Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen (238 page)

HIALMAR.
Getting helpless?

GREGERS
[to MRS. SORBY.]
Hush, don’t speak of that here.

MRS. SORBY.
There is no disguising it any longer, however much he would like to. He is going blind.

HIALMAR
[starts.]
Going blind? That’s strange. He, too, going blind!

GINA.
Lots of people do.

MRS. SORBY.
And you can imagine what that means to a business man. Well, I shall try as well as I can to make my eyes take the place of his. But I mustn’t stay any longer; I have heaps of things to do. — Oh, by-the-bye, Ekdal, I was to tell you that if there is anything Werle can do for you, you must just apply to Graberg.

GREGERS.
That offer I am sure Hialmar Ekdal will decline with thanks.

MRS. SORBY.
Indeed? I don’t think he used to be so —

GINA.
No, Bertha, Ekdal doesn’t need anything from Mr. Werle now.

HIALMAR
[slowly, and with emphasis.]
Will you present my compliments to your future husband, and say that I intend very shortly to call upon Mr. Graberg —

GREGERS.
What! You don’t really mean that?

HIALMAR.
To call upon Mr. Graberg, I say, and obtain an account of the sum I owe his principal. I will pay that debt of honour — ha ha ha! a debt of honour, let us call it! In any case, I will pay the whole with five per cent. interest.

GINA.
But, my dear Ekdal, God knows we haven’t got the money to do it.

HIALMAR.
Be good enough to tell your future husband that I am working assiduously at my invention. Please tell him that what sustains me in this laborious task is the wish to free myself from a torturing burden of debt. That is my reason for proceeding with the invention. The entire profits shall be devoted to releasing me from my pecuniary obligations to your future husband.

MRS. SORBY.
Something has happened here.

HIALMAR.
Yes, you are right.

MRS. SORBY.
Well, good-bye. I had something else to speak to you about, Gina; but it must keep till another time. Good-bye.
[HIALMAR and GREGERS bow silently. GINA follows MRS. SORBY to the door.]

HIALMAR.
Not beyond the threshold, Gina!
[MRS. SORBY goes; GINA shuts the door after her.]

HIALMAR.
There now, Gregers; I have got that burden of debt off my mind.

GREGERS.
You soon will, at all events.

HIALMAR.
I think my attitude may be called correct.

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

HIALMAR.
In certain cases, it is impossible to disregard the claim of the ideal. Yet, as the breadwinner of a family, I cannot but writhe and groan under it. I can tell you it is no joke for a man without capital to attempt the repayment of a long-standing obligation, over which, so to speak, the dust of oblivion had gathered. But it cannot be helped: the Man in me demands his rights.

GREGERS
[laying his hand on HIALMAR’S shoulder.]
My dear Hialmar — was it not a good thing I came?

HIALMAR.
Yes.

GREGERS.
Are you not glad to have had your true position made clear to you?

HIALMAR
[somewhat impatiently.]
Yes, of course I am. But there is one thing that is revolting to my sense of justice.

GREGERS.
And what is that?

HIALMAR.
It is that — but I don’t know, whether I ought to express myself so unreservedly about your father.

GREGERS.
Say what you please, so far as I am concerned.

HIALMAR.
Well, then, is it not exasperating to think that it is not I, but he, who will realise the true marriage?

GREGERS.
How can you say such a thing?

HIALMAR.
Because it is clearly the case. Isn’t the marriage between your father and Mrs. Sorby founded upon complete confidence, upon entire and unreserved candour on both sides? They hide nothing from each other, they keep no secrets in the background; their relation is based, if I may put it so, on mutual confession and absolution.

GREGERS.
Well, what then?

HIALMAR.
Well, is not that the whole thing? Did you not yourself say that this was precisely the difficulty that had to be overcome in order to found a true marriage?

GREGERS.
But this is a totally different matter, Hialmar. You surely don’t compare either yourself or your wife with those two — ? Oh, you understand me well enough.

HIALMAR.
Say what you like, there is something in all this that hurts and offends my sense of justice. It really looks as if there were no just providence to rule the world.

GINA.
Oh, no, Ekdal; for God’s sake don’t say such things.

GREGERS.
H’m; don’t let us get upon those questions.

HIALMAR.
And yet, after all, I cannot but recognise the guiding finger of fate. He is going blind.

GINA.
Oh, you can’t be sure of that.

HIALMAR.
There is no doubt about it. At all events there ought not to be; for in that very fact lies the righteous retribution. He has hoodwinked a confiding fellow creature in days gone by —

GREGERS.
I fear he has hoodwinked many.

HIALMAR.
And now comes inexorable, mysterious Fate, and demands Werle’s own eyes.

GINA.
Oh, how dare you say such dreadful things! You make me quite scared.

HIALMAR.
It is profitable, now and then, to plunge deep into the night side of existence.
[HEDVIG, in her hat and cloak, comes in by the passage door. She is pleasurably excited and out of breath.]

GINA.
Are you back already?

HEDVIG.
Yes, I didn’t care to go any farther. It was a good thing, too; for I’ve just met some one at the door.

HIALMAR.
It must have been that Mrs. Sorby.

HEDVIG.
Yes.

HIALMAR
[walks up and down.]
I hope you have seen her for the last time.
[Silence. HEDVIG, discouraged, looks first at one and then at the other, trying to divine their frame of mind.]

HEDVIG
[approaching, coaxingly.]
Father.

HIALMAR.
Well — what is it, Hedvig?

HEDVIG.
Mrs. Sorby had something with her for me,

HIALMAR
[stops.]
For you?

HEDVIG.
Yes. Something for to-morrow.

GINA.
Bertha has always given you some little thing on your birthday.

HIALMAR.
What is it?

HEDVIG.
Oh, you mustn’t see it now. Mother is to give it to me to-morrow morning before I’m up.

HIALMAR.
What is all this hocus-pocus that I am to be in the dark about!

HEDVIG
[quickly.]
Oh, no, you may see it if you like. It’s a big letter.
[Takes the letter out of her cloak pocket.]

HIALMAR.
A letter, too?

HEDVIG.
Yes, it is only a letter. The rest will come afterwards, I suppose. But fancy — a letter! I’ve never had a letter before. And there’s “Miss” written upon it.
[Reads.]
“Miss Hedvig Ekdal.” Only fancy — that’s me!

HIALMAR.
Let me see that letter.

HEDVIG
[hands it to him.]
There it is.

HIALMAR.
That is Mr. Werle’s hand.

GINA.
Are you sure of that, Ekdal?

HIALMAR.
Look for yourself.

GINA.
Oh, what do I know about such-like things?

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

HEDVIG.
Yes, of course you may, if you want to.

GINA.
No, not to-night, Ekdal; it’s to be kept till to-morrow.

HEDVIG
[softly.]
Oh, can’t you let him read it! It’s sure to be something good; and then father will be glad, and everything will be nice again.

HIALMAR.
I may open it then?

HEDVIG.
Yes, do, father. I’m so anxious to know what it is.

HIALMAR.
Well and good.
[Opens the letter, takes out a paper, reads it through, and appears bewildered.]
What is this — !

GINA.
What does it say?

HEDVIG.
Oh, yes, father — tell us!

HIALMAR.
Be quiet.
[Reads it through again; he has turned pale, but says with self-control:]
It is a deed of gift, Hedvig.

HEDVIG.
Is it? What sort of gift am I to have?

HIALMAR.
Read for yourself.

[HEDVIG goes over and reads for a time by the lamp.]

HIALMAR
[half-aloud, clenching his hands.]
The eyes! The eyes — and then that letter!

HEDVIG
[leaves off reading.]
Yes, but it seems to me that it’s grandfather that’s to have it.

HIALMAR
[takes letter from her.]
Gina — can you understand this?

GINA.
I know nothing whatever about it; tell me what’s the matter.

HIALMAR.
Mr. Werle writes to Hedvig that her old grandfather need not trouble himself any longer with the copying, but that he can henceforth draw on the office for a hundred crowns a month

GREGERS.
Aha!

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

GINA.
What a good thing for grandfather!

HIALMAR.
 
— a hundred crowns a month so long as he needs it — that means, of course, so long as he lives.

GINA.
Well, so he’s provided for, poor dear.

HIALMAR.
But there is more to come. You didn’t read that, Hedvig. Afterwards this gift is to pass on to you.

HEDVIG.
To me! The whole of it?

HIALMAR.
He says that the same amount is assured to you for the whole of your life. Do you hear that, Gina?

GINA.
Yes, I hear.

HEDVIG.
Fancy — all that money for me!
[Shakes him.]
Father, father, aren’t you glad — ?

HIALMAR
[eluding her.]
Glad!
[Walks about.]
Oh what vistas — what perspectives open up before me! It is Hedvig, Hedvig that he showers these benefactions upon!

GINA.
Yes, because it’s Hedvig’s birthday —

HEDVIG.
And you’ll get it all the same, father! You know quite well I shall give all the money to you and mother.

HIALMAR.
To mother, yes! There we have it.

GREGERS.
Hialmar, this is a trap he is setting for you.

HIALMAR.
Do you think it’s another trap?

GREGERS.
When he was here this morning he said: Hialmar Ekdal is not the man you imagine him to be.

HIALMAR.
Not the man — !

GREGERS.
That you shall see, he said.

HIALMAR.
He meant you should see that I would let myself be bought off — !

HEDVIG.
Oh mother, what does all this mean?

GINA.
Go and take off your things.
[HEDVIG goes out by the kitchen door, half-crying.]

GREGERS.
Yes, Hialmar — now is the time to show who was right, he or I.

HIALMAR
[slowly tears the paper across, lays both pieces on the table, and says:]
Here is my answer.

GREGERS.
Just what I expected.

HIALMAR
[goes over to GINA, who stands by the stove, and says in a low voice:]
Now please make a clean breast of it. If the connection between you and him was quite over when you — came to care for me, as you call it — why did he place us in a position to marry?