Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen (246 page)

Kroll. Think no more about it. I am ashamed of it. Forgive me — and good-bye.
(Goes out by the door to the hall.)

Rosmer
(following him)
. Kroll! We cannot end everything between us like this. I will come and see you to-morrow.

Kroll
(turning round in the hall)
. You shall not set your foot in my house.
(Takes his stick and goes.)

(ROSMER stands for a while at the open door; then shuts it and comes back into the room.)

Rosmer. That does not matter, Rebecca. We shall be able to go through with it, for all that — we two trusty friends — you and I.

Rebecca. What do you suppose he meant just now when he said he was ashamed of himself?

Rosmer. My dear girl, don’t bother your head about that. He didn’t even believe what he meant, himself. But I will go and see him tomorrow. Goodnight!

Rebecca. Are you going up so early to-night — after this?

Rosmer. As early to-night as I usually do. I feel such a sense of relief now that it is over. You see, my dear Rebecca, I am perfectly calm — so you take it calmly, too. Good-night.

Rebecca. Good-night, dear friend — and sleep well!
(ROSMER goes out by the door to the lobby; then his footsteps are heard as he goes upstairs. REBECCA goes to the wall and rings a bell, which is answered by MRS. HELSETH.)
You can clear the table again, Mrs. Helseth. Mr. Rosmer does not want anything, and Mr. Kroll has gone home.

Mrs. Helseth. Gone home? What was wrong with him, miss?

Rebecca
(taking up her crochet-work)
. He prophesied that there was a heavy storm brewing —

Mrs. Helseth. That is very strange, miss, because there isn’t a scrap of cloud in the sky.

Rebecca. Let us hope he doesn’t meet the White Horse. Because I am afraid it will not be long before we hear something of the family ghost.

Mrs. Helseth. God forgive you, miss — don’t talk of such a dreadful thing!

Rebecca. Oh, come, come!

Mrs. Helseth
(lowering her voice)
. Do you really think, miss, that some one here is to go soon?

Rebecca. Not a bit of it. But there are so many sorts of white horses in this world, Mrs. Helseth — Well, good-night. I shall go to my room now.

Mrs. Helseth. Good-night, miss.
(Rebecca takes her work and goes out to the right. MRS. HELSETH shakes her head, as she turns down the lamp, and mutters to herself)
: Lord — Lord! — how queer Miss West does talk sometimes!

ACT I
I

(SCENE. ROSMER’S study. The door into it is in the left-hand wall. At the back of the room is a doorway with a curtain drawn back from it, leading to his bedroom. On the right, a window, in front of which is a writing-table strewn with books and papers. Bookshelves and cupboards on the walls. Homely furniture. On the left, an old-fashioned sofa with a table in front of it. ROSMER, wearing a smoking-jacket, is sitting at the writing-table on a high-backed chair. He is cutting and turning over the leaves of a magazine, and dipping into it here and there. A knock is heard at the door on the left.)

Rosmer
(without turning round)
. Come in.

(REBECCA comes in, wearing a morning wrapper.)

Rebecca. Good morning.

Rosmer
(still turning over the leaves of his book)
. Good morning, dear. Do you want anything?

Rebecca. Only to ask if you have slept well?

Rosmer. I went to sleep feeling so secure and happy. I did not even dream.
(Turns round.)
And you?

Rebecca. Thanks, I got to sleep in the early morning.

Rosmer. I do not think I have felt so light-hearted for a long time as I do to-day. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to say what I did.

Rebecca. Yes, you should not have been silent so long, John.

Rosmer. I cannot understand how I came to be such a coward.

Rebecca. I am sure it was not really from cowardice.

Rosmer. Yes, indeed. I can see that at bottom there was some cowardice about it.

Rebecca. So much the braver of you to face it as you did.
(Sits down beside him on a chair by the writing-table.)
But now I want to confess something that I have done — something that you must not be vexed with me about.

Rosmer. Vexed? My dear girl, how can you think — ?

Rebecca. Yes, because I dare say it was a little presumptuous of me, but —

Rosmer. Well, let me hear what it was.

Rebecca. Last night, when that Ulrick Brendel was going, I wrote him a line or two to take to Mortensgaard.

Rosmer
(a little doubtfully)
. But, my dear Rebecca — What did you write, then?

Rebecca. I wrote that he would be doing you a service if he would interest himself a little in that unfortunate man, and help him in any way he could.

Rosmer. My dear, you should not have done that. You have only done Brendel harm by doing so. And besides, Mortensgaard is a man I particularly wish to have nothing to do with. You know I have been at loggerheads once with him already.

Rebecca. But do you not think that now it might be a very good thing if you got on to good terms with him again?

Rosmer. I? With Mortensgaard? For what reason, do you mean?

Rebecca. Well, because you cannot feel altogether secure now — since this has come between you and your friends.

Rosmer
(looking at her and shaking his head)
. Is it possible that you think either Kroll or any of the others would take a revenge on me — that they could be capable of —

Rebecca. In their first heat of indignation dear. No one can be certain of that. I think, after the way Mr. Kroll took it —

Rosmer. Oh, you ought to know him better than that. Kroll is an honourable man, through and through. I will go into town this afternoon, and have a talk with him. I will have a talk with them all. Oh, you will see how smoothly everything will go.
(MRS. HELSETH comes in by the door on the left.)

Rebecca
(getting up)
. What is it, Mrs. Helseth?

Mrs. Helseth. Mr. Kroll is downstairs in the hall, miss.

Rosmer
(getting up quickly)
. Kroll!

Rebecca. Mr. Kroll! What a surprise!

Mrs. Helseth. He asks if he may come up and speak to Mr. Rosmer.

Rosmer
(to REBECCA)
. What did I say!
(To MRS. HELSETH)
. Of course he may.
(Goes to the door and calls down the stairs.)
Come up, my dear fellow! I am delighted to see you!
(He stands holding the door open. MRS. HELSETH goes out. REBECCA draws the curtain over the doorway at the back, and then begins to tidy the room. KROLL comes in with his hat in his hand.)

Rosmer
(quietly, and with some emotion)
. I knew quite well it would not be the last time —

Kroll. To-day I see the matter in quite a different light from yesterday.

Rosmer. Of course you do, Kroll! Of course you do! You have been thinking things over —

Kroll. You misunderstand me altogether.
(Puts his hat down on the table.)
It is important that I should speak to you alone.

Rosmer. Why may not Miss West — ?

Rebecca. No, no, Mr. Rosmer. I will go.

Kroll
(looking meaningly at her)
. And I see I ought to apologise to you, Miss West, for coming here so early in the morning. I see I have taken you by surprise, before you have had time to —

Rebecca
(with a start)
. Why so? Do you find anything out of place in the fact of my wearing a morning wrapper at home here?

Kroll. By no means! Besides, I have no knowledge of what customs may have grown up at Rosmersholm.

Rosmer. Kroll, you are not the least like yourself to-day.

Rebecca. I will wish you good morning, Mr. Kroll.
(Goes out to the left.)

Kroll. If. you will allow me —
(Sits down on the couch.)

Rosmer. Yes, my dear fellow, let us make ourselves comfortable and have a confidential talk.
(Sits down on a chair facing KROLL.)

Kroll. I have not been able to close an eye since yesterday. I lay all night, thinking and thinking.

Rosmer. And what have you got to say to-day?

Kroll. It will take me some time, Rosmer. Let me begin with a sort of introduction. I can give you some news of Ulrick Brendel.

Rosmer. Has he been to see you?

Kroll. No. He took up his quarters in a low-class tavern — in the lowest kind of company, of course; drank, and stood drinks to others, as long as he had any money left; and then began to abuse the whole lot of them as a contemptible rabble — and, indeed, as far as that goes he was quite right. But the result was, that he got a thrashing and was thrown out into the gutter.

Rosmer. I see he is altogether incorrigible.

Kroll. He had pawned the coat you gave him, too, but that is going to be redeemed for him. Can you guess by whom?

Rosmer. By yourself, perhaps?

Kroll. No. By our noble friend Mr. Mortensgaard.

Rosmer. Is that so?

Kroll. I am informed that Mr. Brendel’s first visit was paid to the “idiot” and “plebeian”.

Rosmer. Well, it was very lucky for him —

Kroll. Indeed it was.
(Leans over the table, towards ROSMER.)
Now I am coming to a matter of which, for the sake of our old — our former — friendship, it is my duty to warn you.

Rosmer. My dear fellow, what is that?

Kroll. It is this; that certain games are going on behind your back in this house.

Rosmer. How can you think that? Is it Rebec — is it Miss West you are alluding to?

Kroll. Precisely. And I can quite understand it on her part; she has been accustomed, for such a long time now, to do as she likes here. But nevertheless —

Rosmer. My dear Kroll, you are absolutely mistaken. She and I have no secrets from one another about anything whatever.

Kroll. Then has she confessed to you that she has been corresponding with the editor of the “Searchlight”?

Rosmer. Oh, you mean the couple of lines she wrote to him on Ulrik Brendel’s behalf?

Kroll. You have found that out, then? And do you approve of her being on terms of this sort with that scurrilous hack, who almost every week tries to pillory me for my attitude in my school and out of it?

Rosmer. My dear fellow, I don’t suppose that side of the question has ever occurred to her. And in any case, of course she has entire freedom of action, just as I have myself.

Kroll. Indeed? Well, I suppose that is quite in accordance with the new turn your views have taken — because I suppose Miss West looks at things from the same standpoint as you?

Rosmer. She does. We two have worked our way forward in complete companionship.

Kroll
(looking at him and shaking his head slowly)
. Oh, you blind, deluded man!

Rosmer. I? What makes you say that?

Kroll. Because I dare not — I WILL not — think the worst. No, no, let me finish what I want to say. Am I to believe that you really prize my friendship, Rosmer? And my respect, too? Do you?

Rosmer. Surely I need not answer that question.

Kroll. Well, but there are other things that require answering — that require full explanation on your part. Will you submit to it if I hold a sort of inquiry — ?

Rosmer. An inquiry?

Kroll. Yes, if I ask you questions about one or two things that it may be painful for you to recall to mind. For instance, the matter of your apostasy — well, your emancipation, if you choose to call it so — is bound up with so much else for which, for your own sake, you ought to account to me.

Rosmer. My dear fellow, ask me about anything you please. I have nothing to conceal.

Kroll. Well, then, tell me this — what do you yourself believe was the real reason of Beata’s making away with herself?

Rosmer. Can you have any doubt? Or perhaps I should rather say, need one look for reasons for what an unhappy sick woman, who is unaccountable for her actions, may do?

Kroll. Are you certain that Beata was so entirely unaccountable for her actions? The doctors, at all events, did not consider that so absolutely certain.

Rosmer. If the doctors had ever seen her in the state in which I have so often seen her, both night and day, they would have had no doubt about it.

Kroll. I did not doubt it either, at the time.

Rosmer. Of course not. It was impossible to doubt it, unfortunately. You remember what I told you of her ungovernable, wild fits of passion — which she expected me to reciprocate. She terrified me! And think how she tortured herself with baseless self-reproaches in the last years of her life!

Kroll. Yes, when she knew that she would always be childless.

Rosmer. Well, think what it meant — to be perpetually in the clutches of such — agony of mind over a thing that she was not in the slightest degree responsible for — ! Are you going to suggest that she was accountable for her actions?

Kroll. Hm! — Do you remember whether at that time you had, in the house any books dealing with the purport of marriage — according to the advanced views of to-day?

Rosmer. I remember Miss West’s lending me a work of the kind. She inherited Dr. West’s library, you know. But, my dear Kroll, you surely do not suppose that we were so imprudent as to let the poor sick creature get wind of any such ideas? I can solemnly swear that we were in no way to blame. It was the overwrought nerves of her own brain that were responsible for these frantic aberrations.

Kroll. There is one thing, at any rate, that I can tell you now, and that is that your poor tortured and overwrought Beata put an end to her own life in order that yours might be happy — and that you might be free to live as you pleased.

Rosmer
(starting half up from his chair)
. What do you mean by that?

Kroll. You must listen to me quietly, Rosmer — because now I can speak of it. During the last year of her life she came twice to see me, to tell me what she suffered from her fears and her despair.