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MRS. SOLNESS.
[Feels blindly for a chair and sits down.] Halvard--for G.o.d's sake--
SOLNESS.
But you are wrong, both you and the doctor. I am not in the state that you imagine.
[He walks up and down the room. MRS. SOLNESS follows him anxiously with her eyes. Finally he goes up to her.
SOLNESS.
[Calmly.] In reality there is nothing whatever the matter with me.
MRS. SOLNESS.
No, there isn't, is there? But then what is it that troubles you so?
SOLNESS.
Why this, that I often feel ready to sink under this terrible burden of debt--
MRS. SOLNESS.
Debt, do you say? But you owe no one anything, Halvard!
SOLNESS.
[Softly, with emotion.] I owe a boundless debt to you--to you--to you, Aline.
MRS. SOLNESS.
[Rises slowly.] What is behind all this? You may just as well tell me at once.
SOLNESS.
But there is nothing behind it! I have never done you any wrong--not wittingly and willfully, at any rate. And yet--and yet it seems as though a crus.h.i.+ng debt rested upon me and weighed me down.
MRS. SOLNESS.
A debt to me?
SOLNESS.
Chiefly to you.
MRS. SOLNESS.
Then you are--ill after all, Halvard.
SOLNESS.
[Gloomily.] I suppose I must be--or not far from it. [Looks towards the door to the right, which is opened at this moment.] Ah! now it grows light.
HILDA w.a.n.gEL comes in. She has made some alteration in her dress, and let down her skirt.
HILDA.
Good morning, Mr. Solness!
SOLNESS.
[Nods.] Slept well?
HILDA.
Quite deliciously! Like a child in a cradle. Oh--I lay and stretched myself like--like a princess!
SOLNESS.
[Smiles a little.] You were thoroughly comfortable then?
HILDA.
I should think so.
SOLNESS.
And no doubt you dreamed, too.
