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Pillars of SocietyA play in four acts.

By Henrik IbsenTranslated by R. 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 thework-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 evidentlyin 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 I

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 happy

family 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 signs 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.