The Master Builder - LightNovelsOnl.com
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But I have seen him with my own eyes right up at the top of a high church-tower!
MRS. SOLNESS.
Yes, I hear people talk of that; but it is utterly impossible--
SOLNESS.
[Vehemently.] Impossible--impossible, yes! But there I stood all the same!
MRS. SOLNESS.
O, how can you say so, Halvard? Why, you can't even bear to go out on the second-storey balcony here. You have always been like that.
SOLNESS.
You may perhaps see something different this evening.
MRS. SOLNESS.
[In alarm.] No, no, no! Please G.o.d I shall never see that. I will write at once to the doctor--and I am sure he won't let you do it.
SOLNESS.
Why, Aline--!
MRS. SOLNESS.
Oh, you know you're ill, Halvard. This proves it! Oh G.o.d--Oh G.o.d!
[She goes hastily out to the right.
HILDA.
[Looks intently at him.] Is it so, or is it not?
SOLNESS.
That I turn dizzy?
HILDA.
That my master builder dares not--cannot--climb as high as he builds?
SOLNESS.
Is that the way you look at it?
HILDA.
Yes.
SOLNESS.
I believe there is scarcely a corner in me that is safe from you.
HILDA.
[Looks towards the bow-window.] Up there, then. Right up there--
SOLNESS.
[Approaches her.] You might have the topmost room in the tower, Hilda--there you might live like a princess.
HILDA.
[Indefinably, between earnest and jest.] Yes, that is what you promised me.
SOLNESS.
Did I really?
HILDA.
Fie, Mr. Solness! You said I should be a princess, and that you would give me a kingdom. And then you went and--Well!
SOLNESS.
[Cautiously.] Are you quite certain that this is not a dream--a fancy, that has fixed itself in your mind?
