The Master Builder - LightNovelsOnl.com
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HILDA.
Pooh--these scrawlings! But if he has been learning from you--
SOLNESS.
Oh, so far as that goes--there are plenty of people here that have learnt from me, and have come to little enough for all that.
HILDA.
[Looks at him and shakes her head.] No, I can't for the life of me understand how you can be so stupid.
SOLNESS.
Stupid? Do you think I am so very stupid?
HILDA.
Yes, I do indeed. If you are content to go about here teaching all these people--
SOLNESS.
[With a slight start.] Well, and why not?
HILDA.
[Rises, half serious, half laughing.] No indeed, Mr. Solness! What can be the good of that? No one but you should be allowed to build. You should stand quite alone--do it all yourself. Now you know it.
SOLNESS.
[Involuntarily.] Hilda--!
HILDA.
Well!
SOLNESS.
How in the world did that come into your head?
HILDA.
Do you think I am so very far wrong then?
SOLNESS.
No, that's not what I mean. But now I'll tell you something.
HILDA.
Well?
SOLNESS.
I keep on--incessantly--in silence and alone--brooding on that very thought.
HILDA.
Yes, that seems to me perfectly natural.
SOLNESS.
[Looks somewhat searchingly at her.] Perhaps you have noticed it already?
HILDA.
No, indeed I haven't.
SOLNESS.
But just now--when you said you thought I was--off my balance? In one thing, you said--
HILDA.
Oh, I was thinking of something quite different.
SOLNESS.
What was it?
