Hedda.
HEDDA.
Had he vine-leaves in his hair?
TESMAN.
Vine-leaves? No, I saw nothing of the sort. But he made a long, rambling
speech in honour of the woman who had inspired him in his work—that was
the phrase he used.
HEDDA.
Did he name her?
TESMAN.
No, he didn’t; but I can’t help thinking he meant Mrs. Elvsted. You may
be sure he did.
HEDDA.
Well—where did you part from him?
TESMAN.
On the way to town. We broke up—the last of us at any rate—all together;
and Brack came with us to get a breath of fresh air. And then, you see,
we agreed to take Eilert home; for he had had far more than was good for
him.
HEDDA.
I daresay.
TESMAN.
But now comes the strange part of it, Hedda; or, I should rather say,
the melancholy part of it. I declare I am almost ashamed—on Eilert’s
account—to tell you——
HEDDA.
Oh, go on——!
TESMAN.
Well, as we were getting near town, you see, I happened to drop a little
behind the others. Only for a minute or two—fancy that!
HEDDA.
Yes yes yes, but——?
TESMAN.
And then, as I hurried after them—what do you think I found by the
wayside? Eh?
HEDDA.
Oh, how should I know!
TESMAN.
You mustn’t speak of it to a soul, Hedda! Do you hear! Promise me, for
Eilert’s sake. [_Draws a parcel, wrapped in paper, from his coat
pocket._] Fancy, dear—I found this.
HEDDA.
Is not that the parcel he had with him yesterday?
TESMAN.
Yes, it is the whole of his precious, irreplaceable manuscript! And he
had gone and lost it, and knew nothing about it. Only fancy, Hedda! So
deplorably——
HEDDA.
But why did you not give him back the parcel at once?
TESMAN.
I didn’t dare to—in the state he was then in——
HEDDA.
Did you not tell any of the others that you had found it?
TESMAN.
Oh, far from it! You can surely understand that, for Eilert’s sake, I
wouldn’t do that.
HEDDA.
So no one knows that Eilert Lövborg’s manuscript is in your possession?
TESMAN.
No. And no one _must_ know it.
HEDDA.
Then what did you say to him afterwards?
TESMAN.
I didn’t talk to him again at all; for when we got in among the streets,
he and two or three of the others gave us the slip and disappeared.
Fancy that!
HEDDA.
Indeed! They must have taken him home then.
TESMAN.
Yes, so it would appear. And Brack, too, left us.
HEDDA.
And what have you been doing with yourself since?
TESMAN.
Well, I and some of the others went home with one of the party, a jolly
fellow, and took our morning coffee with him; or perhaps I should rather
call it our night coffee—eh? But now, when I have rested a little, and
given Eilert, poor fellow, time to have his sleep out, I must take this
back to him.
HEDDA.
[_Holds out her hand for the packet._] No—don’t give it to him! Not in
such a hurry, I mean. Let me read it first.
TESMAN.
No, my dearest Hedda, I mustn’t, I really mustn’t.
HEDDA.
You must not?
TESMAN.
No—for you can imagine what a state of despair he will be in when he
wakens and misses the manuscript. He has no copy of it, you must know!
He told me so.
HEDDA.
[_Looking searchingly at him._] Can such a thing not be reproduced?
Written over again?
TESMAN.
No, I don’t think that would be possible. For the inspiration, you see——
HEDDA.
Yes, yes—I suppose it depends on that——[_Lightly._] But, by-the-bye—here
is a letter for you.
TESMAN.
Fancy——!
HEDDA.
[_Handing it to him._] It came early this morning.
TESMAN.
It’s from Aunt Julia! What can it be? [_He lays the packet on the other
footstool, opens the letter, runs his eye through it, and jumps up._]
Oh, Hedda—she says that poor Aunt Rina is dying!
HEDDA.
Well, we were prepared for that.
TESMAN.
And that if I want to see her again, I must make haste. I’ll run in to
them at once.
HEDDA.
[_Suppressing a smile._] Will you run?
TESMAN.
Oh, my dearest Hedda—if you could only make up your mind to come with
me! Just think!
HEDDA.
[_Rises and says wearily, repelling the idea._] No, no, don’t ask me. I
_will_ not look upon sickness and death. I loathe all sorts of ugliness.
TESMAN.
Well, well, then——! [_Bustling around._] My hat——? My overcoat——? Oh, in
the hall——. I do hope I mayn’t come too late, Hedda! Eh?
HEDDA.
Oh, if you run———
[_BERTA appears at the hall door._
BERTA.
Judge Brack is at the door, and wishes to know if he may come in.
TESMAN.
At this time! No, I can’t possibly see him.
HEDDA.
But I can. [_To BERTA._] Ask Judge Brack to come in.
[_BERTA goes out._
HEDDA.
[_Quickly, whispering._] The parcel, Tesman!
[_She snatches it up from the stool._
TESMAN.
Yes, give it to me!
HEDDA.
No, no, I will keep it till you come back.
[_She goes to the writing-table and places it in the bookcase._
TESMAN _stands in a flurry of haste, and cannot get his gloves
on._
_JUDGE BRACK enters from the hall._
HEDDA.
[_Nodding to him._] You are an early bird, I must say.
BRACK.
Yes, don’t you think so? [_To TESMAN._] Are you on the move, too?
TESMAN.
Yes, I _must_ rush off to my aunts’. Fancy—the invalid one is lying at
death’s door, poor creature.
BRACK.
Dear me, is she indeed? Then on no account let me detain you. At such a
critical moment——
TESMAN.
Yes, I must really rush——Good-bye! Good-bye!
[_He hastens out by the hall door._
HEDDA.
[_Approaching._] You seem to have made a particularly lively night of it
at your rooms, Judge Brack.
BRACK.
I assure you I have not had my clothes off, Mrs. Hedda.
HEDDA.
Not you, either?
BRACK.
No, as you may see. But what has Tesman been telling you of the night’s
adventures?
HEDDA.
Oh, some tiresome story. Only that they went and had coffee somewhere or
other.
BRACK.
I have heard about that coffee-party already. Eilert Lövborg was not
with them, I fancy?
HEDDA.
No, they had taken him home before that.
BRACK.
Tesman too?
HEDDA.
No, but some of the others, he said.
BRACK.
[_Smiling._] George Tesman is really an ingenuous creature, Mrs. Hedda.
HEDDA.
Yes, heaven knows he is. Then is there something behind all this?
BRACK.
Yes, perhaps there may be.
HEDDA.
Well then, sit down, my dear Judge, and tell your story in comfort.
[_She seats herself to the left of the table. BRACK sits near her, at
the long side of the table._
HEDDA.
Now then?
BRACK.
I had special reasons for keeping track of my guests—or rather of some
of my guests—last night.
HEDDA.
Of Eilert Lövborg among the rest, perhaps?
BRACK.
Frankly—yes.
HEDDA.
Now you make me really curious——
BRACK.
Do you know where he and one or two of the others finished the night,
Mrs. Hedda?
HEDDA.
If it is not quite unmentionable, tell me.
BRACK.
Oh no, it’s not at all unmentionable. Well, they put in an appearance at
a particularly animated soirée.
HEDDA.
Of the lively kind?
BRACK.
Of the very liveliest——
HEDDA.
Tell me more of this, Judge Brack——
BRACK.
Lövborg, as well as the others, had been invited in advance. I knew all
about it. But he had declined the invitation; for now, as you know, he
has become a new man.
HEDDA.
Up at the Elvsteds’, yes. But he went after all, then?
BRACK.
Well, you see, Mrs. Hedda—unhappily the spirit moved him at my rooms
last evening——
HEDDA.
Yes, I hear he found inspiration.
BRACK.
Pretty violent inspiration. Well, I fancy that altered his purpose; for
we menfolk are unfortunately not always so firm in our principles as we
ought to be.
HEDDA.
Oh, I am sure _you_ are an exception, Judge Brack. But as to Lövborg——?
BRACK.
To make a long story short—he landed at last in Mademoiselle Diana’s
rooms.
HEDDA.
Mademoiselle Diana’s?
BRACK.
It was Mademoiselle Diana that was giving the soirée, to a select circle
of her admirers and her lady friends.
HEDDA.
Is she a red-haired woman?
BRACK.
Precisely.
HEDDA.
A sort of a—singer?
BRACK.
Oh yes—in her leisure moments. And moreover a mighty huntress—of
men—Mrs. Hedda. You have no doubt heard of her. Eilert Lövborg was one
of her most enthusiastic protectors—in the days of his glory.
HEDDA.
And how did all this end?
BRACK.
Far from amicably, it appears. After a most tender meeting, they seem to
have come to blows——
HEDDA.
Lövborg and she?
BRACK.
Yes. He accused her or her friends of having robbed him. He declared
that his pocket-book had disappeared—and other things as well. In short,
he seems to have made a furious disturbance.
HEDDA.
And what came of it all?
BRACK.
It came to a general scrimmage, in which the ladies as well as the
gentlemen took part. Fortunately the police at last appeared on the
scene.
HEDDA.
The police too?
BRACK.
Yes. I fancy it will prove a costly frolic for Eilert Lövborg, crazy
being that he is.
HEDDA.
How so?
BRACK.
He seems to have made a violent resistance—to have hit one of the
constables on the head and torn the coat off his back. So they had to
march him off to the police-station with the rest.
HEDDA.
How have you learnt all this?
BRACK.
From the police themselves.
HEDDA.
[_Gazing straight before her._] So that is what happened. Then he had no
vine-leaves in his hair.
BRACK.
Vine-leaves, Mrs. Hedda?
HEDDA.
[_Changing her tone._] But tell me now, Judge—what is your real reason
for tracking out Eilert Lövborg’s movements so carefully?
BRACK.
In the first place, it could not be entirely indifferent to me if it
should appear in the police-court that he came straight from my house.
HEDDA.
Will the matter come into court then?
BRACK.
Of course. However, I should scarcely have troubled so much about that.
But I thought that, as a friend of the family, it was my duty to supply
you and Tesman with a full account of his nocturnal exploits.
HEDDA.
Why so, Judge Brack?
BRACK.
Why, because I have a shrewd suspicion that he intends to use you as a
sort of blind.
HEDDA.
Oh, how can you think such a thing!
BRACK.
Good heavens, Mrs. Hedda—we have eyes in our head. Mark my words! This
Mrs. Elvsted will be in no hurry to leave town again.
HEDDA.
Well, even if there should be anything between them, I suppose there are
plenty of other places where they could meet.
BRACK.
Not a single _home_. Henceforth, as before, every respectable house will
be closed against Eilert Lövborg.
HEDDA.
And so ought mine to be, you mean?
BRACK.
Yes. I confess it would be more than painful to me if this personage
were to be made free of your house. How superfluous, how intrusive, he
would be, if he were to force his way into——
HEDDA.
——into the triangle?
BRACK.
Precisely. It would simply mean that I should find myself homeless.
HEDDA.
[_Looks at him with a smile._] So you want to be the one cock in the
basket[24]—that is your aim.
BRACK.
[_Nods slowly and lowers his voice._] Yes, that is my aim. And for that
I will fight—with every weapon I can command.
HEDDA.
[_Her smile vanishing._] I see you are a dangerous person—when it comes
to the point.
BRACK.
Do you think so?
HEDDA.
I am beginning to think so. And I am exceedingly glad to think—that you
have no sort of hold over me.
BRACK.
[_Laughing equivocally._] Well well, Mrs. Hedda—perhaps you are right
there. If I had, who knows what I might be capable of?
HEDDA.
Come come now, Judge Brack! That sounds almost like a threat.
BRACK.
[_Rising._] Oh, not at all! The triangle, you know, ought, if possible,
to be spontaneously constructed.
HEDDA.
There I agree with you.
BRACK.
Well, now I have said all I had to say; and I had better be getting back
to town. Good-bye, Mrs. Hedda.
[_He goes towards the glass door._
HEDDA.
[_Rising._] Are you going through the garden?
BRACK.
Yes, it’s a short cut for me.
HEDDA.
And then it is a back way, too.
BRACK.
Quite so. I have no objection to back ways. They may be piquant enough
at times.
HEDDA.
When there is ball practice going on, you mean?
BRACK.
[_In the doorway, laughing to her._] Oh, people don’t shoot their tame
poultry, I fancy.
HEDDA.
[_Also laughing._] Oh no, when there is only one cock in the basket——
[_They exchange laughing nods of farewell. He goes. She closes
the door behind him._
[HEDDA, _who has become quite serious, stands for a moment
looking out. Presently she goes and peeps through the
curtain over the middle doorway. Then she goes to the
writing-table, takes_ LÖVBORG’S _packet out of the bookcase,
and is on the point of looking through its contents._ BERTA
_is heard speaking loudly in the hall._ HEDDA _turns and
listens. Then she hastily locks up the packet in the drawer,
and lays the key on the inkstand._
EILERT LÖVBORG, _with his greatcoat on and his hat in his hand, tears
open the hall door. He looks somewhat confused and irritated._
LÖVBORG.
[_Looking towards the hall._] And I tell you I must and will come in!
There!
[_He closes the door, turns, sees_ HEDDA, _at once regains his
self-control, and bows._
HEDDA.
[_At the writing table._] Well, Mr. Lövborg, this is rather a late hour
to call for Thea.
LÖVBORG.
You mean rather an early hour to call on you. Pray pardon me.
HEDDA.
How do you know that she is still here?
LÖVBORG.
They told me at her lodgings that she had been out all night.
HEDDA.
[_Going to the oval table._] Did you notice anything about the people of
the house when they said that?
LÖVBORG.
[_Looks inquiringly at her._] Notice anything about them?
HEDDA.
I mean, did they seem to think it odd?
LÖVBORG.
[_Suddenly understanding._] Oh yes, of course! I am dragging her down
with me! However, I didn’t notice anything.—I suppose Tesman is not up
yet?
HEDDA.
No—I think not——
LÖVBORG.
When did he come home?
HEDDA.
Very late.
LÖVBORG.
Did he tell you anything?
HEDDA.
Yes, I gathered that you had had an exceedingly jolly evening at Judge
Brack’s.
LÖVBORG.
Nothing more?
HEDDA.
I don’t think so. However, I was so dreadfully sleepy——
MRS. ELVSTED _enters through the curtains of the middle doorway._
MRS. ELVSTED.
[_Going towards him._] Ah, Lövborg! At last——!
LÖVBORG.
Yes, at last. And too late!
MRS. ELVSTED.
[_Looks anxiously at him._] What is too late?
LÖVBORG.
Everything is too late now. It is all over with me.
MRS. ELVSTED.
Oh no, no—don’t say that!
LÖVBORG.
You will say the same when you hear——
MRS. ELVSTED.
I won’t hear anything!
HEDDA.
Perhaps you would prefer to talk to her alone? If so, I will leave you.
LÖVBORG.
No, stay—you too. I beg you to stay.
MRS. ELVSTED.
Yes, but I won’t hear anything, I tell you.
LÖVBORG.
It is not last night’s adventures that I want to talk about.
MRS. ELVSTED.
What is it then——?
LÖVBORG.
I want to say that now our ways must part.
MRS. ELVSTED.
Part!
HEDDA.
[_Involuntarily._] I knew it!
LÖVBORG.
You can be of no more service to me, Thea.
MRS. ELVSTED.
How can you stand there and say that! No more service to you! Am I not
to help you now, as before? Are we not to go on working together?
LÖVBORG.
Henceforward I shall do no work.
MRS. ELVSTED.
[_Despairingly._] Then what am I to do with my life?
LÖVBORG.
You must try to live your life as if you had never known me.
MRS. ELVSTED.
But you know I cannot do that!
LÖVBORG.
Try if you cannot, Thea. You must go home again——
MRS. ELVSTED.
[_In vehement protest._] Never in this world! Where you are, there will
I be also! I will not let myself be driven away like this! I will remain
here! I will be with you when the book appears.
HEDDA.
[_Half aloud, in suspense._] Ah yes—the book!
LÖVBORG.
[_Looks at her._] My book and Thea’s; for _that_ is what it is.
MRS. ELVSTED.
Yes, I feel that it is. And that is why I have a right to be with you
when it appears! I will see with my own eyes how respect and honour pour
in upon you afresh. And the happiness—the happiness—oh, I must share it
with you!
LÖVBORG.
Thea—our book will never appear.
HEDDA.
Ah!
MRS. ELVSTED.
Never appear!
LÖVBORG.
_Can_ never appear.
MRS. ELVSTED.
[_In agonised foreboding._] Lövborg—what have you done with the
manuscript?
HEDDA.
[_Looks anxiously at him._] Yes, the manuscript——?
MRS. ELVSTED.
Where is it?
LÖVBORG.
Oh Thea—don’t ask me about it!
MRS. ELVSTED.
Yes, yes, I _will_ know. I demand to be told at once.
LÖVBORG.
The manuscript——. Well then—I have torn the manuscript into a thousand
pieces.
MRS. ELVSTED.
[_Shrieks._] Oh no, no——!
HEDDA.
[_Involuntarily._] But that’s not——
LÖVBORG.
[_Looks at her._] Not true, you think?
HEDDA.
[_Collecting herself._] Oh well, of course—since you say so. But it
sounded so improbable——
LÖVBORG.
It is true, all the same.
MRS. ELVSTED.
[_Wringing her hands._] Oh God—oh God, Hedda—torn his own work to
pieces!
LÖVBORG.
I have torn my own life to pieces. So why should I not tear my life-work
too——?
MRS. ELVSTED.
And you did this last night?
LÖVBORG.
Yes, I tell you! Tore it into a thousand pieces—and scattered them on
the fiord—far out. There there is cool sea-water at any rate—let them
drift upon it—drift with the current and the wind. And then presently
they will sink—deeper and deeper—as I shall, Thea.
MRS. ELVSTED.
Do you know, Lövborg, that what you have done with the book—I shall
think of it to my dying day as though you had killed a little child.
LÖVBORG.
Yes, you are right. It is a sort of child-murder.
MRS. ELVSTED.
How could you, then——! Did not the child belong to me too?
HEDDA.
[_Almost inaudibly._] Ah, the child——
MRS. ELVSTED.
[_Breathing heavily._] It is all over then. Well well, now I will go,
Hedda.
HEDDA.
But you are not going away from town?
MRS. ELVSTED.
Oh, I don’t know what I shall do. I see nothing but darkness before me.
[_She goes out by the hall door._
HEDDA.
[_Stands waiting for a moment._] So you are not going to see her home,
Mr. Lövborg?
LÖVBORG.
I? Through the streets? Would you have people see her walking with me?
HEDDA.
Of course I don’t know what else may have happened last night. But is it
so utterly irretrievable?
LÖVBORG.
It will not end with last night—I know that perfectly well. And the
thing is that now I have no taste for that sort of life either. I won’t
begin it anew. She has broken my courage and my power of braving life
out.
HEDDA.
[_Looking straight before her._] So that pretty little fool has had her
fingers in a man’s destiny. [_Looks at him._] But all the same, how
could you treat her so heartlessly?
LÖVBORG.
Oh, don’t say that it was heartless!
HEDDA.
To go and destroy what has filled her whole soul for months and years!
You do not call that heartless!
LÖVBORG.
To you I can tell the truth, Hedda.
HEDDA.
The truth?
LÖVBORG.
First promise me—give me your word—that what I now confide to you Thea
shall never know.
HEDDA.
I give you my word.
LÖVBORG.
Good. Then let me tell you that what I said just now was untrue.
HEDDA.
About the manuscript?
LÖVBORG.
Yes. I have not torn it to pieces—nor thrown it into the fiord.
HEDDA.
No, no——. But—where is it then?
LÖVBORG.
I have destroyed it none the less—utterly destroyed it, Hedda!
HEDDA.
I don’t understand.
LÖVBORG.
Thea said that what I had done seemed to her like a child-murder.
HEDDA.
Yes, so she said.
LÖVBORG.
But to kill his child—that is not the worst thing a father can do to it.
HEDDA.
Not the worst?
LÖVBORG.
No. I wanted to spare Thea from hearing the worst.
HEDDA.
Then what is the worst?
LÖVBORG.
Suppose now, Hedda, that a man—in the small hours of the morning—came
home to his child’s mother after a night of riot and debauchery, and
said: ”Listen—I have been here and there—in this place and in that. And
I have taken our child with me—to this place and to that. And I have
lost the child—utterly lost it. The devil knows into what hands it may
have fallen—who may have had their clutches on it.“
HEDDA.
Well—but when all is said and done, you know—this was only a book——
LÖVBORG.
Thea’s pure soul was in that book.
HEDDA.
Yes, so I understand.
LÖVBORG.
And you can understand, too, that for her and me together no future is
possible.
HEDDA.
What path do you mean to take then?
LÖVBORG.
None. I will only try to make an end of it all—the sooner the better.
HEDDA.
[_A step nearer him._] Eilert Lövborg—listen to me.—Will you not try
to—to do it beautifully?
LÖVBORG.
Beautifully? [_Smiling._] With vine-leaves in my hair, as you used to
dream in the old days——?
HEDDA.
No, no. I have lost my faith in the the vine-leaves. But beautifully
nevertheless! For once in a way!—Good-bye! You must go now—and do not
come here any more.
LÖVBORG.
Good-bye, Mrs. Tesman. And give George Tesman my love.
[_He is on the point of going._
HEDDA.
No, wait! I must give you a memento to take with you.
[_She goes to the writing-table and opens the drawer and the
pistol-case; then returns to_ LÖVBORG _with one of the
pistols._
LÖVBORG.
[_Looks at her._] This? Is _this_ the memento?
HEDDA.
[_Nodding slowly._] Do you recognise it? It was aimed at you once.
LÖVBORG.
You should have used it then.
HEDDA.
Take it—and do _you_ use it now.
LÖVBORG.
[_Puts the pistol in his breast pocket._] Thanks!
HEDDA.
And beautifully, Eilert Lövborg. Promise me that!
LÖVBORG.
Good-bye, Hedda Gabler.
[_He goes out by the hall door._
[HEDDA _listens for a moment at the door. Then she goes up to
the writing-table, takes out the packet of manuscript, peeps
under the cover, draws a few of the sheets half out, and
looks at them. Next she goes over and seats herself in the
armchair beside the stove, with the packet in her lap.
Presently she opens the stove door, and then the packet._
HEDDA.
[_Throws one of the quires into the fire and whispers to herself._] Now
I am burning your child, Thea!—Burning it, curly-locks! [_Throwing one
or two more quires into the stove._] Your child and Eilert Lövborg’s.
[_Throws the rest in._] I am burning—I am burning your child.
ACT FOURTH.
_The same rooms at the_ TESMANS’. _It is evening. The drawing-room is in
darkness. The back room is lighted by the hanging lamp over the
table. The curtains over the glass door are drawn close._
HEDDA, _dressed in black, walks to and fro in the dark room. Then she
goes into the back room and disappears for a moment to the left.
She is heard to strike a few chords on the piano. Presently she
comes in sight again, and returns to the drawing-room._
BERTA _enters from the right, through the inner room, with a lighted
lamp, which she places on the table in front of the corner settee
in the drawing-room. Her eyes are red with weeping, and she has
black ribbons in her cap. She goes quietly and circumspectly out
to the right._ HEDDA _goes up to the glass door, lifts the curtain
a little aside, and looks out into the darkness._
_Shortly afterwards,_ MISS TESMAN, _in mourning, with a bonnet and veil
on, comes in from the hall._ HEDDA _goes towards her and holds out
her hand._
MISS TESMAN.
Yes, Hedda, here I am, in mourning and forlorn; for now my poor sister
has at last found peace.
HEDDA.
I have heard the news already, as you see. Tesman sent me a card.
MISS TESMAN.
Yes, he promised me he would. But nevertheless I thought that to
Hedda—here in the house of life—I ought myself to bring the tidings of
death.
HEDDA.
That was very kind of you.
MISS TESMAN.
Ah, Rina ought not to have left us just _now_. This is not the time for
Hedda’s house to be a house of mourning.
HEDDA.
[_Changing the subject._] She died quite peacefully, did she not, Miss
Tesman?
MISS TESMAN.
Oh, her end was so calm, so beautiful. And then she had the unspeakable
happiness of seeing George once more—and bidding him good-bye.—Has he
not come home yet?
HEDDA.
No. He wrote that he might be detained. But won’t you sit down?
MISS TESMAN.
No thank you, my dear, dear Hedda. I should like to, but I have so much
to do. I must prepare my dear one for her rest as well as I can. She
shall go to her grave looking her best.
HEDDA.
Can I not help you in any way?
MISS TESMAN.
Oh, you must not think of it! Hedda Tesman must have no hand in such
mournful work. Nor let her thoughts dwell on it either—not at this time.
HEDDA.
One is not always mistress of one’s thoughts——
MISS TESMAN.
[_Continuing._] Ah yes, it is the way of the world. At home we shall be
sewing a shroud; and here there will soon be sewing too, I suppose—but
of another sort, thank God!
GEORGE TESMAN _enters by the hall door._
HEDDA.
Ah, you have come at last!
TESMAN.
You here, Aunt Julia? With Hedda? Fancy that!
MISS TESMAN.
I was just going, my dear boy. Well, have you done all you promised?
TESMAN.
No; I’m really afraid I have forgotten half of it. I must come to you
again to-morrow. To-day my brain is all in a whirl. I can’t keep my
thoughts together.
MISS TESMAN.
Why, my dear George, you mustn’t take it in this way.
TESMAN.
Mustn’t——? How do you mean?
MISS TESMAN.
Even in your sorrow you must rejoice, as I do—rejoice that she is at
rest.
TESMAN.
Oh yes, yes—you are thinking of Aunt Rina.
HEDDA.
You will feel lonely now, Miss Tesman.
MISS TESMAN.
Just at first, yes. But that will not last very long, I hope. I daresay
I shall soon find an occupant for poor Rina’s little room.
TESMAN.