(SCENE.--The same room. MRS. BERNICK is sitting alone at the
work-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.)