The Master Builder - LightNovelsOnl.com
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What am I to do here now?
SOLNESS.
Simply to be here, Hilda!
HILDA.
[Measures him with a look.] Oh, thank you. You know it wouldn't end there.
SOLNESS.
[Heedlessly.] So much the better!
HILDA.
[Vehemently.] I cannot do any harm to one whom I know! I can't take away anything that belongs to her.
SOLNESS.
Who wants you to do that?
HILDA.
[Continuing.] A stranger, yes! for that is quite a different thing! A person I have never set eyes on. But one that I have come into close contact with--! Oh no! Oh no! Ugh!
SOLNESS.
Yes, but I never proposed you should.
HILDA.
Oh, Mr. Solness, you know quite well what the end of it would be. And that is why I am going away.
SOLNESS.
And what is to become of me when you are gone? What shall I have to live for then?--After that?
HILDA.
[With the indefinable look in her eyes.] It is surely not so hard for you. You have your duties to her. Live for those duties.
SOLNESS.
Too late. These powers--these--these--
HILDA. --devils--
SOLNESS.
Yes, these devils! And the troll within me as well--they have drawn all the life-blood out of her. [Laughs in desperation.] They did it for my happiness! Yes, yes! [Sadly.] And now she is dead--for my sake. And I am chained alive to a dead woman. [In wild anguish.] _I_--_I_ who cannot live without joy in life!
[HILDA moves round the table and seats herself on the bench, with her elbows on the table, and her head supported by her hands.
HILDA.
[Sits and looks at him awhile.] What will you build next?
SOLNESS.
[Shakes his head.] I don't believe I shall build much more.
HILDA.
Not those cosy, happy homes for mother and father, and for the troop of children?
SOLNESS.
I wonder whether there will be any use for such homes in the coming time.
HILDA.
Poor Mr. Solness! And you have gone all these ten years--and staked your whole life--on that alone.
SOLNESS.
Yes, you may well say so, Hilda.
HILDA.
