawyers lending himself to such a +thing! And now it will be outsiders that will get all the +profits! + +Bernick: But, after all, it is only an idle rumour. + +Hilmar: Meanwhile people are believing it, and tomorrow or the next +day, I have no doubt Hammer will nail it to the counter as a fact. +There is a general sense of exasperation in the town already. I +heard several people say that if the rumour were confirmed they +would take their names off the subscription lists. + +Bernick: Impossible! + +Hilmar: Is it? Why do you suppose these mercenary-minded +creatures were so willing to go into the undertaking with you? +Don't you suppose they have scented profit for themselves-- + +Bernick: It is impossible, I am sure; there is so much public +spirit in our little community-- + +Hilmar: In our community? Of course you are a confirmed optimist, +and so you judge others by yourself. But I, who am a tolerably +experienced observer--! There isn't a single soul in the place-- +excepting ourselves, of course--not a single soul in the place +who holds up the banner of the Ideal. (Goes towards the +verandah.) Ugh, I can see them there-- + +Bernick: See whom? + +Hilmar: Our two friends from America. (Looks out to the right.) +And who is that they are walking with? As I am alive, if it is +not the captain of the "Indian Girl." Ugh! + +Bernick: What can they want with him? + +Hilmar. Oh, he is just the right company for them. He looks as if +he had been a slave-dealer or a pirate; and who knows what the +other two may have been doing all these years. + +Bernick: Let me tell you that it is grossly unjust to think such +things about them. + +Hilmar: Yes--you are an optimist. But here they are, bearing down +upon us again; so I will get away while there is time. (Goes +towards the door on the left. LONA comes in from the right.) + +Lona: Oh, Hilmar, am I driving you away? + +Hilmar: Not at all; I am in rather a hurry; I want to have a word +with Betty. (Goes into the farthest room on the left.) + +Bernick (after a moment's silence): Well, Lona? + +Lona: Yes? + +Bernick: What do you think of me today? + +Lona: The same as I did yesterday. A lie more or less-- + +Bernick: I must enlighten you about it. Where has Johan gone? + +Lona: He is coming; he had to see a man first. + +Bernick: After what you heard yesterday, you will understand that +my whole life will be ruined if the truth comes to light. + +Lona: I can understand that. + +Bernick: Of course, it stands to reason that I was not guilty of +the crime there was so much talk about here. + +Lona: That stands to reason. But who was the thief? + +Bernick: There was no thief. There was no money stolen--not a +penny. + +Lona: How is that? + +Bernick: Not a penny, I tell you. + +Lona: But those rumours? How did that shameful rumour get about +that Johan-- + +Bernick: Lona, I think I can speak to you as I could to no one +else. I will conceal nothing from you. I was partly to blame for +spreading the rumour. + +Lona: You? You could act in that way towards a man who for your +sake--! + +Bernick: Do not condemn me without bearing in mind how things +stood at that time. I told you about it yesterday. I came home +and found my mother involved in a mesh of injudicious +undertakings; we had all manner of bad luck--it seemed as if +misfortunes were raining upon us, and our house was on the verge +of ruin. I was half reckless and half in despair. Lona, I believe +it was mainly to deaden my thoughts that I let myself drift into +that entanglement that ended in Johan's going away. + +Lona: Hm-- + +Bernick: You can well imagine how every kind of rumour was set on +foot after you and he had gone. People began to say that it was +not his first piece of folly--that Dorf had received a large sum +of money to hold his tongue and go away; other people said that +she had received it. At the same time it was obvious that our +house was finding it difficult to meet its obligations. What was +more natural than that scandal-mongers should find some +connection between these two rumours? And as the woman remained +here, living in poverty, people declared that he had taken the +money with him to America; and every time rumour mentioned the +sum, it grew larger. + +Lona: And you, Karsten--? + +Bernick: I grasped at the rumour like a drowning man at a straw. + +Lona: You helped to spread it? + +Bernick: I did not contradict it. Our creditors had begun to be +pressing, and I had the task of keeping them quiet. The result +was the dissipating of any suspicion as to the stability of the +firm; people said that we had been hit by a temporary piece of +ill-luck--that all that was necessary was that they should not +press us--only give us time and every creditor would be paid in +full. + +Lona: And every creditor was paid in full? + +Bernick: Yes, Lona, that rumour saved our house and made me the +man I now am. + +Lona: That is to say, a lie has made you the man you now are. + +Bernick: Whom did it injure at the time? It was Johan's intention +never to come back. + +Lona: You ask whom it injured. Look into your own heart, and tell +me if it has not injured you. + +Bernick: Look into any man's heart you please, and you will +always find, in every one, at least one black spot which he has +to keep concealed. + +Lona: And you call yourselves pillars of society! + +Bernick: Society has none better. + +Lona: And of what consequence is it whether such a society be +propped up or not? What does it all consist of? Show and lies-- +and nothing else. Here are you, the first man in the town, living +in grandeur and luxury, powerful and respected--you, who have +branded an innocent man as a criminal. + +Bernick: Do you suppose I am not deeply conscious of the wrong I +have done him? And do you suppose I am not ready to make amends +to him for it? + +Lona: How? By speaking out? + +Bernick: Would you have the heart to insist on that? + +Lona: What else can make amends for such a wrong? + +Bernick: I am rich, Lona; Johan can demand any sum he pleases. + +Lona: Yes, offer him money, and you will hear what he will say. + +Bernick: Do you know what he intends to do? + +Lona: No; since yesterday he has been dumb. He looks as if this +had made a grown man of him all at once. + +Bernick: I must talk to him. + +Lona: Here he comes. (JOHAN comes in from the right.) + +Bernick (going towards hint): Johan--! + +Johan (motioning him away): Listen to me first. Yesterday morning +I gave you my word that I would hold my tongue. + +Bernick: You did. + +Johan: But then I did not know-- + +Bernick: Johan, only let me say a word or two to explain the +circumstances-- + +Johan: It is unnecessary; I understand the circumstances +perfectly. The firm was in a dangerous position at the time; I +had gone off, and you had my defenceless name and reputation at +your mercy. Well, I do not blame you so very much for what you +did; we were young and thoughtless in those days. But now I have +need of the truth, and now you must speak. + +Bernick: And just now I have need of all my reputation for +morality, and therefore I cannot speak. + +Johan: I don't take much account of the false reports you spread +about me; it is the other thing that you must take the blame of. +I shall make Dina my wife, and here--here in your town--I mean to +settle down and live with her. + +Lona: Is that what you mean to do? + +Bernick: With Dina? Dina as your wife?--in this town? + +Johan: Yes, here and nowhere else. I mean to stay here to defy +all these liars and slanderers. But before I can win her, you must +exonerate me. + +Bernick: Have you considered that, if I confess to the one thing, +it will inevitably mean making myself responsible for the other +as well? You will say that I can show by our books that nothing +dishonest happened? But I cannot; our books were not so +accurately kept in those days. And even if I could, what good +would it do? Should I not in any case be pointed at as the man +who had once saved himself by an untruth, and for fifteen years +had allowed that untruth and all its consequences to stand +without having raised a finger to demolish it? You do not know +our community very much, or you would realise that it would ruin +me utterly. + +Johan: I can only tell you that I mean to make Mrs. Dorf's +daughter my wife, and live with her in this town. + +Bernick (wiping the perspiration from his forehead): Listen to +me, Johan--and you too, Lona. The circumstances I am in just now +are quite exceptional. I am situated in such a way that if you +aim this blow at me you will not only destroy me, but will also +destroy a great future, rich in blessings, that lies before the +community which, after all, was the home of your childhood. + +Johan: And if I do not aim this blow at you, I shall be +destroying all my future happiness with my own hand. + +Lona: Go on, Karsten. + +Bernick: I will tell you, then. It is mixed up with the railway +project, and the whole thing is not quite so simple as you think. +I suppose you have heard that last year there was some talk of a +railway line along the coast? Many influential people backed up +the idea--people in the town and the suburbs, and especially the +press; but I managed to get the proposal quashed, on the ground +that it would have injured our steamboat trade along the coast. + +Lona: Have you any interest in the steamboat trade? + +Bernick: Yes. But no one ventured to suspect me on that account; +my honoured name fully protected me from that. For the matter of +that, I could have stood the loss; but the place could not have +stood it. So the inland line was decided upon. As soon as that +was done, I assured myself--without saying anything about it-- +that a branch line could be laid to the town. + +Lona: Why did you say nothing about it, Karsten? + +Bernick: Have you heard the rumours of extensive buying up of +forest lands, mines and waterfalls--? + +Johan: Yes, apparently it is some company from another part of +the country. + +Bernick: As these properties are situated at present, they are as +good as valueless to their owners, who are scattered about the +neighbourhood; they have therefore been sold comparatively cheap. +If the purchaser had waited till the branch line began to be +talked of, the proprietors would have asked exorbitant prices. + +Lona: Well--what then? + +Bernick: Now I am going to tell you something that can be +construed in different ways--a thing to which, in our community, +a man could only confess provided he had an untarnished and +honoured name to take his stand upon. + +Lona: Well? + +Bernick: It is I that have bought up the whole of them. + +Lona: You? + +Johan: On your own account? + +Bernick: On my own account. If the branch line becomes an +accomplished fact, I am a millionaire; if it does not, I am +ruined. + +Lona: It is a big risk, Karsten. + +Bernick: I have risked my whole fortune on it. + +Lona: I am not thinking of your fortune; but if it comes to light +that-- + +Bernick. Yes, that is the critical part of it. With the +unblemished and honoured name I have hitherto borne, I can take +the whole thing upon my shoulders, carry it through, and say to +my fellow-citizens: "See, I have taken this risk for the good of +the community." + +Lona: Of the community? + +Bernick: Yes; and not a soul will doubt my motives. + +Lona: Then some of those concerned in it have acted more openly-- +without any secret motives or considerations. + +Bernick: Who? + +Lona: Why, of course, Rummel and Sandstad and Vigeland. + +Bernick: To get them on my side I was obliged to let them into +the secret. + +Lona: And they? + +Bernick: They have stipulated for a fifth part of the profits as +their share. + +Lona: Oh, these pillars of society. + +Bernick: And isn't it society itself that forces us to use these +underhanded means? What would have happened if I had not acted +secretly? Everybody would have wanted to have a hand in the +undertaking; the whole thing would have been divided up, +mismanaged and bungled. There is not a single man in the town +except myself who is capable of directing so big an affair as +this will be. In this country, almost without exception, it is +only foreigners who have settled here who have the aptitude for +big business schemes. That is the reason why my conscience +acquits me in the matter. It is only in my hands that these +properties can become a real blessing to the many who have to +make their daily bread. + +Lona: I believe you are right there, Karsten. + +Johan: But I have no concern with the many, and my life's +happiness is at stake. + +Bernick: The welfare of your native place is also at stake. If +things come out which cast reflections on my earlier conduct, +then all my opponents will fall upon me with united vigour. A +youthful folly is never allowed to be forgotten in our community. +They would go through the whole of my previous life, bring up a +thousand little incidents in it, interpret and explain +them in the light of what has been revealed; they would crush me +under the weight of rumours and slanders. I should be obliged to +abandon the railway scheme; and, if I take my hand off that, it +will come to nothing, and I shall be ruined and my life as a +citizen will be over. + +Lona: Johan, after what we have just heard, you must go away from +here and hold your tongue. + +Bernick: Yes, yes, Johan--you must! + +Johan: Yes, I will go away, and I will hold my tongue; but I +shall come back, and then I shall speak. + +Bernick: Stay over there, Johan; hold your tongue, and I am +willing to share with you-- + +Johan: Keep your money, but give me back my name and reputation. + +Bernick: And sacrifice my own! + +Johan: You and your community must get out of that the best way +you can. I must and shall win Dina for my wife. And therefore, I +am going to sail tomorrow in the "Indian Girl"-- + +Bernick: In the "Indian Girl"? + +Johan: Yes. The captain has promised to take me. I shall go over +to America, as I say; I shall sell my farm, and set my affairs in +order. In two months I shall be back. + +Bernick: And then you will speak? + +Johan: Then the guilty man must take his guilt on himself. + +Bernick: Have you forgotten that, if I do that, I must also take +on myself guilt that is not mine? + +Johan: Who is it that for the last fifteen years has benefited by +that shameful rumour? + +Bernick: You will drive me to desperation! Well, if you speak, I +shall deny everything! I shall say it is a plot against me--that +you have come here to blackmail me! + +Lona: For shame, Karsten! + +Bernick: I am a desperate man, I tell you, and I shall fight for +my life. I shall deny everything--everything! + +Johan: I have your two letters. I found them in my box among my +other papers. This morning I read them again; they are plain +enough. + +Bernick: And will you make them public? + +Johan: If it becomes necessary. + +Bernick: And you will be back here in two months? + +Johan: I hope so. The wind is fair. In three weeks I shall be in +New York--if the "Indian Girl" does not go to the bottom. + +Bernick (with a start): Go to the bottom? Why should the "Indian +Girl" go to the bottom? + +Johan: Quite so--why should she? + +Bernick (scarcely audibly): Go to the bottom? + +Johan: Well, Karsten, now you know what is before you. You must +find your own way out. Good-bye! You can say good-bye to Betty +for me, although she has not treated me like a sister. But I must +see Martha. She shall tell Dina---; she shall promise me--(Goes +out through the farther door on the left.) + +Bernick (to himself): The "Indian Girl"--? (Quickly.) Lona, you +must prevent that! + +Lona: You see for yourself, Karsten--I have no influence over him +any longer. (Follows JOHAN into the other room.) + +Bernick (a prey to uneasy thoughts): Go to the bottom--? + +(AUNE comes in from the right.) + +Aune: Excuse me, sir, but if it is convenient-- + +Bernick (turning round angrily): What do you want? + +Aune: To know if I may ask you a question, sir. + +Bernick: Be quick about it, then. What is it? + +Aune: I wanted to ask if I am to consider it as certain-- +absolutely certain--that I should be dismissed from the yard if +the "Indian Girl" were not ready to sail tomorrow? + +Bernick: What do you mean? The ship is ready to sail? + +Aune: Yes--it is. But suppose it were not, should I be +discharged? + +Bernick: What is the use of asking such idle questions? + +Aune: Only that I should like to know, sir. Will you answer me +that?--should I be discharged? + +Bernick: Am I in the habit of keeping my word or not? + +Aune: Then tomorrow I should have lost the position I hold in my +house and among those near and dear to me--lost my influence over +men of my own class--lost all opportunity of doing anything for +the cause of the poorer and needier members of the community? + +Bernick: Aune, we have discussed all that before. + +Aune: Quite so--then the "Indian Girl" will sail. + +(A short silence.) + +Bernick: Look here--it is impossible for me to have my eyes +everywhere--I cannot be answerable for everything. You can give +me your assurance, I suppose, that the repairs have been +satisfactorily carried out? + +Aune: You gave me very short grace, Mr. Bernick. + +Bernick: But I understand you to warrant the repairs? + +Aune: The weather is fine, and it is summer. + +(Another pause.) + +Bernick: Have you anything else to say to me? + +Aune: I think not, sir. + +Bernick: Then--the "Indian Girl" will sail... + +Aune: Tomorrow? + +Bernick: Yes. + +Aune: Very good. (Bows and goes out. BERNICK stands for a moment +irresolute; then walks quickly towards the door, as if to call +AUNE back; but stops, hesitatingly, with his hand on the door- +handle. At that moment the door is opened from without, and KRAP +comes in.) + +Krap (in a low voice): Aha, he has been here. Has he confessed? + +Bernick: Hm--; have you discovered anything? + +Krap: What need of that, sir? Could you not see the evil +conscience looking out of the man's eyes? + +Bernick: Nonsense--such things don't show. Have you discovered +anything, I want to know? + +Krap: I could not manage it; I was too late. They had already +begun hauling the ship out of the dock. But their very haste in +doing that plainly shows that-- + +Bernick: It shows nothing. Has the inspection taken place, then? + +Krap: Of course; but-- + +Bernick: There, you see! And of course they found nothing to +complain of? + +Krap: Mr. Bernick, you know very well how much this inspection +means, especially in a yard that has such a good name as ours +has. + +Bernick: No matter--it takes all responsibility off us. + +Krap: But, sir, could you really not tell from Aune's manner +that--? + +Bernick: Aune has completely reassured me, let me tell you. + +Krap: And let me tell you, sir, that I am morally certain that-- + +Bernick: What does this mean, Krap? I see plainly enough that you +want to get your knife into this man; but if you want to attack +him, you must find some other occasion. You know how important it +is to me--or, I should say, to the owners--that the "Indian Girl" +should sail to-morrow. + +Krap: Very well--so be it; but if ever we hear of that ship +again--hm! + +(VIGELAND comes in from the right.) + +Vigeland: I wish you a very good morning, Mr. Bernick. Have you a +moment to spare? + +Bernick: At your service, Mr. Vigeland. + +Vigeland: I only want to know if you are also of opinion that the +"Palm Tree" should sail tomorrow? + +Bernick: Certainly; I thought that was quite settled. + +Vigeland: Well, the captain came to me just now and told me that +storm signals have been hoisted. + +Bernick: Oh! Are we to expect a storm? + +Vigeland: A stiff breeze, at all events; but not a contrary wind- +-just the opposite. + +Bernick: Hm--well, what do you say? + +Vigeland: I say, as I said to the captain, that the "Palm Tree" +is in the hands of Providence. Besides, they are only going +across the North Sea at first; and in England, freights are +running tolerably high just now, so that-- + +Bernick: Yes, it would probably mean a loss for us if we waited. + +Vigeland: Besides, she is a stout ship, and fully insured as +well. It is more risky, now, for the "Indian Girl"-- + +Bernick: What do you mean? + +Vigeland: She sails tomorrow, too. + +Bernick: Yes, the owners have been in such a hurry, and, besides-- + +Vigeland: Well, if that old hulk can venture out--and with such a +crew, into the bargain--it would be a disgrace to us if we-- + +Bernick: Quite so. I presume you have the ship's papers with you. + +Vigeland: Yes, here they are. + +Bernick: Good; then will you go in with Mr. Krap? + +Krap: Will you come in here, sir, and we will dispose of them at +once. + +Vigeland: Thank you.--And the issue we leave in the hands of the +Almighty, Mr. Bernick. (Goes with KRAP into BERNICK'S room. +RORLUND comes up from the garden.) + +Rorlund: At home at this time of day, Mr. Bernick? + +Bernick (lost in thought): As you see. + +Rorlund: It was really on your wife's account I came. I thought +she might be in need of a word of comfort. + +Bernick: Very likely she is. But I want to have a little talk +with you, too. + +Rorlund: With the greatest of pleasure, Mr. Bernick. But what is +the matter with you? You look quite pale and upset. + +Bernick: Really? Do I? Well, what else could you expect--a man so +loaded with responsibilities as I am? There is all my own big +business--and now the planning of this railway.--But tell me +something, Mr. Rorlund, let me put a question to you. + +Rorlund: With pleasure, Mr. Bernick. + +Bernick: It is about a thought that has occurred to me. Suppose a +man is face to face with an undertaking which will concern the +welfare of thousands, and suppose it should be necessary to make +a sacrifice of one--? + +Rorlund: What do you mean? + +Bernick: For example, suppose a man were thinking of starting a +large factory. He knows for certain--because all his experience +has taught him so--that sooner or later a toll of human life will +be exacted in the working of that factory. + +Rorlund: Yes, that is only too probable. + +Bernick: Or, say a man embarks on a mining enterprise. He takes +into his service fathers of families and young men in the first +flush of their youth. Is it not quite safe to predict that all of +them will not come out of it alive? + +Rorlund: Yes, unhappily that is quite true. + +Bernick: Well--a man in that position will know beforehand that +the undertaking he proposes to start must undoubtedly, at some +time or other, mean a loss of human life. But the undertaking +itself is for the public good; for every man's life that it +costs, it will undoubtedly promote the welfare of many hundreds. + +Rorlund: Ah, you are thinking of the railway--of all the +dangerous excavating and blasting, and that sort of thing-- + +Bernick: Yes--quite so--I am thinking of the railway. And, +besides, the coming of the railway will mean the starting of +factories and mines. But do not think, nevertheless-- + +Rorlund: My dear Mr. Bernick, you are almost over-conscientious. +What I think is that, if you place the affair in the hands of +Providence-- + +Bernick: Yes--exactly; Providence-- + +Rorlund: You are blameless in the matter. Go on and build your +railway hopefully. + +Bernick: Yes, but now I will put a special instance to you. +Suppose a charge of blasting-powder had to be exploded in a +dangerous place, and that unless it were exploded the line could +not be constructed? Suppose the engineer knew that it would cost +the life of the workman who lit the fuse, but that it had to be +lit, and that it was the engineer's duty to send a workman to do +it? + +Rorlund: Hm-- + +Bernick: I know what you will say. It would be a splendid thing +if the engineer took the match himself and went and lit the fuse. +But that is out of the question, so he must sacrifice a workman. + +Rorlund: That is a thing no engineer here would ever do. + +Bernick: No engineer in the bigger countries would think twice +about doing it. + +Rorlund: In the bigger countries? No, I can quite believe it. In +those depraved and unprincipled communities. + +Bernick: Oh, there is a good deal to be said for those +communities. + +Rorlund: Can you say that?--you, who yourself-- + +Bernick: In the bigger communities a man finds space to carry out +a valuable project--finds the courage to make some sacrifice in a +great cause; but here, a man is cramped by all kinds of petty +considerations and scruples. + +Rorlund: Is human life a petty consideration? + +Bernick: When that human life threatens the welfare of thousands. + +Rorlund: But you are suggesting cases that are quite +inconceivable, Mr. Bernick! I do not understand you at all today. +And you quote the bigger countries--well, what do they +think of human life there? They look upon it simply as part of +the capital they have to use. But we look at things from a +somewhat different moral standpoint, I should hope. Look at our +respected shipping industry! Can you name a single one of our +ship-owners who would sacrifice a human life for the sake of +paltry gain? And then think of those scoundrels in the bigger +countries, who for the sake of profit send out freights in one +unseaworthy ship after another-- + +Bernick: I am not talking of unseaworthy ships! + +Rorlund: But I am, Mr. Bernick. + +Bernick: Yes, but to what purpose? They have nothing to do with +the question--Oh, these small, timid considerations! If a General +from this country were to take his men under fire and some of +them were shot, I suppose he would have sleepless nights after +it! It is not so in other countries. You should bear what that +fellow in there says-- + +Rorlund: He? Who? The American--? + +Bernick: Yes. You should hear how in America-- + +Rorlund: He, in there? And you did not tell me? I shall at once-- + +Bernick: It is no use; you won't be able to do anything with him. + +Rorlund: We shall see. Ah, here he comes. (JOHAN comes in from +the other room.) + +Johan (talking back through the open door): Yes, yes, Dina--as +you please; but I do not mean to give you up, all the same. I +shall come back, and then everything will come right between us. + +Rorlund: Excuse me, but what did you mean by that? What is it you +propose to do? + +Johan: I propose that that young girl, before whom you blackened +my character yesterday, shall become my wife. + +Rorlund: Your wife? And can you really suppose that--? + +Johan: I mean to marry her. + +Rorlund: Well, then you shall know the truth. (Goes to the half- +open door.) Mrs. Bernick, will you be so kind as to come and be a +witness--and you too, Miss Martha. And let Dina come. (Sees LONA +at the door.) Ah, you here too? + +Lona: Shall I come too? + +Rorlund: As many as you please--the more the better. + +Bernick: What are you going to do? (LONA, MRS. BERNICK, MARTHA, +DINA and HILMAR come in from the other room.) + +Mrs. Bernick: Mr. Rorlund, I have tried my hardest, but I cannot +prevent him... + +Rorlund: I shall prevent him, Mrs. Bernick. Dina, you are a +thoughtless girl, but I do not blame you so greatly. You have too +long lacked the necessary moral support that should have +sustained you. I blame myself for not having afforded you that +support. + +Dina: You mustn't speak now! + +Mrs. Bernick: What is it? + +Rorlund: It is now that I must speak, Dina, although your conduct +yesterday and today has made it ten times more difficult for me. +But all other considerations must give way to the necessity for +saving you. You remember that I gave you my word; you remember +what you promised you would answer when I judged that the right +time had come. Now I dare not hesitate any longer, and therefore- +-. (Turns to JOHAN.) This young girl, whom you are persecuting, +is my betrothed. + +Mrs. Bernick: What? + +Bernick: Dina! + +Johan: She? Your--? + +Martha: No, no, Dina! + +Lona: It is a lie! + +Johan: Dina--is this man speaking the truth? + +Dina (after a short pause): Yes. + +Rorlund: I hope this has rendered all your arts of seduction +powerless. The step I have determined to take for Dina's good, I +now wish openly proclaimed to every one. I cherish the certain +hope that it will not be misinterpreted. And now, Mrs. Bernick, I +think it will be best for us to take her away from here, and try +to bring back peace and tranquillity to her mind. + +Mrs. Bernick: Yes, come with me. Oh, Dina--what a lucky girl you +are! (Takes DINA Out to the left; RORLUND follows them.) + +Martha: Good-bye, Johan! (Goes out.) + +Hilmar (at the verandah door): Hm--I really must say... + +Lona (who has followed DINA with her eyes, to JOHAN): Don't be +downhearted, my boy! I shall stay here and keep my eye on the +parson. (Goes out to the right.) + +Bernick: Johan, you won't sail in the "Indian Girl" now? + +Johan: Indeed I shall. + +Bernick: But you won't come back? + +Johan: I am coming back. + +Bernick: After this? What have you to do here after this? + +Johan: Revenge myself on you all; crush as many of you as I can. +(Goes out to the right. VIGELAND and KRAP come in from BERNICK'S +room.) + +Vigeland: There, now the papers are in order, Mr. Bernick. + +Bernick: Good, good. + +Krap (in a low voice): And I suppose it is settled that the +"Indian Girl" is to sail tomorrow? + +Bernick: Yes. (Goes into his room. VIGELAND and KRAP go out to +the right. HILMAR is just going after them, when OLAF puts his +head carefully out of the door on the left.) + +Olaf: Uncle! Uncle Hilmar! + +Hilmar: Ugh, is it you? Why don't you stay upstairs? You know you +are confined to the house. + +Olaf (coming a step or two nearer): Hush! Uncle Hilmar, have you +heard the news? + +Hilmar: Yes, I have heard that you got a thrashing today. + +Olaf (looking threateningly towards his father's room): He shan't +thrash me any more. But have you heard that Uncle Johan is going +to sail tomorrow with the Americans? + +Hilmar: What has that got to do with you? You had better run +upstairs again. + +Olaf: Perhaps I shall be going for a buffalo hunt, too, one of +these days, uncle. + +Hilmar: Rubbish! A coward like you-- + +Olaf: Yes--just you wait! You will learn something tomorrow! + +Hilmar: Duffer! (Goes out through the garden. OLAF runs into the +room again and shuts the door, as he sees KRAP coming in from the +right.) + +Krap (going to the door of BERNICK'S room and opening it +slightly): Excuse my bothering you again, Mr. Bernick; but there +is a tremendous storm blowing up. (Waits a moment, but there is +no answer.) Is the "Indian Girl" to sail, for all that? (After a +short pause, the following answer is heard.) + +Bernick (from his room): The "Indian Girl" is to sail, for all +that. + +(KRAP Shuts the door and goes out again to the right.) + +ACT IV + +(SCENE--The same room. The work-table has been taken away. It is +a stormy evening and already dusk. Darkness sets in as the +following scene is in progress. A man-servant is lighting the +chandelier; two maids bring in pots of flowers, lamps and +candles, which they place on tables and stands along the walls. +RUMMEL, in dress clothes, with gloves and a white tie, is +standing in the room giving instructions to the servants.) + +Rummel: Only every other candle, Jacob. It must not look as if it +were arranged for the occasion--it has to come as a surprise, you +know. And all these flowers--? Oh, well, let them be; it will +probably look as if they stood there everyday. (BERNICK comes +out of his room.) + +Bernick (stopping at the door): What does this mean? + +Rummel: Oh dear, is it you? (To the servants.) Yes, you might +leave us for the present. (The servants go out.) + +Bernick: But, Rummel, what is the meaning of this? + +Rummel: It means that the proudest moment of your life has come. +A procession of his fellow citizens is coming to do honour to the +first man of the town. + +Bernick: What! + +Rummel: In procession--with banners and a band! We ought to have +had torches too; but we did not like to risk that in this stormy +weather. There will be illuminations--and that always sounds well +in the newspapers. + +Bernick: Listen, Rummel--I won't have anything to do with this. + +Rummel: But it is too late now; they will be here in half-an- +hour. + +Bernick: But why did you not tell me about this before? + +Rummel: Just because I was afraid you would raise objections to +it. But I consulted your wife; she allowed me to take charge of +the arrangements, while she looks after the refreshments. + +Bernick (listening): What is that noise? Are they coming already? +I fancy I hear singing. + +Rummel (going to the verandah door): Singing? Oh, that is only +the Americans. The "Indian Girl" is being towed out. + +Bernick: Towed out? Oh, yes. No, Rummel, I cannot this evening; I +am not well. + +Rummel: You certainly do look bad. But you must pull yourself +together; devil take it--you must! Sandstad and Vigeland and I +all attach the greatest importance to carrying this thing +through. We have got to crush our opponents under the weight of +as complete an expression of public opinion as possible. Rumours +are getting about the town; our announcement about the purchase +of the property cannot be withheld any longer. It is imperative +that this very evening--after songs and speeches, amidst the clink +of glasses--in a word, in an ebullient atmosphere of festivity-- +you should inform them of the risk you have incurred for the good +of the community. In such an ebullient atmosphere of festivity-- +as I just now described it--you can do an astonishing lot with the +people here. But you must have that atmosphere, or the thing +won't go. + +Bernick: Yes, yes. + +Rummel: And especially when so delicate and ticklish a point has +to be negotiated. Well, thank goodness, you have a name that will +be a tower of strength, Bernick. But listen now; we must make our +arrangements, to some extent. Mr. Hilmar Tonnesen has written an +ode to you. It begins very charmingly with the words: "Raise the +Ideal's banner high!" And Mr. Rorlund has undertaken the task of +making the speech of the evening. Of course you must reply to +that. + +Bernick: I cannot tonight, Rummel. Couldn't you--? + +Rummel: It is impossible, however willing I might be; because, as +you can imagine, his speech will be especially addressed to you. +Of course it is possible he may say a word or two about the rest +of us; I have spoken to Vigeland and Sandstad about it. Our idea +is that, in replying, you should propose the toast of "Prosperity +to our Community"; Sandstad will say a few words on the subject +of harmonious relations between the different strata of society; +then Vigeland will express the hope that this new undertaking may +not disturb the sound moral basis upon which our community +stands; and I propose, in a few suitable words, to refer to the +ladies, whose work for the community, though more inconspicuous, +is far from being without its importance. But you are not +listening to me. + +Bernick: Yes--indeed I am. But, tell me, do you think there is a +very heavy sea running outside? + +Rummel: Why, are you nervous about the "Palm Tree"? She is fully +insured, you know. + +Bernick: Yes, she is insured; but-- + +Rummel: And in good repair--and that is the main thing. + +Bernick: Hm--. Supposing anything does happen to a ship, it +doesn't follow that human life will be in danger, does it? The +ship and the cargo may be lost--and one might lose one's boxes +and papers-- + +Rummel: Good Lord--boxes and papers are not of much consequence. + +Bernick: Not of much consequence! No, no; I only meant--. Hush--I +hear voices again. + +Rummel: It is on board the "Palm Tree." + +(VIGELAND comes in from the right.) + +Vigeland: Yes, they are just towing the "Palm Tree" out. Good +evening, Mr. Bernick. + +Bernick: And you, as a seafaring man, are still of opinion that-- + +Vigeland: I put my trust in Providence, Mr. Bernick. Moreover, I +have been on board myself and distributed a few small tracts +which I hope may carry a blessing with them. + +(SANDSTAD and KRAP come in from the right.) + +Sandstad (to some one at the door): Well, if that gets through +all right, anything will. (Comes in.) Ah, good evening, good +evening! + +Bernick: Is anything the matter, Krap? + +Krap: I say nothing, Mr. Bernick. + +Sandstad: The entire crew of the "Indian Girl" are drunk; I will +stake my reputation on it that they won't come out of it alive. +(LONA comes in from the right.) + +Lona: Ah, now I can say his good-byes for him. + +Bernick: Is he on board already? + +Lona: He will be directly, at any rate. We parted outside the +hotel. + +Bernick: And he persists in his intention? + +Lona: As firm as a rock. + +Rummel (who is fumbling at the window): Confound these new- +fangled contrivances; I cannot get the curtains drawn. + +Lona: Do you want them drawn? I thought, on the contrary-- + +Rummel: Yes, drawn at first, Miss Hessel. You know what is in the +wind, I suppose? + +Lona: Yes. Let me help you. (Takes hold of the cords.) I will +draw down the curtains on my brother-in-law--though I would much +rather draw them up. + +Rummel: You can do that too, later on. When the garden is filled +with a surging crowd, then the curtains shall be drawn back, and +they will be able to look in upon a surprised and happy family. +Citizens' lives should be such that they can live in glass +houses! (BERNICK opens his mouth, as though he were going to say +something; but he turns hurriedly away and goes into his room.) + +Rummel: Come along, let us have a final consultation. Come in, +too, Mr. Krap; you must assist us with information on one or two +points of detail. (All the men go into BERNICK'S room. LONA has +drawn the curtains over the windows, and is just going to do the +same over the open glass door, when OLAF jumps down from the room +above on to the garden steps; he has a wrap over his shoulders +and a bundle in his hand.) + +Lona: Bless me, child, how you frightened me! + +Olaf (hiding his bundle): Hush, aunt! + +Lona: Did you jump out of the window? Where are you going? + +Olaf: Hush!--don't say anything. I want to go to Uncle Johan-- +only on to the quay, you know--only to say goodbye to him. Good- +night, aunt! (Runs out through the garden.) + +Lona: No--stop! Olaf--Olaf! + +(JOHAN, dressed for his journey, with a bag over his shoulder, +comes warily in by the door on the right.) + +Johan: Lona! + +Lona (turning round): What! Back again? + +Johan: I have still a few minutes. I must see her once more; we +cannot part like this. (The farther door on the left opens, and +MARTHA and DINA, both with cloaks on, and the latter carrying a +small travelling bag in her hand, come in.) + +Dina: Let me go to him! Let me go to him! + +Martha: Yes, you shall go to him, Dina! + +Dina: There he is! + +Johan: Dina! + +Dina: Take me with you! + +Johan: What--! + +Lona: You mean it? + +Dina: Yes, take me with you. The other has written to me that he +means to announce to everyone this evening. + +Johan: Dina--you do not love him? + +Dina: I have never loved the man! I would rather drown myself in +the fjord than be engaged to him! Oh, how he humiliated me +yesterday with his condescending manner! How clear he made it +that he felt he was lifting up a poor despised creature to his +own level! I do not mean to be despised any longer. I mean to go +away. May I go with you? + +Johan: Yes, yes--a thousand times, yes! + +Dina: I will not be a burden to you long. Only help me to get +over there; help me to go the right way about things at first. + +Johan: Hurrah, it is all right after all, Dina! + +Lona (pointing to BERNICK'S door): Hush!--gently, gently! + +Johan: Dina, I shall look after you. + +Dina: I am not going to let you do that. I mean to look after +myself; over there, I am sure I can do that. Only let me get away +from here. Oh, these women!--you don't know--they have written to +me today, too--exhorting me to realise my good fortune-- +impressing on me how magnanimous he has been. Tomorrow, and every +day afterwards, they would be watching me to see if I were making +myself worthy of it all. I am sick and tired of all this +goodness! + +Johan: Tell me, Dina--is that the only reason you are coming +away? Am l nothing to you? + +Dina: Yes, Johan, you are more to me than any one else in the +world. + +Johan: Oh, Dina--! + +Dina: Every one here tells me I ought to hate and detest you-- +that it is my duty; but I cannot see that it is my duty, and +shall never be able to. + +Lona: No more you shall, my dear! + +Martha: No, indeed you shall not; and that is why you shall go +with him as his wife. + +Johan: Yes, yes! + +Lona: What? Give me a kiss, Martha. I never expected that from +you! + +Martha: No, I dare say not; I would not have expected it myself. +But I was bound to break out some time! Ah, what we suffer under +the tyranny of habit and custom! Make a stand against that, Dina. +Be his wife. Let me see you defy all this convention. + +Johan: What is your answer, Dina? + +Dina: Yes, I will be your wife. + +Johan: Dina! + +Dina: But first of all I want to work--to make something of +myself--as you have done. I am not going to be merely a thing +that is taken. + +Lona: Quite right--that is the way. + +Johan: Very well; I shall wait and hope- + +Lona: And win, my boy! But now you must get on board! + +Johan: Yes, on board! Ah, Lona, my dear sister, just one word +with you. Look here-- (He takes her into the background and talks +hurriedly to her.) + +Martha: Dina, you lucky girl, let me look at you, and kiss you +once more--for the last time. + +Dina: Not for the last time; no, my darling aunt, we shall meet +again. + +Martha: Never! Promise me, Dina, never to come back! (Grasps her +hands and looks at her.) Now go to your happiness, my dear child- +-across the sea. How often, in my schoolroom, I have yearned to +be over there! It must be beautiful; the skies are loftier than +here--a freer air plays about your head-- + +Dina: Oh, Aunt Martha, some day you will follow us. + +Martha: I? Never--never. I have my little vocation here, and now +I really believe I can live to the full the life that I ought. + +Dina: I cannot imagine being parted from you. + +Martha: Ah, one can part from much, Dina. (Kisses her.) But I +hope you may never experience that, my sweet child. Promise me to +make him happy. + +Dina: I will promise nothing; I hate promises; things must happen +as they will. + +Martha: Yes, yes, that is true; only remain what you are--true +and faithful to yourself. + +Dina: I will, aunt. + +Lona (putting into her pocket some papers that JOHAN has given +her): Splendid, splendid, my dear boy. But now you must be off. + +Johan: Yes, we have no time to waste now. Goodbye, Lona, and +thank you for all your love. Goodbye, Martha, and thank you, +too, for your loyal friendship. + +Martha: Goodbye, Johan! Goodbye, Dina! And may you be happy all +your lives! (She and LONA hurry them to the door at the back. +JOHAN and DINA go quickly down the steps and through the garden. +LONA shuts the door and draws the curtains over it.) + +Lona: Now we are alone, Martha. You have lost her and I him. + +Martha: You--lost him? + +Lona: Oh, I had already half lost him over there. The boy was +longing to stand on his own feet; that was why I pretended to be +suffering from homesickness. + +Martha: So that was it? Ah, then I understand why you came. But +he will want you back, Lona. + +Lona: An old step-sister--what use will he have for her now? Men +break many very dear ties to win their happiness. + +Martha: That sometimes is so. + +Lona: But we two will stick together, Martha. + +Martha: Can I be anything to you? + +Lona: Who more so? We two foster-sisters--haven't we both lost +our children? Now we are alone. + +Martha: Yes, alone. And therefore, you ought to know this too--I +loved him more than anything in the world. + +Lona: Martha! (Grasps her by the arm.) Is that true? + +Martha: All my existence lies in those words. I have loved him +and waited for him. Every summer I waited for him to come. And +then he came--but he had no eyes for me. + +Lona: You loved him! And it was you yourself that put his +happiness into his hands. + +Martha: Ought I not to be the one to put his happiness into his +hands, since I loved him? Yes, I have loved him. All my life has +been for him, ever since he went away. What reason had I to hope, +you mean? Oh, I think I had some reason, all the same. But when +he came back--then it seemed as if everything had been wiped out +of his memory. He had no eyes for me. + +Lona: It was Dina that overshadowed you, Martha? + +Martha: And it is a good thing she did. At the time he went away, +we were of the same age; but when I saw him again--oh, that +dreadful moment!--I realised that now I was ten years older than +he. He had gone out into the bright sparkling sunshine, and +breathed in youth and health with every breath; and here I sat +meanwhile, spinning and spinning-- + +Lona: Spinning the thread of his happiness, Martha. + +Martha: Yes, it was a golden thread I spun. No bitterness! We +have been two good sisters to him, haven't we, Lona? + +Lona (throwing her arms round her): Martha! + +(BERNICK comes in from his room.) + +Bernick (to the other men, who are in his room): Yes, yes, +arrange it any way you please. When the time comes, I shall be +able to--. (Shuts the door.) Ah, you are here. Look here, Martha- +-I think you had better change your dress; and tell Betty to do +the same. I don't want anything elaborate, of course--something +homely, but neat. But you must make haste. + +Lona: And a bright, cheerful face, Martha; your eyes must look +happy. + +Bernick: Olaf is to come downstairs too; I will have him beside +me. + +Lona: Hm! Olaf. + +Martha: I will give Betty your message. (Goes out by the farther +door on the left.) + +Lona: Well, the great and solemn moment is at hand. + +Bernick (walking uneasily up and down): Yes, it is. + +Lona: At such a moment I should think a man would feel proud and +happy. + +Bernick (looking at her): Hm! + +Lona: I hear the whole town is to be illuminated. + +Bernick: Yes, they have some idea of that sort. + +Lona: All the different clubs will assemble with their banners-- +your name will blaze out in letters of fire--tonight the +telegraph will flash the news to every part of the country: "In +the bosom of his happy family, Mr. Bernick received the homage of +his fellow citizens, as one of the pillars of society." + +Bernick: That is so; and they will begin to cheer outside, and +the crowd will shout in front of my house until I shall be +obliged to go out and bow to them and thank them. + +Lona: Obliged to? + +Bernick. Do you suppose I shall feel happy at that moment? + +Lona: No, I don't suppose you will feel so very happy. + +Bernick: Lona, you despise me. + +Lona: Not yet. + +Bernick: And you have no right to; no right to despise me! Lona, +you can have no idea how utterly alone I stand in this cramped +and stunted community--where I have had, year after year, to +stifle my ambition for a fuller life. My work may seem many- +sided, but what have I really accomplished? Odds and ends-- +scraps. They would not stand anything else here. If I were to go +a step in advance of the opinions and views that are current at +the moment, I should lose all my influence. Do you know what we +are--we who are looked upon as pillars of society? We are nothing +more, nor less, than the tools of society. + +Lona: Why have you only begun to realise that now? + +Bernick: Because I have been thinking a great deal lately--since +you came back--and this evening I have thought more seriously +than ever before. Oh, Lona, why did not I really know you then-- +in the old days, I mean? + +Lona: And if you had? + +Bernick: I should never have let you go; and, if I had had you, I +should not be in the position I am in tonight. + +Lona: And do you never consider what she might have been to you-- +she whom you chose in my place? + +Bernick: I know, at all events, that she has been nothing to me +of what I needed. + +Lona: Because you have never shared your interests with her; +because you have never allowed her full and frank exchange of +thoughts with you; because you have allowed her to be borne under +by self-reproach for the shame you cast upon one who was dear to +her. + +Bernick: Yes, yes; it all comes from lying and deceit. + +Lona: Then why not break with all this lying and deceit? + +Bernick: Now? It is too late now, Lona. + +Lona: Karsten, tell me--what gratification does all this show and +deception bring you? + +Bernick: It brings me none. I must disappear someday, and all +this community of bunglers with me. But a generation is growing +up that will follow us; it is my son that I work for--I am +providing a career for him. There will come a time when truth +will enter into the life of the community, and on that foundation +he shall build up a happier existence than his father. + +Lona: With a lie at the bottom of it all? Consider what sort of +an inheritance it is that you are leaving to your son. + +Bernick (in tones of suppressed despair): It is a thousand times +worse than you think. But surely some day the curse must be +lifted; and yet--nevertheless--. (Vehemently.) How could I bring +all this upon my own head! Still, it is done now; I must go on +with it now. You shall not succeed in crushing me! (HILMAR comes +in hurriedly and agitatedly from the right, with an open letter +in his hand.) + +Hilmar: But this is--Betty, Betty. + +Bernick: What is the matter? Are they coming already? + +Hilmar: No, no--but I must speak to some one immediately. (Goes +out through the farther door on the left.) + +Lona: Karsten, you talk about our having come here to crush you. +So let me tell you what sort of stuff this prodigal son, whom +your moral community shuns as if he had the plague, is made of. +He can do without any of you--for he is away now. + +Bernick: But he said he meant to come back + +Lona: Johan will never come back. He is gone for good, and Dina +with him. + +Bernick: Never come back?--and Dina with him? + +Lona: Yes, to be his wife. That is how these two strike your +virtuous community in the face, just as I did once--but never +mind that. + +Bernick: Gone--and she too--in the "Indian Girl"-- + +Lona: No; he would not trust so precious a freight to that +rascally crew. Johan and Dina are on the "Palm Tree." + +Bernick: Ah! Then it is all in vain-- (Goes hurriedly to the door +of his room, opens it and calls in.) Krap, stop the "Indian +Girl"--she must not sail tonight! + +Krap (from within): The "Indian Girl" is already standing out to +sea, Mr. Bernick. + +Bernick (shutting the door and speaking faintly): Too late--and +all to no purpose-- + +Lona: What do you mean? + +Bernick: Nothing, nothing. Leave me alone! + +Lona: Hm!--look here, Karsten. Johan was good enough to say that +he entrusted to me the good name and reputation that he once lent +to you, and also the good name that you stole from him while he +was away. Johan will hold his tongue; and I can act just as I +please in the matter. See, I have two letters in my hand. + +Bernick: You have got them! And you mean now--this very evening- +perhaps when the procession comes-- + +Lona: I did not come back here to betray you, but to stir your +conscience so that you should speak of your own free will. I did +not succeed in doing that--so you must remain as you are, with +your life founded upon a lie. Look, I am tearing your two letters +in pieces. Take the wretched things--there you are. Now there is no +evidence against you, Karsten. You are safe now; be happy, too--if +you can. + +Bernick (much moved): Lona--why did you not do that sooner! +Now it is too late; life no longer seems good to me; I cannot +live on after today. + +Lona: What has happened? + +Bernick: Do not ask me--But I must live on, nevertheless! I will +live--for Olaf's sake. He shall make amends for everything--expiate +everything. + +Lona: Karsten--! (HILMAR comes hurriedly back.) + +Hilmar: I cannot find anyone; they are all out--even Betty! + +Bernick: What is the matter with you? + +Hilmar: I daren't tell you. + +Bernick: What is it? You must tell me! + +Hilmar: Very well--Olaf has run away, on board the "Indian Girl." + +Bernick (stumbling back): Olaf--on board the "Indian Girl"! No, no! + +Lona: Yes, he is! Now I understand--I saw him jump out of the window. + +Bernick (calls in through the door of his room in a despairing voice): +Krap, stop the "Indian Girl" at any cost! + +Krap: It is impossible, sir. How can you suppose--? + +Bernick: We must stop her; Olaf is on board! + +Krap: What! + +Rummel (coming out of BERNICK'S room): Olaf, run away? Impossible! + +Sandstad (following him): He will be sent back with the pilot, Mr. +Bernick. + +Hilmar: No, no; he has written to me. (Shows the letter.) He says he +means to hide among the cargo till they are in the open sea. + +Bernick: I shall never see him again! + +Rummel: What nonsense!--a good strong ship, newly repaired... + +Vigeland (who has followed the others out of BERNICK'S room): And in +your own yard, Mr. Bernick! + +Bernick: I shall never see him again, I tell you. I have lost him, +Lona; and--I see it now--he never was really mine. (Listens.) What is +that? + +Rummel: Music. The procession must be coming. + +Bernick. I cannot take any part in it--I will not. + +Rummel: What are you thinking of! That is impossible. + +Sandstad: Impossible, Mr. Bernick; think what you have at stake. + +Bernick: What does it all matter to me now? What have I to work for +now? + +Rummel: Can you ask? You have us and the community. + +Vigeland: Quite true. + +Sandstad: And surely, Mr. Bernick, you have not forgotten that +we--.(MARTHA comes in through the farther door to the left. Music +is heard in the distance, down the street.) + +Martha: The procession is just coming, but Betty is not in the house. I +don't understand where she-- + +Bernick: Not in the house! There, you see, Lona--no support to me, +either in gladness or in sorrow. + +Rummel: Draw back the curtains! Come and help me, Mr. Krap--and you, +Mr. Sandstad. It is a thousand pities that the family should not be +united just now; it is quite contrary to the program. (They draw back +all the curtains. The whole street is seen to be illuminated. Opposite +the house is a large transparency, bearing the words: "Long live +Karsten Bernick, Pillar of our Society ") + +Bernick (shrinking back): Take all that away! I don't want to see it! +Put it out, put it out! + +Rummel: Excuse me, Mr. Bernick, but are you not well? + +Martha: What is the matter with him, Lona? + +Lona: Hush! (Whispers to her.) + +Bernick: Take away those mocking words, I tell you! Can't you see that +all these lights are grinning at us? + +Rummel: Well, really, I must confess-- + +Bernick: Oh, how could you understand--! But I, I--! It is all like +candles in a dead-room! + +Rummel: Well, let me tell you that you are taking the thing a great +deal too seriously. + +Sandstad: The boy will enjoy a trip across the Atlantic, and then you +will have him back. + +Vigeland: Only put your trust in the Almighty, Mr. Bernick. + +Rummel: And in the vessel, Bernick; it is not likely to sink, I know. + +Krap: Hm-- + +Rummel: Now if it were one of those floating coffins that one hears are +sent out by men in the bigger countries-- + +Bernick: I am sure my hair must be turning grey-- + +(MRS. BERNICK comes in from the garden, with a shawl thrown over her +head.) + +Mrs. Bernick: Karsten, Karsten, do you know--? + +Bernick: Yes. I know; but you--you, who see nothing that is going +on--you, who have no mother's eyes for your son--! + +Mrs. Bernick: Listen to me, do! + +Bernick: Why did you not look after him? Now I have lost him. Give him +back to me, if you can. + +Mrs. Bernick: I can! I have got him. + +Bernick: You have got him! + +The Men: Ah! + +Hilmar: Yes, I thought so. + +Martha: You have got him back, Karsten. + +Lona: Yes--make him your own, now. + +Bernick: You have got him! Is that true? Where is he? + +Mrs. Bernick: I shall not tell you, till you have forgiven him. + +Bernick: Forgiven! But how did you know--? + +Mrs. Bernick: Do you not think a mother sees? I was in mortal fear of +your getting to know anything about it. Some words he let fall +yesterday--and then his room was empty, and his knapsack and +clothes missing... + +Bernick: Yes, yes? + +Mrs. Bernick: I ran, and got hold of Aune; we went out in his boat; +the American ship was on the point of sailing. Thank God, we were in +time--got on board--searched the hold--found him! Oh, Karsten, you +must not punish him! + +Bernick: Betty! + +Mrs. Bernick: Nor Aune, either! + +Bernick: Aune? What do you know about him? Is the "Indian Girl" under +sail again? + +Mrs. Bernick: No, that is just it. + +Bernick: Speak, speak! + +Mrs. Bernick: Aune was just as agitated as I was; the search took us +some time; it had grown dark, and the pilot made objections; and so +Aune took upon himself--in your name-- + +Bernick: Well? + +Mrs. Bernick: To stop the ship's sailing till tomorrow. + +Krap: Hm-- + +Bernick: Oh, how glad I am! + +Mrs. Bernick: You are not angry? + +Bernick: I cannot tell you how glad I am, Betty + +Rummel: You really take things far too seriously. + +Hilmar: Oh yes, as soon as it is a question of a little struggle with +the elements--ugh! + +Krap (going to the window): The procession is just coming through your +garden gate, Mr. Bernick. + +Bernick: Yes, they can come now. + +Rummel: The whole garden is full of people. + +Sandstad: The whole street is crammed. + +Rummel: The whole town is afoot, Bernick. It really is a moment that +makes one proud. + +Vigeland: Let us take it in a humble spirit, Mr. Rummel. + +Rummel: All the banners are out! What a procession! Here comes the +committee with Mr. Rorlund at their head. + +Bernick: Yes, let them come in! + +Rummel: But, Bernick--in your present agitated frame of mind-- + +Bernick: Well, what? + +Rummel: I am quite willing to speak instead of you, if you like. + +Bernick: No, thank you; I will speak for myself tonight. + +Rummel: But are you sure you know what to say? + +Bernick: Yes, make your mind easy, Rummel--I know now what to say. + +(The music grows louder. The verandah door is opened. RORLUND +comes in, at the head of the Committee, escorted by a couple of +hired waiters, who carry a covered basket. They are followed by +townspeople of all classes, as many as can get into the room. An +apparently endless crowd of people, waving banners and flags, are +visible in the garden and the street.) + +Rorlund: Mr. Bernick! I see, from the surprise depicted upon your face, +that it is as unexpected guests that we are intruding upon your +happyfamily circle and your peaceful fireside, where we find you +surrounded by honoured and energetic fellow citizens and friends. But +it is our hearts that have bidden us come to offer you our homage--not +for the first time, it is true, but for the first time on such a +comprehensive scale. We have on many occasions given you our thanks +for the broad moral foundation upon which you have, so to speak, reared +the edifice of our community. On this occasion we offer our homage +especially to the clear-sighted, indefatigable, unselfish--nay, +self-sacrificing citizen who has taken the initiative in an undertaking +which, we are assured on all sides, will give a powerful impetus to the +temporal prosperity and welfare of our community. + +Voices: Bravo, bravo! + +Rorlund: You, sir, have for many years been a shining example in our +midst. This is not the place for me to speak of your family life, which +has been a model to us all; still less to enlarge upon your unblemished +personal character. Such topics belong to the stillness of a man's own +chamber, not to a festal occasion such as this! I am here to speak of +your public life as a citizen, as it lies open to all men's eyes. +Well-equipped vessels sail away from your shipyard and carry our flag +far and wide over the seas. A numerous and happy band of workmen +look up to you as to a father. By calling new branches of industry into + +existence, you have laid the foundations of the welfare of hundreds of +families. +In a word--you are, in the fullest sense of the term, the mainstay of +our community. + +Voices: Hear, hear! Bravo! + +Rorlund: And, sir, it is just that disinterestedness, which colours all +your conduct, that is so beneficial to our community--more so than +words can express--and especially at the present moment. You are now on +the point of procuring for us what I have no hesitation in calling +bluntly by its prosaic name--a railway! + +Voices: Bravo, bravo! + +Rorlund: But it would seem as though the undertaking were beset by +certain difficulties, the outcome of narrow and selfish considerations. + +Voices: Hear, hear! + +Rorlund: For the fact has come to light that certain individuals, who +do not belong to our community, have stolen a march upon the hard- +working citizens of this place, and have laid hands on certain sources +of profit which by rights should have fallen to the share of our town. + +Voices: That's right! Hear, hear! + +Rorlund: This regrettable fact has naturally come to your knowledge +also, Mr. Bernick. But it has not had the slightest effect in deterring +you from proceeding steadily with your project, well knowing that a +patriotic man should not solely take local interests into +consideration. + +Voices: Oh!--No, no!--Yes, yes! + +Rorlund: It is to such a man--to the patriot citizen, whose character +we all should emulate--that we bring our homage this evening. May your +undertaking grow to be a real and lasting source of good fortune to +this community! It is true enough that a railway may be the means of +our exposing ourselves to the incursion of pernicious influences from +without; but it gives us also the means of quickly expelling them from +within. For even we, at the present time, cannot boast of being +entirely free from the danger of such outside influences;but as we +have, on this very evening--if rumour is to be believed--fortunately +got rid of certain elements of that nature, sooner than was to be +expected-- + +Voices: Order, order! + +Rorlund:--I regard the occurrence as a happy omen for our undertaking. +My alluding to such a thing at such a moment only emphasises the fact +that the house in which we are now standing is one where the claims of +morality are esteemed even above ties of family. + +Voices: Hear, hear! Bravo! + +Bernick (at the same moment): Allow me-- + +Rorlund: I have only a few more words to say, Mr. Bernick. What you +have done for your native place we all know has not been done with any +underlying idea of its bringing tangible profit to yourself. But, +nevertheless, you must not refuse to accept a slight token of grateful +appreciation at the hands of your fellow-citizens--least of all at this +important moment when, according to the assurances of practical men, we +are standing on the threshold of a new era. + +Voices: Bravo! Hear, hear! + +(RORLUND aigns to the servants, who bring forward the basket. During +the following speech, members of the Committee take out and present the +various objects mentioned.) + +Rorlund: And so, Mr. Bernick, we have the pleasure of presenting you +with this silver coffee-service. Let it grace your board when in the +future, as so often in the past, we have the happiness of being +assembled under your hospitable roof. +You, too, gentlemen, who have so generously seconded the leader of our +community, we ask to accept a small souvenir. +This silver goblet is for you, Mr. Rummel. Many a time have you, amidst +the clink of glasses, defended the interests of your fellow-citizens in +well-chosen words; may you often find similar worthy opportunities to +raise and empty this goblet in some patriotic toast! +To you, Mr. Sandstad, I present this album containing photographs of +your fellow-citizens. Your well-known and conspicuous liberality has +put you in the pleasant position of being able to number your friends +amongst all classes of society. +And to you, Mr. Vigeland, I have to offer this book of Family +Devotions, printed on vellum and handsomely bound, to grace your study +table. The mellowing influence of time has led you to take an earnest +view of life; your zeal in carrying out your daily duties has, for a +long period of years, been purified and enobled by thoughts of higher +and holier things. (Turns to the crowd.) And now, friends, three cheers +for Mr. Bernick and his fellow-workers! Three cheers for the Pillars of +our Society! + +The whole crowd: Bernick! Pillars of Society! Hurrah-hurrah-hurrah! + +Lona: I congratulate you, brother-in-law. + +(An expectant hush follows.) + +Bernick (speaking seriously and slowly): Fellow citizens--your +spokesman said just now that tonight we are standing on the threshold +of a new era. I hope that will prove to be the case. But before that +can come to pass, we must lay fast hold of truth--truth which, till +tonight, has been altogether and in all circumstances a stranger to +this community of ours. (Astonishment among the audience.) To that end, +I must begin by deprecating the praises with which you, Mr. Rorlund, +according to custom on such occasions, have overwhelmed me. I do +not deserve them; because, until today, my actions have by no means +been disinterested. Even though I may not always have aimed at +pecuniary profit, I at all events recognise now that a craving for +power, influence and position has been the moving spirit of most of my +actions. + +Rummel (half aloud): What next! + +Bernick: Standing before my fellow citizens, I do not reproach myself +for that; because I still think I am entitled to a place in the front +rank of our capable men of affairs. + +Voices: Yes, yes, yes! + +Bernick: But what I charge myself with is that I have so often been +weak enough to resort to deceitfulness, because I knew and feared the +tendency of the community to espy unclean motives behind everything a +prominent man here undertakes. And now I am coming to a point which +will illustrate that. + +Rummel (uneasily): Hm-hm! + +Bernick: There have been rumours of extensive purchases of property +outside the town. These purchases have been made by me--by me alone, +and by no one else. (Murmurs are heard: "What does he say?--He?-- +Bernick?") The properties are, for the time being, in my hands. +Naturally I have confided in my fellow-workers, Mr. Rummel, Mr. +Vigeland and Mr. Sandstad, and we are all agreed that-- + +Rummel: It is not true! Prove it--prove it! + +Vigeland: We are not all agreed about anything! + +Sandstad: Well, really I must say--! + +Bernick: That is quite true--we are not yet agreed upon the matter I +was going to mention. But I confidently hope that these three gentlemen +will agree with me when I announce to you that I have tonight come to +the decision that these properties shall be exploited as a company of +which the shares shall be offered for public subscription; any one that +wishes can take shares. + +Voices: Hurrah! Three cheers for Bernick! + +Rummel (in a low voice, to BERNICK): This is the basest treachery--! + +Sandstad (also in an undertone): So you have been fooling us! + +Vigeland: Well, then, devil take--! Good Lord, what am I saying? +(Cheers are heard without.) + +Bernick: Silence, gentlemen. I have no right to this homage you offer +me; because the decision I have just come to does not represent what +was my first intention. My intention was to keep the whole thing for +myself; and, even now, I am of opinion that these properties would be +worked to best advantage if they remained in one man's hands. But you +are at liberty to choose. If you wish it, I am willing to administer +them to the best of my abilities. + +Voices: Yes, yes, yes! + +Bernick: But, first of all, my fellow townsmen must know me thoroughly. +And let each man seek to know himself thoroughly, too; and so let it +really come to pass that tonight we begin a new era. The old era--with +its affectation, its hypocrisy and its emptiness, its pretence of +virtue and its miserable fear of public opinion--shall be for us like a +museum, open for purposes of instruction; and to that museum we will +present--shall we not, gentlemen?--the coffee service, and the goblet, +and the album, and the Family Devotions printed on vellum, and +handsomely bound. + +Rummel: Oh, of course. + +Vigeland (muttering): If you have taken everything else, then-- + +Sandstad: By all means. + +Bernick: And now for the principal reckoning I have to make with the +community. Mr. Rorlund said that certain pernicious elements had left +us this evening. I can add what you do not yet know. The man referred +to did not go away alone; with him, to become his wife, went-- + +Lona (loudly): Dina Dorf! + +Rorlund: What? + +Mrs. Bernick: What? (Great commotion.) + +Rorlund: Fled? Run away--with him! Impossible! + +Bernick: To become his wife, Mr. Rorlund. And I will add more. (In a +low voice, to his wife.) Betty, be strong to bear what is coming. +(Aloud.) This is what I have to say : hats off to that man, for he has +nobly taken another's guilt upon his shoulders. My friends, I want to +have done with falsehood; it has very nearly poisoned every fibre of my +being. You shall know all. Fifteen years ago, I was the guilty man. + +Mrs. Bernick (softly and tremblingly): Karsten! + +Martha (similarly): Ah, Johan--! + +Lona: Now at last you have found yourself! + +(Speechless consternation among the audience.) + +Bernick: Yes, friends, I was the guilty one, and he went away. The vile +and lying rumours that were spread abroad afterwards, it is beyond +human power to refute now; but I have no right to complain of that. For +fifteen years I have climbed up the ladder of success by the help of +those rumours; whether now they are to cast me down again, or not, each +of you must decide in his own mind. + +Rorlund: What a thunderbolt! Our leading citizen--! (In a low voice, to +BETTY.) How sorry I am for you, Mrs. Bernick! + +Hilmar: What a confession! Well, I must say--! + +Bernick: But come to no decision tonight. I entreat every one to go +home--to collect his thoughts--to look into his own heart. When once +more you can think calmly, then it will be seen whether I have lost or +won by speaking out. Goodbye! I have still much--very much--to repent +of; but that concerns my own conscience only. Good night! Take away all +these signs of rejoicing. We must all feel that they are out of place +here. + +Rorlund: That they certainly are. (In an undertone to MRS. BERNICK.) +Run away! So then she was completely unworthy of me. (Louder, to the +Committee.) Yes, gentlemen, after this I think we had better disperse +as quietly as possible. + +Hilmar: How, after this, any one is to manage to hold the Ideal's +banner high--Ugh! + +(Meantime the news has been whispered from mouth to mouth. The crowd +gradually disperses from the garden. RUMMEL, SANDSTAD and VIGELAND go +out, arguing eagerly but in a low voice. HILMAR slinks away to the +right. When silence is restored, there only remain in the room BERNICK, +MRS. BERNICK, MARTHA, LONA and KRAP.) + +Bernick: Betty, can you forgive me? + +Mrs. Bernick (looking at him with a smile): Do you know, Karsten, that +you have opened out for me the happiest prospect I have had for many a +year? + +Bernick: How? + +Mrs. Bernick: For many years, I have felt that once you were mine and +that I had lost you. Now I know that you never have been mine yet; but +I shall win you. + +Bernick (folding her in his arms): Oh, Betty, you have won me. It was +through Lona that I first learned really to know you. But now let Olaf +come to me. + +Mrs. Bernick: Yes, you shall have him now. Mr. Krap--! (Talks softly to +KRAP in the background. He goes out by the garden door. During what +follows, the illuminations and lights in the houses are gradually +extinguished.) + +Bernick (in a low voice): Thank you, Lona--you have saved what was best +in me--and for me. + +Lona: Do you suppose I wanted to do anything else? + +Bernick: Yes, was that so--or not? I cannot quite make you out. + +Lona: Hm-- + +Bernick: Then it was not hatred? Not revenge? Why did you come back, +then? + +Lona: Old friendship does not rust. + +Bernick: Lona! + +Lona: When Johan told me about the lie, I swore to myself that the hero +of my youth should stand free and true. + +Bernick: What a wretch I am!--and how little I have deserved it of you! + +Lona. Oh, if we women always looked for what we deserve, Karsten--! +(AUNE comes in with OLAF from the garden.) + +Bernick (going to meet them): Olaf! + +Olaf: Father, I promise I will never do it again-- + +Bernick: Never run away? + +Olaf: Yes, yes, I promise you, father. + +Bernick: And I promise you, you shall never have reason to. For the +future you shall be allowed to grow up, not as the heir to my life's +work, but as one who has his own life's work before him. + +Olaf: And shall I be allowed to be what I like, when I grow up? + +Bernick: Yes. + +Olaf. Oh, thank you! Then I won't be a pillar of society. + +Bernick: No? Why not? + +Olaf: No--I think it must be so dull. + +Bernick: You shall be yourself, Olaf; the rest may take care of +itself--And you, Aune... + +Aune: I know, Mr. Bernick; I am dismissed. + +Bernick: We remain together, Aune; and forgive me. + +Aune: What? The ship has not sailed tonight. + +Bernick: Nor will it sail tomorrow, either. I gave you too short grace. +It must be looked to more thoroughly. + +Aune: It shall, Mr. Bernick--and with the new machines! + +Bernick: By all means--but thoroughly and conscientiously. There are +many among us who need thorough and conscientious repairs, Aune. Well, +good night. + +Aune: Good-night, sir--and thank you, thank you. (Goes out.) + +Mrs. Bernick: Now they are all gone. + +Bernick: And we are alone. My name is not shining in letters of fire +any longer; all the lights in the windows are out. + +Lona: Would you wish them lit again? + +Bernick: Not for anything in the world. Where have I been! You would be + +horrified if you knew. I feel now as if I had come back to my right +senses, after being poisoned. But I feel this that I can be young and +healthy again. Oh, come nearer--come closer round me. Come, Betty! +Come, Olaf, my boy! And you, Martha--it seems to me as if I had never +seen you all these years. + +Lona: No, I can believe that. Your community is a community of bachelor +souls; you do not see women. + +Bernick: That is quite true; and for that very reason--this is a +bargain, Lona--you must not leave Betty and me. + +Mrs. Bernick: No, Lona, you must not. + +Lona: No, how could I have the heart to go away and leave you young +people who are just setting up housekeeping? Am I not your +foster-mother? You and I, Martha, the two old aunts-- What are you +looking at? + +Martha: Look how the sky is clearing, and how light it is over the sea. +The "Palm Tree" is going to be lucky. + +Lona: It carries its good luck on board. + +Bernick: And we--we have a long earnest day of work ahead of us; I most +of all. But let it come; only keep close round me you true, loyal +women. I have learned this too, in these last few days; it is you women +that are the pillars of society. + +Lona: You have learned a poor sort of wisdom, then, brother-in-law. +(Lays her hand firmly upon his shoulder.) No, my friend; the spirit of +truth and the spirit of freedom--they are the pillars of society. + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext Pillars of Society, by Henrik Ibsen + + diff --git a/old/pllrs10.zip b/old/pllrs10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1c16ff6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/pllrs10.zip |