The Master Builder - LightNovelsOnl.com
You're reading novel online at LightNovelsOnl.com. Please use the follow button to get notifications about your favorite novels and its latest chapters so you can come back anytime and won't miss anything.
Never? Then why did you leave him?
HILDA.
[Half-seriously, half-banteringly.] Have you forgotten again that the ten year are up?
SOLNESS.
Oh nonsense. Was anything wrong at home? Eh?
HILDA.
[Quite seriously.] It was this impulse within me that urged and goaded me to come--and lured and drew me on, as well.
SOLNESS.
[Eagerly.] There we have it! There we have it, Hilda! There is the troll in you too, as in me. For it's the troll in one, you see--it is that that calls to the powers outside us. And then you must give in--whether you will or no.
HILDA.
I almost think you are right, Mr. Solness.
SOLNESS.
[Walks about the room.] Oh, there are devils innumerable abroad in the world, Hilda, that one never sees.
HILDA.
Devils, too?
SOLNESS.
[Stops.] Good devils and bad devils; light-haired devils and black-haired devils. If only you could always tell whether it is the light or dark ones that have got hold of you! [Paces about.] Ho-ho! Then it would be simple enough!
HILDA.
[Follows him with her eyes.] Or if one had a really vigorous, radiantly healthy conscience--so that one dared to do what one would.
SOLNESS.
[Stops beside the console table.] I believe, now, that most people are just as puny creatures as I am in that respect.
HILDA.
I shouldn't wonder.
SOLNESS.
[Leaning against the table.] In the sagas--. Have you read any of the old sagas?
HILDA.
Oh yes! When I used to read books, I--
SOLNESS.
In the sagas you read about vikings, who sailed to foreign lands, and plundered and burned and killed men--
HILDA.
And carried off women--
SOLNESS. --and kept them in captivity--
HILDA. --took them home in their s.h.i.+ps--
SOLNESS. --and behaved to them like--like the very worst of trolls.
HILDA.
[Looks straight before her, with a half-veiled look.] I think that must have been thrilling.
SOLNESS.
[With a short, deep laugh.] To carry off women, eh?
HILDA.
To be carried off.
