CLARA _enters_.
KARL.
At last! You shouldn’t do so much kissing. Where four red lips
get baked together, there’s a bridge for the devil to cross. What
have you got there?
CLARA.
Where? What?
KARL.
Where? What? In your hand.
CLARA.
Nothing.
KARL.
Nothing! Is it secrets? (_Snatches_ LEONARD’S _letter from her_.)
Give it to me! When your father’s out, your brother’s your
guardian.
CLARA.
I kept the thing in my hand, and yet the wind is so strong that
it is blowing slates off the roofs. As I went past the church,
one fell right at my feet. I nearly fell over it. “O God,” I
thought, “one more”--and stood still. It would have been so
beautiful. They’d have buried me and said it was an accident. But
I hoped in vain for a second.
KARL (_who has read the letter_).
Damnation! I’ll smash the arm of the man that wrote that. Fetch
me a bottle of wine! Or is the money-box empty?
CLARA.
There’s one bottle left in the house. I bought it secretly
and hid it for mother’s birthday. It was to have been
to-morrow----(_Turns away._)
KARL.
Give it to me.
[CLARA _brings the wine_.
KARL (_drinking quickly_).
Now we might begin again--planing, sawing, and hammering, and
then eating, drinking, and sleeping between-whiles to be able to
go on planing and sawing and hammering. And a-bending of the knee
on Sundays into the bargain: O God, I thank Thee for letting me
plane and saw and hammer! (_Drinks._) Long live every dog that
doesn’t bite on the chain! (_Drinks again._) Here’s to him again!
CLARA.
Karl, don’t drink so much. Father says there’s the devil in wine.
KARL.
And the parson says there’s God in it. (_Drinks._) We’ll see
who’s right. The bailiff came here. How did he behave?
CLARA.
He behaved as if he were in a thieves’ den. Mother fell down and
died the moment he opened his mouth.
KARL.
Good! If you hear in the morning that he’s been found dead, don’t
curse the murderer.
CLARA.
But, Karl, you won’t----
KARL.
I’m not the only enemy he’s got. He’s been attacked many a time.
It would be no easy matter to spot the right man, unless he
leaves his hat or his stick lying. (_Drinks._) Whoever he is, I
wish him luck.
CLARA.
You’re talking----
KARL.
Don’t you like the idea? Leave it alone, then. You won’t see me
for a long time again.
CLARA (_shuddering_).
No.
KARL.
No! Do you know already that I’m going to sea? Do my thoughts
crawl on my forehead for you to read them? Or has the old man
been raving in his usual fashion and threatening to lock me out?
Bah! That would be much the same as if the warder had said to
me--“You can’t stay in prison any longer; I’ll throw you out
where you’ll be free.”
CLARA.
You don’t understand me.
KARL (_sings_).
“The good ship puffs its sails, oh,
And merrily blows the breeze.”
Yes, truly, I’m not bound to the joiner’s bench any longer.
Mother’s dead. There’s nobody now who would stop eating fish
after every storm. Besides, I’ve wanted it ever since I was a
boy. Out into the world! I shall never get on here, or not until
I have it proved to me that Fortune no longer favours the man
that boldly risks his life, the man that throws away the copper
he gets from the great treasury, to see whether she’ll take it
from him, or give it back to him gilded.
CLARA.
And will you leave father alone? He’s sixty now.
KARL.
Alone? Aren’t you staying with him?
CLARA.
I?
KARL.
Yes, you, his favourite! What nonsense have you got in your
head that you ask such questions? I don’t begrudge him his
pleasure. He’ll be freed from his eternal worry, when I go. So
why shouldn’t I? We simply don’t suit each other. Things can’t be
too narrow for him. He’d like to clench his fist and creep inside
of it. I’d like to burst my skin like baby’s clothes, if I could!
(_Sings._)
“The anchor’s lightly lifted,
The rudder’s quickly shifted,
Away she flies with ease.”
Tell me now, did he doubt my guilt for a moment? Didn’t he
comfort himself as usual with his overwise: “I expected it. I
always thought as much. It had to come to that.” If _you’d_ done
it, he’d have killed himself. I’d like to see him if you went the
woman’s way. He’d feel as if he was with child himself,--with the
devil, too.
CLARA.
Oh, how that tears my heart! I must go!
KARL.
What do you mean?
CLARA.
I must go into the kitchen--what else? (_Clutches at her brow._)
Yes, that’s what I came home to do. (_Goes out._)
KARL.
She seems very queer! (_Sings._)
“There comes a daring seabird
With greetings from the West.”
CLARA (_comes in again_).
The last thing’s done now. Father’s evening jug is by the fire.
When I closed the kitchen door behind me and realised I should
never go in again, I shivered to the very soul. So shall I leave
this room, so this house, and so the world.
KARL (_sings, walking up and down_. CLARA _in background_).
“The sun it flames down daily
And the little fishes gaily
Do sport around their guest.”
CLARA.
Why don’t I do it then? Shall I never do it? Shall I put it off
from day to day? Just as I’m putting it off now, from minute to
minute--yes, away then, away! And yet I stay here. I feel as if
hands were raised in my womb, as if eyes----(_Sits down on a
chair._) What does this mean? Am I too weak to do it? Well, am I
strong enough to see my father with his throat cut? (_Standing
up._) No! No!--Our Father, which art in Heaven--Hallowed be thy
kingdom. O God, my poor head! I can’t even pray. Karl! Karl! Help
me!
KARL.
What’s wrong?
CLARA.
The Lord’s Prayer. (_Recollects._) I felt as if I was in the
water and sinking, and had forgotten to pray. I--(_Suddenly._)
Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass
against us. That’s it. Yes! Yes! Of course I forgive him. I’d
forgotten all about him. Good-night, Karl.
KARL.
Are you going to bed so early? Good-night!
CLARA (_like a child, going through the Lord’s Prayer_).
Forgive us----
KARL.
You might get me a drink of water first--but it must be cold.
CLARA (_quickly_).
I’ll fetch it from the well.
KARL.
Well, if you like; it isn’t far.
CLARA.
Thanks! Thanks! That was the only thing that troubled me. The
deed itself was bound to betray me. Now they will say--“She’s had
an accident. She fell in.”
KARL.
Take care, though; they haven’t nailed that plank on yet.
CLARA.
Why, the moon’s up! O God, I only come to save my father from
coming. Forgive me as I--Be gracious, gracious---- (_Goes out._)