to you. I've no luggage, and no money. Not that _that_ makes any
difference. I never _have_. And I've been allured and attracted here.
You surely know how these things come about?
[_Throws her arms round him._
DR. HERDAL.
What the deuce! Miss Wangel, you _mustn't_. I'm a married man! There's
my wife!
[MRS. HERDAL _enters_.
HILDA.
As if _that_ mattered--it's only dear, sweet Mrs. Solness. _She_ doesn't
mind--_do_ you, dear Mrs. Solness?
MRS. HERDAL.
It does not seem to be of much _use_ minding, Miss Wangel. I presume you
have come to stay?
HILDA.
[_In amused surprise._] Why, of course--what else should I come for? I
_always_ come to stay, until--h'm!
[_Nods slowly, and sits down at table._
DR. HERDAL.
[_Involuntarily._] She's drinking my punch! If she thinks I'm going to
stand this sort of thing, she's mistaken. I'll soon show her a
pill-doctor is a very different kind of person from a mere Master
Builder!
[HILDA _finishes the punch with an indefinable expression in her
eyes, and_ Dr. HERDAL _looks on gloomily as the Curtain falls_.
* * * * *
ACT SECOND
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. HERDAL.
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 BOOK-KEEPER.
I am familiar with book-keeping by double entry. I was once employed at
a bank.
DR. HERDAL.
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 BOOK-KEEPER.
[_Modestly._] With an additional salary, I should be able to do that
too.
DR. HERDAL.
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 BOOK-KEEPER _retires_, MRS. HERDAL _enters in a hat and
cloak with a watering-pot, noiselessly_.
MRS. HERDAL.
Miss Wangel got up early, before breakfast, and went for a walk. She is
so wonderfully vivacious!
DR. HERDAL.
So I should say. But tell me, Aline, is she _really_ going to stay with
us here?
[_Nervously._
MRS. HERDAL.
[_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. HERDAL.
[_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. HERDAL.
[_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. HERDAL.
[_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. HERDAL.
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.
DR. HERDAL.
[_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. Loevborg'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. HERDAL.
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
Rosmershoelm 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 Rosmershoelm. He didn't get over
_that_. They found his body, a fortnight afterwards, in the mill-dam.
Thrilling!
DR. HERDAL.
[_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. HERDAL.
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. HERDAL.
_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'hote_, 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. HERDAL.
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. HERDAL.
Did I say all that? It _must_ have been _after table d'hote_!
HILDA.
It was. I was a mere chit then--only twenty-three; but _I_ remember. And
now _I_ have come for _you_.
DR. HERDAL.
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. HERDAL.
[_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. HERDAL.
[_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. HERDAL.
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. HERDAL.
[_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. HERDAL.
[_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 every one 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_!
[Illustration: "Beautiful rainbow-coloured powders that will give one a
real grip on the world!"]
DR. HERDAL.
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. HERDAL.
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. HERDAL.
[_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. HERDAL.
[_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 hairpins. The larger
parcels are coming on presently.
DR. HERDAL.
[_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. HERDAL.
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. HERDAL.
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. HERDAL.
[_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_.
* * * * *
ACT THIRD
[_On the right, a smart verandah, attached to_ Dr. HERDAL'S
_dwelling-house, and communicating with the drawing-room and
dispensary by glass doors. On the left a tumble-down rockery, with
a headless plaster Mercury. In front, a lawn, with a large
silvered glass globe on a stand. Chairs and tables. All the
furniture is of galvanised iron. A sunset is seen going on among
the trees._
DR. HERDAL.
[_Comes out of dispensary-door cautiously, and whispers._] Hilda, are
you in there?
[_Taps with fingers on drawing-room door._
HILDA.
[_Comes out with a half-teasing smile._] Well--and how is the
rainbow-powder getting on, Dr. Herdal?
DR. HERDAL.
[_With enthusiasm._] It is getting on simply splendidly. I sent the new
assistant out to take a little walk, so that he should not be in the
way. There is arsenic in the powder, Hilda, and digitalis too, and
strychnine, and the best beetle-killer!
HILDA.
[_With happy, wondering eyes._] _Lots_ of beetle-killer. And you will
give some of it to _her_, to make her free and buoyant. I think one
really _has_ the right--when people happen to stand in the way----!
DR. HERDAL.
Yes, you may well say so, Hilda. Still--[_dubiously_]--it _does_ occur
to me that such doings may perhaps be misunderstood--by the
narrow-minded and conventional. [_They go on the lawn, and sit down._
HILDA.
[_With an outburst._] Oh, that all seems to me so foolish--so
irrelevant! As if the whole thing wasn't intended as an allegory!
DR. HERDAL.
[_Relieved._] Ah, so long as it is merely _allegorical_, of course----
But what is it an allegory _of_, Hilda?
HILDA.
[_Reflects in vain._] How can you sit there and ask such questions? I
suppose I am a symbol--of some sort.
DR. HERDAL.
[_As a thought flashes upon him._] A cymbal? That would certainly
account for your bra---- Then, am _I_ a cymbal too, Hilda?
HILDA.
Why yes--what else? You represent the artist-worker, or the elder
generation, or the pursuit of the ideal, or a bilious conscience--or
something or other. _You're_ all right!
DR. HERDAL.
[_Shakes his head._] Am I? But I don't quite see---- Well, well, cymbals
are meant to clash a little. And I see plainly now that I ought to
prescribe this powder for as many as possible. Isn't it terrible, Hilda,
that so many poor souls never really die their own deaths--pass out of
the world without even the formality of an inquest? As the district
Coroner, I feel strongly on the subject.
HILDA.
And, when the Coroner has finished sitting on all the bodies,
perhaps--but I shan't tell you now. [_Speaks as if to a child._] There,
run away and finish making the rainbow-powder, do!
DR. HERDAL.
[_Skips up into the dispensary._] I will--I will! Oh, I do feel such a
troll--such a light-haired, light-headed old devil!
RUeBUB.
[_Enters garden-gate._] I have had my dismissal--but I'm not going
without saying good-bye to Mrs. Herdal.
HILDA.
Dr. Herdal would disapprove--you really must not, Mr. Kalomel. And,
besides, Mrs. Herdal is not at home. She is in the town buying me a reel
of cotton. _Dr._ Herdal is in. He is making real rainbow powders for
regenerating everybody all round. Won't _that_ be fun?
RUeBUB.
_Making_ powders? Ha! ha! But you will see he won't _take_ one himself.
It is quite notorious to us younger men that he simply daren't do it.
HILDA.
[_With a little snort of contempt._] Oh, I daresay--that's so likely!
[_Defiantly._] I know he _can_, though. I've _seen_ him!
RUeBUB.
There is a tradition that he once--but not now--he knows better. I think
you said Mrs. Herdal was in the town? I will go and look for her. I
understand her so well. [_Goes out by gate._
HILDA.
[_Calls._] Dr. Herdal! Come out this minute. I want you--awfully!
DR. HERDAL.
[_Puts his head out._] Just when I am making such wonderful progress
with the powder. [_Comes down and leans on a table._] Have you hit upon
some way of giving it to Aline? I thought if you were to put it in her
arrowroot----?
HILDA.
No, thanks. I won't have that now. I have just recollected that it is a
rule of mine never to injure anybody I have once been formally
introduced to. Strangers don't count. No, poor Mrs. Herdal mustn't take
that powder!
DR. HERDAL.
[_Disappointed._] Then is nothing to come of making rainbow powders,
after all, Hilda?
HILDA.
[_Looks hard at him._] People say you are afraid to take your own
physic. Is that true?
DR. HERDAL.
Yes, I am. [_After a pause--with candour._] I find it invariably
disagrees with me.
HILDA.
[_With a half-dubious smile._] I think I can understand _that_. But you
did _once_. You swallowed your own pills that day at the _table d'hote_,
ten years ago. And I heard a harp in the air, too!
DR. HERDAL.
[_Open-mouthed._] I don't think that _could_ have been me. I don't play
any instrument. And that was quite a special thing, too. It's not every
day I can do it. Those were only _bread_ pills, Hilda.
HILDA.
[_With flashing eyes._] But you rolled them, you took them. And I want
to see you stand once more free and high and great, swallowing your own
preparations. [_Passionately._] I _will_ have you do it!
[_Imploringly._] Just _once_ more, Dr. Herdal!
DR. HERDAL.
If I did, Hilda, my medical knowledge, slight as it is, leads me to the
conclusion that I should in all probability burst.
HILDA.
[_Looks deeply into his eyes._] So long as you burst _beautifully_! But
no doubt that Miss Blakdraf----
DR. HERDAL.
You must believe in me utterly and entirely. I will do
anything--_anything_, Hilda, to provide you with agreeable
entertainment. I _will_ swallow my own powder! [_To himself, as he goes
gravely up to dispensary._] If only the drugs are sufficiently
adulterated!
[_Goes in; as he does so, the_ NEW ASSISTANT _enters the garden in
blue spectacles, unseen by_ HILDA, _and follows him, leaving open
the glass door._
SENNA.
[_Comes wildly out of drawing-room._] Where is dear Dr. Herdal? Oh, Miss
Wangel, he has discharged me--but I can't--I simply _can't_ live away
from that lovely ledger.
HILDA.
[_Jubilantly._] At this moment Dr. Herdal is in the dispensary, taking
one of his own powders.
SENNA.
[_Despairingly._] But--but it is utterly impossible! Miss Wangel, you
have such a firm hold of him--_don't_ let him do that!
HILDA.
I have already done all I can.
[RUeBUB _appears, talking confidentially with_ MRS. HERDAL, _at
gate._
SENNA.
Oh, Mrs. Herdal, Ruebub! The Pill-Doctor is going to take one of his own
preparations. Save him--quick!
RUeBUB.
[_With cold politeness._] I am sorry to hear it--for his sake. But it
would be quite contrary to professional etiquette to prevent him.
MRS. HERDAL.
And I never interfere with my husband's proceedings. I know _my_ duty,
Miss Blakdraf, if _others_ don't!
HILDA.
[_Exulting with great intensity._] At last! Now I see him in there,
great and free again, mixing the powder in a spoon--with jam!... Now he
raises the spoon. Higher--higher still! [_A gulp is audible from
within._] There, didn't you hear a harp in the air? [_Quietly._] I can't
see the spoon any more. But there is one he is striving with, in blue
spectacles!
THE NEW ASSISTANT'S VOICE.
[_Within._] The Pill-Doctor Herdal has taken his own powder!
HILDA.
[_As if petrified._] That voice! _Where_ have I heard it before? No
matter--he has got the powder down! [_Waves a shawl in the air, and
shrieks with wild jubilation._] It's too awfully thrilling! My--_my_
Pill-Doctor!
[Illustration: "My, my Pill-doctor!"]
THE NEW ASSISTANT.
[_Comes out on verandah._] I am happy to inform you that--as, to avoid
accidents, I took the simple precaution of filling all the
dispensary-jars with camphorated chalk--no serious results may be
anticipated from Dr. Herdal's rashness. [_Removes spectacles._] Nora,
don't you know me?
HILDA.
[_Reflects._] I really don't remember having the pleasure---- And I'm
_sure_ I heard a harp in the air!
MRS. HERDAL.
I fancy, Miss Wangel, it must have been merely a bee in your bonnet.
THE NEW ASSISTANT.
[_Tenderly._] Still the same little singing-bird! Oh, Nora, my long-lost
lark!
HILDA.
[_Sulkily._] I'm _not_ a lark--I'm a bird of prey--and when I get my
claws into anything----!
THE NEW ASSISTANT.
Macaroons, for instance? I remember your tastes of old. See, Nora!
[_Produces a paper-bag from his coat-tail pocket._] They were fresh this
morning!
HILDA.
[_Wavering._] If you insist on calling me Nora, I think you must be just
a little mad yourself.
THE NEW ASSISTANT.
We are all a little mad--in Norway. But Torvald Helmer is sane enough
still to recognise his own little squirrel again! Surely, Nora, your
education is complete at last--you have gained the experience you
needed?
HILDA.
[_Nods slowly._] Yes, Torvald, you're right enough _there_. I have
thought things out for myself, and have got clear about them. And I have
quite made up my mind that Society and the Law are all wrong, and that I
am right.
HELMER.
[_Overjoyed._] Then you _have_ learnt the Great Lesson, and are fit to
undertake the charge of your children's education at last! You've no
notion how they've grown! Yes, Nora, our marriage will be a true
marriage now. You will come back to the Dolls' House, won't you?
HILDA-NORA-HELMER-WANGEL.
[_Hesitates._] Will you let me forge cheques if I do, Torvald?
HELMER.
[_Ardently._] All day. And at night, Nora, we will falsify the
accounts--together!
HILDA-NORA-HELMER-WANGEL.
[_Throws herself into his arms, and helps herself to macaroons._] That
will be fearfully thrilling! My--_my_ Manager!
DR. HERDAL.
[_Comes out very pale, from dispensary._] Hilda I _did_ take the---- I'm
afraid I interrupt you?
HELMER.
Not in the least. But this lady is my little lark, and she is going
back to her cage by the next steamer.
DR. HERDAL.
[_Bitterly._] Am I _never_ to have a gleam of happiness? But stay--do I
see my little Senna once more?
RUeBUB.
Pardon me--_my_ little Senna. She always believed so firmly in my pill!
DR. HERDAL.
Well--well. If it must be. Ruebub, I will take you into partnership, and
we will take out a patent for that pill, jointly. Aline, my poor dear
Aline, let us try once more if we cannot bring a ray of brightness into
our cheerless home!
MRS. HERDAL.
Oh, Haustus, if only we _could_--but why do you propose that to
me--_now_?
DR. HERDAL.
[_Softly--to himself._] Because I have tried being a troll--and found
that nothing came of it, and it wasn't worth sixpence!
[HILDA-NORA _goes off to the right with_ HELMER; SENNA _to the left
with_ RUeBUB; Dr. HERDAL _and_ MRS. HERDAL _sit on two of the
galvanised-iron chairs, and shake their heads disconsolately as the
Curtain falls._
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"The book is altogether so curious, so dainty in all externals, so
absolutely unlike anything that ever before has proceeded from a
printing-press."--_Academy._