Mr Punch's Pocket Ibsen - A Collection of Some of the Master's Best Known Dramas Part 8

[_He sits down on sofa, and closes his eyes gently._

DR. RANK.

Did you notice it? [_With pride._] It was almost incredible the amount I contrived to put away. But I shall suffer for it to-morrow.

[_Gloomily._] Heredity again! I wish I was dead! I do.

NORA.

Don't apologise. Torvald was just as bad; but he is always so good-tempered after champagne.

DOCTOR RANK.

Ah, well, I just looked in to say that I haven't long to live. Don't weep for me, Mrs. Helmer, it's chronic--and hereditary too. Here are my P.P.C. cards. I'm a fading flower. Can you oblige me with a cigar?

NORA.

[_With a suppressed smile._] Certainly. Let me give you a light?

[DOCTOR RANK _lights his cigar, after several ineffectual attempts, and goes out_.

HELMER.

[_Compa.s.sionately._] Poo' old Rank--he'sh very bad to-ni'! [_Pulls himself together._] But I forgot--Bishness--I mean, bu-si-ness--mush be 'tended to. I'll go and see if there are any letters. [_Goes to box._]

Hallo! some one's been at the lock with a hairpin--it's one of _your_ hairpins!

[_Holding it out to her._

NORA.

[_Quickly._] Not mine--one of Bob's, or Ivar's--they both wear hairpins!

HELMER.

[_Turning over letters absently._] You must break them of it--bad habit!

What a lot o' letters.h.!.+ _double_ usual quant.i.ty. [_Opens_ KROGSTAD'S.]

By Jove! [_Reads it and falls back completely sobered._] What have you got to say to _this_?

NORA.

[_Crying aloud._] You shan't save me--let me go! I _won't_ be saved!

HELMER.

Save _you_, indeed! Who's going to save _Me_? You miserable little criminal. [_Annoyed._] Ugh--ugh!

NORA.

[_With hardening expression._] Indeed, Torvald, your singing-bird acted for the best!

HELMER.

Singing-bird! Your father was a rook--and you take _after_ him. Heredity again! You have utterly destroyed my happiness. [_Walks round several times._] Just as I was beginning to get on, too!

NORA.

I have--but I will go away and jump into the water.

HELMER.

What good will _that_ do me? People will say I had a hand in this business. [_Bitterly._] If you _must_ forge, you might at least put your dates in correctly! But you never _had_ any principle! [_A ring._] The front-door bell! [_A fat letter is seen to fall into the box_; HELMER _takes it, opens it, sees enclosure, and embraces_ NORA.] Krogstad won't split. See, he returns the forged I.O.U.! Oh, my poor little lark, _what_ you must have gone through! Come under my wing, my little scared song-bird.... Eh? you _won't_! Why, what's the matter _now_?

NORA.

[_With cold calm._] I have wings of my own, thank you, Torvald, and I mean to use them!

HELMER.

What--leave your pretty cage, and [_pathetically_] the old c.o.c.k bird, and the poor little innocent eggs!

NORA.

Exactly. Sit down, and we will talk it over first. [_Slowly._] Has it ever struck you that this is the first time you and I have ever talked seriously together about serious things?

HELMER.

Come, I do like that! How on earth could we talk about serious things when your mouth was always full of macaroons?

NORA.

[_Shakes her head._] Ah, Torvald, the mouth of a mother of a family should have more solemn things in it than macaroons! I see that now, too late. No, you have wronged me. So did papa. Both of you called me a doll, and a squirrel, and a lark! You might have made something of me--and instead of that, you went and made too much of me--oh, you _did_!

HELMER.

Well, you didn't seem to object to it, and really I don't exactly see what it is you _do_ want!

NORA.

No more do I--that is what I have got to find out. If I had been properly educated, I should have known better than to date poor papa's signature three days after he died. Now I must educate _myself_. I have to gain experience, and get clear about religion, and law, and things, and whether Society is right or I am--and I must go away and never come back any more till I _am_ educated!

HELMER.

Then you may be away some little time? And what's to become of me and the eggs meanwhile?

NORA.

That, Torvald, is entirely your own affair. I have a higher duty than that towards you and the eggs. [_Looking solemnly upward._] I mean my duty towards Myself!

HELMER.