DR. HERDAL'S _Drawing-room and Dispensary, as before. It is early in the
day._ Dr. HERDAL _sits by the little table, taking his own temperature
with a clinical thermometer. By the door stands the_ New Book-keeper;
_he wears blue spectacles and a discoloured white tie, and seems
slightly nervous._
_Dr. Herd._ Well, now you understand what is necessary. My late
book-keeper, Miss BLAKDRAF, used to keep my accounts very cleverly--she
charged every visit twice over.
_The New B._ I am familiar with book-keeping by double entry. I was once
employed at a Bank.
_Dr. Herd._ I am discharging my assistant, too; he was always trying to
push me out with his pills. Perhaps you will be able to dispense?
_The New B._ (_modestly_). With an additional salary, I should be able
to do that too.
_Dr. Herd._ Capital! You _shall_ dispense with an additional salary. Go
into the Dispensary, and see what you can make of it. You may mistake a
few drugs at first--but everything must have a beginning.
[_As the_ New B. _retires,_ Mrs. HERDAL _enters in a hat
and cloak with a watering-pot, noiselessly._
_Mrs. Herd._ Miss WANGEL got up early, before breakfast, and went for a
walk. She is so wonderfully vivacious!
_Dr. Herd._ So I should say. But tell me, ALINE, is she _really_ going
to stay with us here? [_Nervously._
_Mrs. Herd._ (_looks at him_). So she tells me. And, as she has brought
nothing with her except a tooth-brush and a powder-puff, I am going into
the town to get her a few articles. We _must_ make her feel at home.
_Dr. Herd._ (_breaking out_). I _will_ make her not only _feel_, but
_be_ at home, wherever that is, this very day! I will _not_ have a
perambulating Allegory without a portmanteau here on an indefinite
visit. I say, she shall go--do you hear, ALINE? Miss WANGEL will go!
[_Raps with his fist on table._
_Mrs. Herd._ (_quietly_). If you say so, HAUSTUS, no doubt she will
_have_ to go. But you must tell her so yourself.
[_Puts the watering-pot on the console table, and goes
out, as_ HILDA _enters, sparkling with pleasure._
_Hilda_ (_goes up straight to him_). Good morning, Dr. HERDAL. I have
just seen a pig killed. It was _ripping_--I mean, gloriously thrilling!
And your wife has taken a tremendous fancy to me. Fancy _that_!
_Dr. Herd._ (_gloomily_). It _is_ eccentric certainly. But my poor dear
wife was always a little----
_Hilda_ (_nods her head slowly several times_). So _you_ have noticed
that too? I have had a long talk with her. She can't get over your
discharging Mr. KALOMEL--he is the only man who ever _really_ understood
her.
_Dr. Herd._ If I could only pay her off a little bit of the huge,
immeasurable debt I owe her--but I can't!
_Hilda_ (_looks hard at him_). Can't _I_ help you? I helped RAGNAR
BROVIK. Didn't you know I stayed with him and poor little KAIA--after
that accident to my Master Builder? I did. I made RAGNAR build me the
loveliest castle in the air--lovelier, even, than poor Mr. SOLNESS'S
would have been--and we stood together on the very top. The steps were
rather too much for KAIA. Besides, there was no room for her on top. And
he put towering spires on all his semi-detached villas. Only, somehow,
they didn't let. Then the castle in the air tumbled down, and RAGNAR
went into liquidation, and I continued my walking-tour.
[Illustration: "Beautiful rainbow-coloured powders that
will give one a real grip on the world!"]
_Dr. Herd._ (_interested against his will_). And where did you go after
_that_, may I ask, Miss WANGEL?
_Hilda._ Oh, ever so far North. There I met Mr. and Mrs. TESMAN--the
second Mrs. TESMAN--she who was Mrs. ELVSTED, with the irritating hair,
you know. They were on their honeymoon, and had just decided that it was
impossible to reconstruct poor Mr. LÖVBORG'S great book out of Mrs.
ELVSTED'S rough notes. But I insisted on GEORGE'S attempting the
impossible--with Me. And what _do_ you think Mrs. TESMAN wears in her
hair _now_?
_Dr. Herd._ Why, really I could not say. Vine-leaves, perhaps.
_Hilda._ Wrong--_straws!_ Poor TESMAN _didn't_ fancy that--so he shot
himself, _un_-beautifully, through his ticket-pocket. And I went on and
took Rosmersholm for the Summer. There had been misfortune in the house,
so it was to let. Dear good old Rector KROLL acted as my reference; his
wife and children had no sympathy with his views, so I used to see him
every day. And I persuaded him, too, to attempt the impossible--he had
never ridden anything but a rocking-horse in his life, but I made him
promise to mount the White Horse of the Rosmersholms. He didn't get over
_that_. They found his body, a fortnight afterwards, in the mill-dam.
Thrilling!
_Dr. Herd._ (_shakes his finger at her_). What a girl you are, Miss
WANGEL! But you mustn't play these games _here_, you know.
_Hilda_ (_laughs to herself_). Of course not. But I suppose I _am_ a
strange sort of bird.
_Dr. Herd._ You are like a strong tonic. When I look at you I seem to be
regarding an effervescing saline draught. Still, I really must decline
to take you.
_Hilda_ (_a little sulky_). That is not how you spoke ten years ago, up
at the mountain station, when you were such a flirt!
_Dr. Herd._ _Was_ I a flirt? Deuce take me if I remember. But I am not
like that _now_.
_Hilda._ Then you have really forgotten how you sat next to me at the
_table d'hôte_, and made pills and swallowed them, and were so splendid
and buoyant and free that all the old women who knitted left next day?
_Dr. Herd._ What a memory you have for trifles, Miss WANGEL, it's quite
wonderful!
_Hilda._ Trifles! There was no trifling on _your_ part. When you
promised to come back in ten years, like a troll, and fetch me!
_Dr. Herd._ Did I say all that? It _must_ have been _after table
d'hôte_!
_Hilda._ It was. I was a mere chit then--only twenty-three; but I
remember. And now _I_ have come for _you_.
_Dr. Herd._ Dear, dear! But there is nothing of the troll about me now I
have married Mrs. SOLNESS.
_Hilda_ (_looking sharply at him_). Yes, I remember you were always
dropping in to tea in those days.
_Dr. Herd._ (_seems hurt_). Every visit was duly put down in the ledger
and charged for--as poor little SENNA will tell you.
_Hilda._ Little SENNA? Oh, Dr. HERDAL, I believe there is a bit of the
troll left in you still!
_Dr. Herd._ (_laughs a little_). No, no; my conscience is perfectly
robust--always was.
_Hilda._ Are you quite _quite_ sure that, when you went indoors with
dear Mrs. SOLNESS that afternoon, and left me alone with my Master
Builder, you did not foresee--perhaps wish--intend, even a little,
that----H'm?
_Dr. Herd._ That you would talk the poor man into clambering up that
tower? You want to drag _Me_ into that business now!
_Hilda_ (_teasingly_). Yes, I certainly think that then you went on
exactly like a troll.
_Dr. Herd._ (_with uncontrollable emotion_). HILDA, there is not a
corner of me safe from you! Yes, I see now that _must_ have been the way
of it. Then I _was_ a troll in that, too! But isn't it terrible the
price I have had to pay for it? To have a wife who----. No, I shall
never roll a pill again--never, never!
_Hilda_ (_lays her head on the stove, and answers as if half asleep_).
No more pills? Poor Doctor HERDAL!
_Dr. Herd._ (_bitterly_). No--nothing but cosy commonplace grey powders
for a whole troop of children.
_Hilda_ (_lively again_). Not _grey_ powders! (_Quite seriously._) I will
tell you what you shall make next. Beautiful rainbow-coloured powders
that will give one a real grip on the world. Powders to make everyone
free and buoyant, and ready to grasp at one's own happiness, to _dare_
what one _would_. I will have you make them. I will--I _will!_
_Dr. Herd._ H'm! I am not quite sure that I clearly understand. And then
the ingredients--?
_Hilda._ What stupid people all of you pill-doctors are, to be sure!
Why, they will be _poisons_, of course!
_Dr. Herd._ Poisons? Why in the world should they be _that_?
_Hilda_ (_without answering him_). All the thrillingest, deadliest
poisons--it is only such things that are wholesome, nowadays.
_Dr. Herd._ (_as if caught by her enthusiasm_). And I could colour them,
too, by exposing them to rays cast through a prism. Oh, HILDA, how I
have needed you all these years! For, you see, with _her_ it was
impossible to discuss such things. [_Embraces her._
_Mrs. Herd._ (_enters noiselessly through hall-door_). I suppose,
HAUSTUS, you are persuading Miss WANGEL to start by the afternoon
steamer? I have bought her a pair of curling-tongs, and a packet of
hair-pins. The larger parcels are coming on presently.
_Dr. Herd._ (_uneasily_). H'm! HILDA--Miss WANGEL I _should_ say--is
kindly going to stay on a little longer, to assist me in some scientific
experiments. You wouldn't understand them if I told you.
_Mrs. Herd._ Shouldn't I, HAUSTUS? I daresay not.
[_The_ New Book-keeper _looks through the glass-door of
Dispensary._
_Hilda_ (_starts violently and points--then in a whisper_). Who is
_that_?
_Dr. Herd._ Only the New Book-keeper and Assistant--a very intelligent
person.
_Hilda_ (_looks straight in front of her with a far-away expression, and
whispers to herself_). I thought at first it was.... But no--_that_
would be _too_ frightfully thrilling!
_Dr. Herd._ (_to himself_). I'm turning into a regular old troll
now--but I can't help myself. After all, I am only an elderly Norwegian.
We are _made_ like that.... Rainbow powders--_real_ rainbow powders!
With HILDA.... Oh, to have the joy of life once more!
[_Takes his temperature again as Curtain falls._
* * * * *