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Transcript

Little Eyolf Act I · The Henrik Ibsen Library

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Act first of Little Aof by Henry Gibson, translated by
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: William Arter. This is a LibriVox recording on LibriVox. Recordings
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot Org.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Alfred Almers read by Bruce Pirie.
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: Rita Olmers read by Elizabeth.
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Klett aov read by Katy Ryley.
• 0:24
  Speaker 4: Miss Asta Olmers read by ri L. Lipshaw.
• 0:28
  Speaker 5: Engineer Borgheim read by M. B.
• 0:32
  Speaker 6: The Rat Wife read by Ruth Golding narrator.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Stage directions read by Natinni kyirttp Pule Act first. A
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: pretty and richly decorated garden room full of furniture, flowers
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: and plants at the back, open glass doors leading out
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: to a verandah. An extensive view over the fjord in
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: the distance, wooded hillsides the door in each of the
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: side walls, the one on the right, a folding door
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: placed far back. In front of the right a sofa
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: with cushions and rugs. Beside the sofa, a small table
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: and chairs in front. On the left, a larger table
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: with arm chairs round it. On the table stands an
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  Speaker 1: open hand bag. It is an early summer morning with
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: warm sunshine. Missus Rita Almers stands beside the table, facing
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: towards the left, engaged in unpacking the bag. She is
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: a handsome, rather tall, well developed blonde about thirty years
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: of age, dressed in a light colored morning gown. Shortly after,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: miss Ester Almers enters by the door on the right,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: wearing a light brown summer dress with hat, jacket and
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: parasol under her arm. She carries a logged portfolio of
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: considerable size. She is slim, of middle height, with dark
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: hair and deep earnest eyes, twenty five years old.
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: As she enters, good morning, My dear Rita.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: Turns her head and nods to her.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: What is that you esther? Come all the way from
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: town so early?
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Takes off her things and lays them on a chair
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: beside the door.
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: Yes, such a restless feeling came over me. I felt
• 2:17
  Speaker 4: I must come out to day and see how little
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: aof was getting on.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: And you too, lays the portfolio on the table beside
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: the sofa.
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: So I took the steamer, and here.
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: I am smiling to her.
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: And I dare say you met one or other of
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: your friends on board? Quite by chance, of course, No,
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: I did.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: Not meet a soul I knew seize the bag?
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: Why, rita? What have you got there?
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: Still unpacking Alfred's traveling bag? Don't you recognize it?
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: Joyfully approaching her?
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: What has Alfred come home?
• 2:47
  Speaker 3: Yes? Only think he came quite unexpectedly by the late
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: train last night.
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: Oh then that was what my feeling meant. It was
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: that that drew me out here. And he hadn't written
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: a line to let you know, not even a postcard.
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: Not a single word.
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: Did he not even telegraph?
• 3:05
  Speaker 3: Yes, an hour before he arrived, quite curtly and coldly.
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: Don't you think that was like him?
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: Est?
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: Yes, he goes so quietly about everything.
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: But that made it all the more delightful to have
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: him again.
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: Yes, I am sure it would a.
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: Whole fortnight before I expected him.
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: And is he quite well?
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Not in low spirits, closes the bag with his nap
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: and smiles at her.
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: He looked quite transfigured as he stood in the doorway.
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: And was he not the least bit tired either?
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: Oh? Yes, he seemed to be tired enough, very tired
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  Speaker 3: in fact. But poor fellow, he had come on foot
• 3:41
  Speaker 3: the greater part of the way.
• 3:43
  Speaker 4: And then perhaps the high mountain air may have been
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  Speaker 4: rather too keen for him.
• 3:47
  Speaker 3: Oh, no, I don't think so at all. I haven't
• 3:49
  Speaker 3: heard him cough once. Ah.
• 3:50
  Speaker 4: There you see now it was a good thing, after
• 3:53
  Speaker 4: all that the doctor talked him into taking this tour.
• 3:55
  Speaker 3: Yes, now that it is safely over, But I can
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  Speaker 3: tell you it has been a terrible time for me esther.
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  Speaker 3: I have never cared to talk about it, and you
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  Speaker 3: so seldom came out to see me too.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, I dare say that wasn't very nice of me.
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  Speaker 3: But well, well, well, of course you had your school
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  Speaker 3: to attend to in town smiling, and then our road
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  Speaker 3: maker friend, of course he was away too.
• 4:20
  Speaker 4: Oh, don't talk like that, Rita.
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: Very well, then we will leave the road maker out
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  Speaker 3: of the question. Oh, you can't think how I have
• 4:28
  Speaker 3: been longing for Alfred. How empty the place seemed, how desolate. Ugh,
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  Speaker 3: it felt as if there had been a funeral in
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  Speaker 3: the house.
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: Why, dear me, only six or seven weeks.
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: Yes, but you must remember that Alfred has never been
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: away from me before, never so much as twenty four hours,
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: not once in all these ten years.
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: No, but that is just why I really think it
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  Speaker 4: was high time he should have a little outing this year.
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: He ought to have gone for a tramp in the
• 4:56
  Speaker 4: mountains every summer, he really.
• 4:58
  Speaker 7: Ought, half smiling, Oh, yes, it's all very well for
• 5:02
  Speaker 7: you to talk. If I were as as reasonable as you,
• 5:06
  Speaker 7: I suppose I should have let him go before.
• 5:09
  Speaker 3: Perhaps, but I positively could not esther. It seemed to
• 5:14
  Speaker 3: me I should never get him back again. Surely you
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: can understand that.
• 5:18
  Speaker 4: No, But I dare say that is because I have
• 5:22
  Speaker 4: no one.
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  Speaker 3: To lose with a teasing smile, really, no one at all,
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: not that I.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: Know of changing the subject.
• 5:30
  Speaker 4: But tell me, Rita, where is Alfred? Is he still asleep?
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: Oh not at all? He got up as early as
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: ever to day.
• 5:37
  Speaker 4: Then he can't have been so very tired after all.
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: Yes he was last night when he arrived. But now
• 5:42
  Speaker 3: he has had little Ale with him in his room
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: for a whole hour and more, poor.
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: Little white faced boy, has he to be forever at
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  Speaker 4: his lessons again.
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: With a sly truck.
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  Speaker 3: Alfred will have it, so, you.
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  Speaker 4: Know, Yes, but I think you ought to put down
• 5:56
  Speaker 4: your foot about it, Rita.
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: Oh no, come now, I really cannot meddle with that.
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: Alfred knows so much better about these things than I do.
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: And what did you have, Ayof? Do he can't run
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: about in play, you see like other children. I will
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: talk to Alfred about this, Yes, do I wish you would?
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Oh. Here he is Alfred Almos, dressed in light summer clothes,
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: enters by the door on the left, leading Aof by
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  Speaker 1: the hand. He is a slim, lightly built man of
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: about thirty six or thirty seven, with gentle eyes and
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  Speaker 1: thin brow hair and beard. His expression is serious and thoughtful.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Aof wears a suit cut like a uniform with gold
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  Speaker 1: braid and gilt military buttons. He is lame and walks
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: with a crutch under his left arm. His leg is shrunken.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: He is undersized and looks delicate, but has beautiful intelligent eyes.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: Drops Ayof's hand, goes up to esther with an expression
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: of marked pleasure, and holds out both his hands to her.
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  Speaker 2: Ah, sir, my dearest, ast to think of your coming,
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: to think of my seeing you so soon, I.
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  Speaker 3: Felt I must welcome home again, shaking her hands, thank
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: you for coming. Doesn't he look well?
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: Gazes fixedly at him.
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: Splendid, quite splendid. His eyes are so much brighter. And
• 7:20
  Speaker 4: I suppose you have done a great deal of writing
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  Speaker 4: on your travels. I shouldn't wonder if you had finished
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  Speaker 4: the whole book.
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  Speaker 1: Alfred, shrugging his shoulders.
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  Speaker 2: The book, Oh, the book.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, I was sure you would find it go so
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  Speaker 4: easily when once you got.
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  Speaker 2: Away, So I thought too. But do you know I
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  Speaker 2: didn't find it so at all. The truth is I
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  Speaker 2: have not written a line of the book.
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  Speaker 4: Not a line.
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  Speaker 3: Oh ho, I wondered when I found all the paper
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  Speaker 3: lying untouched in your bag.
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  Speaker 4: But my dear Alfred, what have you been doing all
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  Speaker 4: this time?
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  Speaker 2: Smiling, only thinking and thinking and thinking, putting her arm round.
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  Speaker 3: His neck, and thinking a little too of those you
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: had left at home.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, you may be sure of that. I have thought
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  Speaker 2: a great deal of you every single day, taking her
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  Speaker 2: arm away.
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  Speaker 3: Oh that is all I care about.
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  Speaker 4: But you haven't even touched the book, and yet you
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: can look so happy and contented. That is not what
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  Speaker 4: you generally do. I mean, when your work is going badly.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: You are right there, you see, I have been such
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  Speaker 2: a fool. Hitherto all the best that is in you
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  Speaker 2: goes into thinking what you put on paper is worth
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  Speaker 2: very little.
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: Worth very little.
• 8:34
  Speaker 3: What an absurd thing to say, Alfred.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: Luke's confidingly up at him. Oh, yes, Papa, what you
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: write is worth a great deal, smiling and stroking his hair.
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: Well, well, since you say so, But I can tell
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  Speaker 2: you some one is coming after me who will do
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  Speaker 2: it better?
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  Speaker 1: Who can that be? Oh?
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Tell me only wait. You may be sure he will
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: come and let us hear of him.
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: And what will you do? Then?
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  Speaker 2: Then I will go to the mountains again.
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  Speaker 3: Bye, Alfred for shame, up to the.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Peaks and the great waste places.
• 9:11
  Speaker 8: Papa, don't you think I shall soon be well enough
• 9:13
  Speaker 8: for you to take me with you?
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: With painful emotion?
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: Oh yes, perhaps, my little boy.
• 9:20
  Speaker 8: It would be so splendid, you know, if I could
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  Speaker 8: climb the mountains like you.
• 9:24
  Speaker 4: Changing the subject, why how beautifully you are dressed today?
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Aof yes, don't you think so? Auntie?
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: Yes? Indeed is it in honor of Papa that you
• 9:33
  Speaker 4: have got your new clothes on?
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: Yes?
• 9:35
  Speaker 8: I asked Mama to let me. I wanted so to
• 9:38
  Speaker 8: let Papa see me in them.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: To Rita, you shouldn't have given him clothes like that
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: in ulo vice.
• 9:44
  Speaker 3: Oh, he's teased me so long about them, he'd set
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: his heart on them.
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: He gave me no peace, And I forgot to tell you.
• 9:52
  Speaker 8: Papa Bourgim has brought me a new bow and he
• 9:56
  Speaker 8: has taught me how to shoot with it too.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: Ah.
• 9:58
  Speaker 2: There now that it's just the sort of thing for you, eyof.
• 10:02
  Speaker 8: And next time he comes, I shall ask him to
• 10:05
  Speaker 8: teach me to swim too.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: To swim? Oh, what makes you want to learn swimming?
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Well?
• 10:12
  Speaker 8: You know all the boys down at the beach can swim.
• 10:14
  Speaker 8: I am the only one that can't.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: With emotion taking him in his arms.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: Here shall learn whatever you like, everything you really want to.
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: Then do you know what I want most of all? Papa?
• 10:26
  Speaker 8: No, tell me, I want most of all to be
• 10:28
  Speaker 8: a soldier.
• 10:30
  Speaker 2: Oh, little ayof? There are many many other things that
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: are better than that.
• 10:35
  Speaker 8: Ah, But when I grow big, then I shall have
• 10:37
  Speaker 8: to be a soldier.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: You know that, don't you? Clenching his hands together?
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: Well, well, well we shall see.
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: Seating herself at the table on the left.
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: A off, come here to me and I will tell you.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: Something goes up to her? What is it, auntie?
• 10:54
  Speaker 4: What do you think aof I have seen the rat wife?
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: What seen the rat wife? You're only making a fool
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: of me.
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  Speaker 4: No, it's quite true. I saw her yesterday.
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  Speaker 1: Where did you see her?
• 11:05
  Speaker 4: I saw her on the road outside the town.
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: I saw her too, somewhere up in the country.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: Who is sitting on the sofa?
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: Perhaps it will be our turn to see her next day.
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Off, Auntie. Isn't it strange that she should be called
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: the rat wife?
• 11:19
  Speaker 4: Oh? People just give her that name because she wanders
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: round the country driving away all the rats.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: I have heard that her real name is varg Varg.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: That means a wolf, doesn't it petting him on the head?
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: So you know that, do you?
• 11:34
  Speaker 8: Then perhaps it may be true after all, that she
• 11:38
  Speaker 8: is a werewolf at night? Do you believe that, Papa?
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Oh? No, I don't believe it. Now you ought to
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: go and play a little in the garden.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Should I not take some books with me?
• 11:49
  Speaker 2: No? No books? After this, you had better go down
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: to the beach to the other boys.
• 11:54
  Speaker 8: No, Papa, I won't go down to the boys today.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: Why not?
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Oh? Because I have these knitting his brows.
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: Do you mean that they make fun of of your
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: pretty clothes?
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: No, they daren't, for then I would thrash them.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: Aha. Then why you see?
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: They are so naughty, these boys? And then they say
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: I can never be a soldier with suppressed indignation.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: Why do they say that? Do you think?
• 12:23
  Speaker 8: I suppose they are jealous of me? For you know, Papa,
• 12:26
  Speaker 8: they are so poor they have to go about barefoot.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: Softly with choking voice.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: Ah rita, how it wrings my heart soothingly rising. They're
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: there there, But these rascals shall soon find out who
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: is the master. Down at the beach, there.
• 12:44
  Speaker 4: Is someone knocking.
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: Oh, I'm sure it's bortein.
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: Come in.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: The rat wife comes softly and noiselessly in by the
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: door on the right. She is a thin, little, shrunken figure,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: old and gray haired, with keen piercing eyes, dressed in
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: a fashion flowered gown with a black hood and cloak.
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: She has in her hand a large red umbrella and
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: carries a black bag bay a loop over her arm,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: softly taking hold of us distress, Auntie, that must surely
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: be her curt saying at the door.
• 13:17
  Speaker 6: I humbly beg pardon, but are your worship's troubled with
• 13:22
  Speaker 6: any annoying things in.
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: The house here? No? I don't think so, for it.
• 13:28
  Speaker 6: Would be such a pleasure to me to rid your
• 13:31
  Speaker 6: worship's house of them.
• 13:34
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, we understand, but we have nothing of the
• 13:36
  Speaker 3: sort here.
• 13:38
  Speaker 6: That's very unlucky, that is for I just happened to
• 13:43
  Speaker 6: be on my rounds now, and goodness knows when I
• 13:48
  Speaker 6: may be in these parts again. Oh, how tired.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: I am pointing to a chair.
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: Yes, you look tired.
• 13:58
  Speaker 6: I know one or never to get tired of doing
• 14:02
  Speaker 6: good to the poor little things that I hated and
• 14:06
  Speaker 6: persecuted so cruelly. But it takes your strength out of you,
• 14:12
  Speaker 6: it does.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: Won't you sit down and rest a little?
• 14:16
  Speaker 6: I thank your ladyship with all my heart.
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Seats herself on a chair between the door and the sofa.
• 14:23
  Speaker 6: I have been a hot all night at.
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: My work, have you indeed?
• 14:27
  Speaker 6: Yes, Over on the islands, ha ha, the people sent
• 14:33
  Speaker 6: for me, I can assure you. They didn't like it
• 14:37
  Speaker 6: a bit, but there was nothing else to be done.
• 14:41
  Speaker 6: They had to put a good face on it and
• 14:43
  Speaker 6: bite the sour apple.
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Looks at aof and nuts the.
• 14:49
  Speaker 6: Sour apple, little master, the sour.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: Apple involuntarily a little timidly. Why did they have to
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: what to bite it?
• 15:01
  Speaker 6: Why? Because they couldn't keep body and sold together on
• 15:05
  Speaker 6: account of the rats and all the little rat children
• 15:10
  Speaker 6: you see, young master.
• 15:13
  Speaker 3: Poor people? Have they so many of them?
• 15:16
  Speaker 6: Yes, it was all alive and swarming with them. They
• 15:25
  Speaker 6: came creepy crawley up into the beds all night long.
• 15:31
  Speaker 6: They plumped into the milk cans, and they went bittering
• 15:37
  Speaker 6: and pattering all over the floor, backwards and forwards, and
• 15:42
  Speaker 6: up and down.
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: I shall never go there, Auntie.
• 15:46
  Speaker 6: But then I came, I and another along with me,
• 15:52
  Speaker 6: and we took them with us, everyone, the sweet little creatures.
• 15:59
  Speaker 6: We made an end of every one of them.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: Papa, work, work good.
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: Heavens ayoff, what's the matter?
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: Pointing there's something wriggling in the bag, and the extreme
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: left shrieks.
• 16:13
  Speaker 6: Oh, send her away, Alfred, Oh, dearest lady, you needn't
• 16:19
  Speaker 6: be frightened at such a little mannikin.
• 16:22
  Speaker 2: But what is the thing?
• 16:24
  Speaker 6: Why it's only little mopsie.
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Man loosening the string of the bag.
• 16:30
  Speaker 6: Come up out of the dark, my own little darling friend.
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: A little dark with a broad black snout pokes its
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: head out of the bag, nodding and begunning to aolf.
• 16:41
  Speaker 6: Come along. Don't be afraid, my little wounded warrior. We
• 16:46
  Speaker 6: won't bite. Come here, Come.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: Here, clinging to esther, No, I dare not.
• 16:53
  Speaker 6: Don't you think he has a gentle, lovable countenance, my young.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: Master astonished, pointing that thing there, Yes, this thing here,
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: almost under his breath, staring fixedly at the dog.
• 17:10
  Speaker 8: I think he has the horriblest countenance I ever saw.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: Closing the bag.
• 17:14
  Speaker 6: Oh, it will come, It will come right enough.
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: Involuntarily drawing nearer at last goes right up to her
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: and strokes the bag. But he is lovely, lovely all
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: the same, in a tone of.
• 17:28
  Speaker 6: Cush Now, he is so tired and weary, poor thing.
• 17:34
  Speaker 6: He's utterly tired out is looks at amos, for it
• 17:40
  Speaker 6: takes their strength out of you. That sort of game,
• 17:43
  Speaker 6: I can tell you.
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: Sir, what sort of game do you mean?
• 17:47
  Speaker 6: The luring game?
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: Do you mean that it is the dog that lures
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: the rats?
• 17:53
  Speaker 6: Nodding mopsy man and I we two do it together,
• 17:58
  Speaker 6: and it goes so smoothly for all you can see.
• 18:02
  Speaker 6: At any rate, I just slip a string through his collar,
• 18:09
  Speaker 6: and then I lead him three times around the house
• 18:12
  Speaker 6: and play on my pans pipes. When they hear that,
• 18:17
  Speaker 6: they have got to come up from the cellars and
• 18:21
  Speaker 6: down from the garrets and out of their holes, all
• 18:25
  Speaker 6: the blessed little creatures.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: And does he buy them to death?
• 18:29
  Speaker 3: Then?
• 18:30
  Speaker 6: Oh, not at all. No, We go down to the boat,
• 18:33
  Speaker 6: he and I do, And then they follow after us,
• 18:38
  Speaker 6: both the big ones and the little ratty kin.
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: And what then, tell me?
• 18:45
  Speaker 6: Then we push out from the land and eye skull
• 18:48
  Speaker 6: with one oar and play on my pans pipes and mopsie.
• 18:53
  Speaker 3: Man.
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: He swims behind with glittering eyes.
• 18:58
  Speaker 6: And all the creepers and crawlers they follow and follow
• 19:02
  Speaker 6: us out into the deep deep waters. Hi, for they
• 19:09
  Speaker 6: have to?
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: Why do they have to?
• 19:12
  Speaker 6: Just because they want not to? Just because they are
• 19:18
  Speaker 6: so deadly afraid of the water, That is why they
• 19:23
  Speaker 6: have got to plunge into it.
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: Are they drowned?
• 19:27
  Speaker 6: Then, every blessed one? And there it is all as
• 19:34
  Speaker 6: still and soft and dark as their hearts can desire.
• 19:40
  Speaker 6: The lovely little things down there they sleep a long,
• 19:47
  Speaker 6: sweet sleep, with no one to hate them or persecute
• 19:53
  Speaker 6: them anymore. In the old days, I can tell you
• 19:59
  Speaker 6: I didn't any mopsy man, then I did, deluing myself
• 20:06
  Speaker 6: I alone.
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: And what did you lure then?
• 20:10
  Speaker 6: Men?
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: One?
• 20:12
  Speaker 6: Most of all?
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: Oh? Who was that one? Tell me?
• 20:17
  Speaker 6: It was my own sweetheart. It was little heartbreaker.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: And where is he now?
• 20:24
  Speaker 6: Then down where all the rats are? But now I
• 20:29
  Speaker 6: must be off and get to business again.
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: Always on the move, to reader.
• 20:35
  Speaker 6: So your ladyship has no sort of use for me today.
• 20:40
  Speaker 6: I could finish it all off while I'm about it.
• 20:43
  Speaker 3: No, thank you, I don't think we require anything.
• 20:46
  Speaker 6: Well, well, you're sweet, ladyship. You can never tell. If
• 20:53
  Speaker 6: your ladyship should find that there is anything here that
• 20:57
  Speaker 6: keeps nibbling and gnawing, creeping and crawling, then just see
• 21:04
  Speaker 6: and get hold of May and mopsie man. Goodbye, goodbye,
• 21:11
  Speaker 6: a kind goodbye to you all.
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: She goes out by the door on the right, softly
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: and triumphantly to esther Only think, Auntie, now I have
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: seen the rat wife too. Rita goes out upon the
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: verandah and fans herself with her pocket handkerchief. Shortly afterwards,
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: Ayov slips cautiously and unniced out to the right, takes
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: up the portfolio from the table by the sofa.
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: Is this your portfolio, Asta?
• 21:40
  Speaker 4: Yes, I have some of the old letters in it.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: Ah, the family letters.
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: You know you asked me to arrange them for you
• 21:47
  Speaker 4: while you were away.
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: Patsa on the head.
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: And you have actually found time to do that, dear.
• 21:53
  Speaker 4: Oh, yes, I have done it, partly out here and
• 21:55
  Speaker 4: partly at my own rooms in town.
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: Thanks dear. Did you find anything particular in them?
• 22:01
  Speaker 5: Oh?
• 22:01
  Speaker 4: You know you are always finding something or other in
• 22:03
  Speaker 4: such old papers. It is the letters to mother that
• 22:06
  Speaker 4: are in this portfolio.
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: Those, of course, you must keep yourself with an effort.
• 22:11
  Speaker 4: No, I am determined that you shall look through them too, Alfred,
• 22:15
  Speaker 4: sometime later on in life. I haven't the key of
• 22:19
  Speaker 4: the portfolio with me just now.
• 22:21
  Speaker 2: It doesn't matter, my dear Asta, for I shall never
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: read your mother's letters in any case, fixing her eyes
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: on him.
• 22:27
  Speaker 4: Then, some time or other, some quiet evening, I will
• 22:31
  Speaker 4: tell you a little of what is in them.
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: Yes, that will be much better. But do you keep
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: your mother's letters? You haven't so many mementos of her?
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: He hands asked to have the portfolio. She takes it
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: and lays it on the chair under her out door things.
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: Rita comes into the room again.
• 22:48
  Speaker 3: I feel as that that horrible old woman had brought
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: a sort of graveyard smell with her.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: Yes, she was rather horrible.
• 22:56
  Speaker 3: I felt almost sick while she was in the room.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: However, I can very well understand the sort of spellbound
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: fascination that she talked about. The loneliness of the mountain
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: peaks and of the great waste places has something of
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: the same magic about it.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: Looks attentively at him.
• 23:14
  Speaker 4: What is it that has happened to you, Alfred? Smiling
• 23:18
  Speaker 4: to me, Yes, something has happened, something seems almost to
• 23:23
  Speaker 4: have transformed you. Rita noticed it.
• 23:25
  Speaker 3: Too, Yes, I saw at the moment you came, a
• 23:29
  Speaker 3: change for the better.
• 23:30
  Speaker 2: I hope, Alfred, it ought to be for the better,
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: and it must and shall come to good.
• 23:36
  Speaker 3: You have had some adventure on your journey. Don't deny it.
• 23:39
  Speaker 3: I can see it in your face.
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: Shaking his head.
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: No adventure in the world outwardly at least. But but
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: it is true that within me there has been something
• 23:51
  Speaker 2: of a revolution.
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: Oh heavens soothingly patting her hand.
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: Only for the better, my dear Rita, you may be
• 23:59
  Speaker 2: perfectly certain of that.
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: Seats herself on the sofa.
• 24:03
  Speaker 3: You must tell us all about it at once, tell
• 24:05
  Speaker 3: us everything.
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: Turning to esther.
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: Yes, let us sit down to Asta. Then I will
• 24:11
  Speaker 2: try to tell you as well as I can.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: He seats himself on the sofa at Rita's side. Asta
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: moves a chair forward and places herself near him, looking
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: at him expectantly, well, gazing straight before him.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: When I look back over my life and my fortunes
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: for the last ten or eleven years, it seems to
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: me almost like a fairy tale or a dream. Don't
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: you think so.
• 24:37
  Speaker 4: Too, ast Yes, in many ways I think so.
• 24:40
  Speaker 2: When I remember what we two used to be, Asta,
• 24:43
  Speaker 2: we two poor orphan children.
• 24:46
  Speaker 3: Oh, that is such an old old story.
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: Not listening to her, and now here I am in
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: comfort and luxury. I have been able to follow my vocation.
• 24:57
  Speaker 2: I have been able to work and study, just as
• 25:00
  Speaker 2: I had always longed to.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: Holds out his hand.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: And all this great, dysfabulous good fortune we owe to you,
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: my dearest Rita.
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: Half playfully, half angrily slaps his hand.
• 25:14
  Speaker 3: I do wish you would stop talking like that.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: I speak of it only as a sort of introduction.
• 25:20
  Speaker 3: Then do skip the introduction, Rita.
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: You must not think it was the doctor's advice that
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: drove me up to the mountains.
• 25:28
  Speaker 4: Was it not, Alfred?
• 25:30
  Speaker 3: What was it? Then?
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: It was this? I found? There was no more peace
• 25:34
  Speaker 2: from me. There in my study.
• 25:36
  Speaker 3: No peace. Why who disturbed you?
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: Shaking his head, No one from without? But I felt
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: as though I were positively abusing, or say rather wasting
• 25:48
  Speaker 2: my best powers, frittering away the time with wide.
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: Eyes, when you were writing at your book, nodding.
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: For I cannot think that my powers are confined to
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: that alone. I must surely have it in me to
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: do one or two other things as well.
• 26:05
  Speaker 3: Was that what you sat there brooding over?
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: Yes, mainly that, and so that is.
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: What has made you so discontented with yourself of late,
• 26:14
  Speaker 3: and with the rest of us as well. For you
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: know you were discontented, Alfred, kazing straight before him.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: There, I sat bent over my table, day after day,
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: and often half the night too, writing and writing at
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: the great thick book on human responsibility.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: H laying her hand upon his arm.
• 26:37
  Speaker 4: But Alfred, that book is to be your life work.
• 26:40
  Speaker 3: Yes, you have said so often enough.
• 26:43
  Speaker 2: I thought so ever since I grew up. I have
• 26:45
  Speaker 2: thought so.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: With an affectionate expression in his eyes.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: And it was you that enabled me to devote myself
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: to it.
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: My dear rita nonsense, smiling to her.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: You with your gold and your green forests.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: Half laughing half vexed.
• 27:04
  Speaker 3: If you begin all that rubbish again, I shall beat you.
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: Looking sorrowfully at him.
• 27:09
  Speaker 4: But the book, Alfred, it.
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: Began, as it were, to drift away from me. But
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: I was more and more beset by the thought of
• 27:17
  Speaker 2: the higher duties that laid their claims upon me.
• 27:20
  Speaker 1: Beaming seizes his hand, Alfred.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: The thought of aof my dear Rita.
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: Disappointed drops his hand, ah of aof.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: Poor little aof has taken deeper and deeper hold of
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: me after that unlucky fall from the table, and especially
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: since we have been assured that the injury is incurable.
• 27:42
  Speaker 3: But you take all the care you possibly can of him, Alfred.
• 27:46
  Speaker 2: As a schoolmaster, yes, but not as a father. And
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: it is a father that I want henceforth to be
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: to aof.
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: Looking at him and shaking her head.
• 27:58
  Speaker 3: I don't think I quite understand you.
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: I mean that I will try with all my might
• 28:03
  Speaker 2: to make his misfortune as painless and easy to him
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: as it can possibly be.
• 28:09
  Speaker 3: Oh, but dear thank Heaven, I don't think he feels
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: it so deeply with emotion.
• 28:15
  Speaker 4: Yes, Rita, he does.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: Yes, you may be sure he feels it deeply.
• 28:20
  Speaker 3: But Alfred, what more can you do for him?
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: I will try to perfect all the rich possibilities that
• 28:27
  Speaker 2: are dawning in his childish soul. I will foster all
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: the germs of good in his nature, make them blossom
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: and bear fruit.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: With more and more warmth rising.
• 28:39
  Speaker 2: And I will do more than that. I will help
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: him to bring his desires into harmony with what lies
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: attainable before him. That is just what at present they are.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: Not all his longings are for things that must forever
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: remain unattainable to him. But I will create a conscious
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: happiness in his mind.
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: He goes on twice up and down the room. Esta,
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: Henrita follow him with their eyes.
• 29:05
  Speaker 3: You should take these things more quietly.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: Alfred stops beside the table on the left and looks
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: at them.
• 29:11
  Speaker 2: Aof shall carry on my life work if he wants to,
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: or he shall choose one that is altogether his own.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: Perhaps that would be best. At all events, I shall
• 29:21
  Speaker 2: let mine rest as it is rising.
• 29:24
  Speaker 3: But Alfred dear, can you not work both for yourself
• 29:28
  Speaker 3: and for Ale?
• 29:29
  Speaker 7: No?
• 29:29
  Speaker 2: I cannot. It is impossible. I cannot divide myself in
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: this matter, and therefore I efface myself. Aolf shall be
• 29:39
  Speaker 2: the complete man of our race, and it shall be
• 29:43
  Speaker 2: my new life work to make him the complete man.
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: Has risen and now goes up to him.
• 29:49
  Speaker 4: This must have cost you a terribly hard struggle, Alfred.
• 29:53
  Speaker 2: Yes it has at home here. I should never have
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: conquered myself, never brought myself to the point of renunciation.
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: Never at home.
• 30:01
  Speaker 3: Then that was why you went away this summer with
• 30:04
  Speaker 3: shining eyes.
• 30:05
  Speaker 2: Yes, I went up into the infinite solitudes. I saw
• 30:09
  Speaker 2: the sunrise gleaming on the mountain peaks. I felt myself
• 30:13
  Speaker 2: nearer the stars. I seemed almost to be in sympathy
• 30:18
  Speaker 2: and communion with them. And then I found the strength
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: for it, looking sadly at him.
• 30:25
  Speaker 4: But you will never write any more of your book
• 30:27
  Speaker 4: on human responsibility.
• 30:29
  Speaker 2: No, never, Esta, I tell you I cannot split up
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: my life between two vocations. But I will act out
• 30:36
  Speaker 2: my human responsibility in my own life with a smile.
• 30:41
  Speaker 3: Do you think you can live up to such high
• 30:43
  Speaker 3: resolves at home?
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Here?
• 30:45
  Speaker 2: Taking her hand with you to help me, I can
• 30:49
  Speaker 2: holds out the other hand, and with you too, Esta,
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: drawing her hand.
• 30:53
  Speaker 3: Away, Ah, with both of us, So after all you
• 30:58
  Speaker 3: can divide yourself.
• 31:00
  Speaker 2: Why, my dearest Rita.
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: Rita moves away from him and stands in the garden doorway.
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: A light and rapid knock is heard at the door
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: on the right. Engineer Borgheim enters quickly. He is a
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: young man of a little over thirty. His expression is
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: bright and cheerful, and he holds himself erect. Good morning,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: missus Mers stops with an expression of pleasure on seeing Ormers.
• 31:25
  Speaker 5: Why what's this home again already, mister.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: Omers, shaking hands with him.
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: Yes, I arrived last night.
• 31:32
  Speaker 3: His leave was up, mister Borkheim.
• 31:35
  Speaker 2: No, you know it wasn't Rita approaching.
• 31:38
  Speaker 3: Oh, yes, but it was though his furlough had run out.
• 31:42
  Speaker 5: I see you hold your husband well in hand, missus Ormers.
• 31:45
  Speaker 3: I hold to my rights, and besides, everything must have
• 31:49
  Speaker 3: an end.
• 31:50
  Speaker 5: Oh, not everything, I hope. Good morning, miss Ormers.
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: Holding aloof from him. Good morning, look at Bourkheim.
• 32:01
  Speaker 3: Not everything you say.
• 32:03
  Speaker 5: Oh, I am firmly convinced that there are some things
• 32:06
  Speaker 5: in the world that will never come to an end.
• 32:08
  Speaker 3: I suppose you are thinking of love and that sort
• 32:11
  Speaker 3: of thing.
• 32:12
  Speaker 5: I'm thinking of all that is lovely.
• 32:14
  Speaker 3: And that never comes to an end. Yes, let us
• 32:18
  Speaker 3: think of that, hope, for that all.
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: Of us coming up to them.
• 32:24
  Speaker 2: I suppose you will soon have finished your road workout here.
• 32:27
  Speaker 5: I finished it, already finished it yesterday. It has been
• 32:31
  Speaker 5: a long business, but thank Heaven, that has come to an.
• 32:33
  Speaker 3: End, and you are beaming with joy over that.
• 32:37
  Speaker 5: Yes, I am indeed, well, I must say, what missus Olmers.
• 32:42
  Speaker 3: I don't think it is particularly nice of you, mister Borkheim.
• 32:46
  Speaker 5: Indeed, why not?
• 32:47
  Speaker 3: Well, I suppose we shann't often see you in these
• 32:50
  Speaker 3: parts after this.
• 32:51
  Speaker 5: No, that is true. I hadn't thought of that.
• 32:54
  Speaker 3: Oh well, I suppose you will be able to look
• 32:56
  Speaker 3: in upon us now and then all the same.
• 32:59
  Speaker 5: No, unfortunately that will be out of my power for
• 33:01
  Speaker 5: a very long time. Indeed, how so, the fact is
• 33:06
  Speaker 5: I've got a big piece of new work that I
• 33:07
  Speaker 5: must set about at once.
• 33:09
  Speaker 2: Have you indeed pressing his hand? I am heartily glad
• 33:13
  Speaker 2: to hear it.
• 33:14
  Speaker 3: I congratulate you, mister Borkhoim.
• 33:17
  Speaker 5: Hush, hush. I really ought not to talk of it
• 33:19
  Speaker 5: openly as yet, but I can't help coming out with it.
• 33:25
  Speaker 5: It is a great piece of road making up in
• 33:28
  Speaker 5: the north, with mountain rangers to cross and most tremendous
• 33:32
  Speaker 5: difficulties to overcome.
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: With an outburst of gladness.
• 33:36
  Speaker 5: Oh, what a glorious world this is, and what a
• 33:39
  Speaker 5: joy it is to be a road maker in.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: It, smiling and lucan teasingly at him.
• 33:44
  Speaker 3: Is it road making business that has brought to you
• 33:46
  Speaker 3: out here today in such wild spirits?
• 33:49
  Speaker 5: No, not that alone. I'm thinking of all the brightened,
• 33:53
  Speaker 5: hopeful prospects that are opening out before me.
• 33:56
  Speaker 3: Aha. Then perhaps you have something still more exquisite in reserve.
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: Glancing towards Esther, who knows when once happiness comes to us,
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: it is apt to come like a spring flood turns
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: to esther.
• 34:08
  Speaker 5: Miss Olmers, Would you not like to take a little
• 34:11
  Speaker 5: walk with me as we used to?
• 34:13
  Speaker 4: No? No, thank you, not now not to day?
• 34:16
  Speaker 5: Oh, do come only a little bit of a walk?
• 34:19
  Speaker 5: I have so much I want to talk to you
• 34:21
  Speaker 5: about before I go.
• 34:22
  Speaker 3: And something else perhaps that you must not talk openly
• 34:25
  Speaker 3: about as yet.
• 34:26
  Speaker 5: Hmm, that depends.
• 34:28
  Speaker 3: But there is nothing to prevent your whispering, you know,
• 34:31
  Speaker 3: half aside, Asta, you must really go with him. But
• 34:35
  Speaker 3: my dear.
• 34:36
  Speaker 5: Reta, miss Asta, remember it is to be a farewell
• 34:39
  Speaker 5: walk the last for many.
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: A day takes her hat and parasol.
• 34:44
  Speaker 4: Very well. Suppose we take a stroll in the garden.
• 34:47
  Speaker 5: Then, oh, thank you, thank you.
• 34:50
  Speaker 2: And while you are there you can see what aolf
• 34:52
  Speaker 2: is doing.
• 34:53
  Speaker 5: Ah, a off by the bye? Where is aof to day?
• 34:57
  Speaker 5: I've got something for him?
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: He is out playing some Is.
• 35:00
  Speaker 5: He really that he has begun to play? Now? He
• 35:04
  Speaker 5: used always to be sitting indoors over his books.
• 35:06
  Speaker 2: There is to be an end of that. Now I
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: am going to make a regular open air boy of him.
• 35:12
  Speaker 5: Ah. Now that's right out into the open air with him,
• 35:15
  Speaker 5: poor little fellow. Good lord, what can we possibly do
• 35:19
  Speaker 5: better than play in this blessed world? For my part,
• 35:23
  Speaker 5: I think all life is one long playtime come miss Asta.
• 35:29
  Speaker 1: Bonkheim and Astac were out on the verandah and down
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: through the garden stands looking after them.
• 35:35
  Speaker 2: Rita, do you think there is anything between those two?
• 35:38
  Speaker 3: I don't know what to say. I used to think
• 35:41
  Speaker 3: there was, But Asta has grown so strange to me,
• 35:45
  Speaker 3: so utterly incomprehensible of late.
• 35:48
  Speaker 2: Indeed, has she while I have been away.
• 35:51
  Speaker 3: Yes, within the last week or two.
• 35:54
  Speaker 2: And do you think she doesn't care very much about him?
• 35:56
  Speaker 3: Now?
• 35:57
  Speaker 4: Not?
• 35:57
  Speaker 3: Seriously? Not utter and entirely, not unreservedly. I'm sure she doesn't.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: Look searching me at him?
• 36:06
  Speaker 3: Would it displease you? If she did?
• 36:08
  Speaker 2: It would not exactly displease me, but he would certainly
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: be a disquieting thought.
• 36:14
  Speaker 3: Disquieting.
• 36:15
  Speaker 2: Yes, you must remember that I am responsible for Asta,
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: for her life's happiness.
• 36:20
  Speaker 3: Oh, come responsible? Surely Asta has come to years of discretion.
• 36:26
  Speaker 3: I should say she was capable of choosing for herself.
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: Yes, we must hope, so Rita.
• 36:31
  Speaker 3: For my part, I don't think it all ill of Boorkim, No.
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: Dear, no more do I quite the contrary, but all
• 36:38
  Speaker 2: the same, And.
• 36:39
  Speaker 3: I should be very glad indeed, if he and Asta
• 36:41
  Speaker 3: were to make a.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: Match of it, Oh why should you be?
• 36:45
  Speaker 5: Why?
• 36:45
  Speaker 3: For then she would have to go far, far away
• 36:47
  Speaker 3: with him, and she could never come out here to
• 36:50
  Speaker 3: us as she does.
• 36:50
  Speaker 2: Now, what can you really wish Asta to go away?
• 36:54
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, Alfred, why in.
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: All the world, throwing her arm's passionate his neck?
• 37:01
  Speaker 3: For then at last I should have you to myself alone.
• 37:06
  Speaker 3: And yet not even then, not wholly to myself, Oh, Alfred, Alfred,
• 37:13
  Speaker 3: I cannot.
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: Give you up deendly releasing himself, my dearest Rita, do
• 37:18
  Speaker 2: be reasonable.
• 37:20
  Speaker 3: I don't care a bit about being reasonable. I care
• 37:22
  Speaker 3: only for you, only for you, in all the world.
• 37:26
  Speaker 1: Again, throwing her alms round his neck.
• 37:29
  Speaker 3: For you, for you, for you.
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: Let me go, Let me go. You are strangling me.
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: Letting him go.
• 37:36
  Speaker 3: How I wish I could.
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: Looking at him with flashing eyes.
• 37:40
  Speaker 3: Oh if you knew how I have hated you, hated me, Yes,
• 37:45
  Speaker 3: when you shut yourself up in your room and brooded
• 37:47
  Speaker 3: over your work till long, long into the night, so long,
• 37:52
  Speaker 3: so late, Alfred, Oh how I hated your work.
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: But now I have done with that.
• 38:00
  Speaker 3: Oh, yes, now you have given yourself up to something worse.
• 38:04
  Speaker 2: Worse. Do you call our child something worse?
• 38:08
  Speaker 3: Yes? I do. As he comes between you and me,
• 38:10
  Speaker 3: I call him so for the book. The book was
• 38:14
  Speaker 3: not a living being as the child is. But I
• 38:17
  Speaker 3: won't endure it, Alfred, I will not endure it, I
• 38:20
  Speaker 3: tell you so plainly.
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: Look steadily at her, and says in a low voice.
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: I am often almost afraid of you, Rita.
• 38:28
  Speaker 3: I am often afraid of myself, and for that very reason,
• 38:32
  Speaker 3: you must not awake the evil in me.
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: Why, good heavens, do I do that?
• 38:36
  Speaker 3: Yes, you do? When you tear to shred the holiest
• 38:40
  Speaker 3: bonds between us.
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: Think what you're saying, Lieta. It is your own child,
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: our only child that you are speaking of.
• 38:48
  Speaker 3: The child is only half mine. But you shall be
• 38:52
  Speaker 3: mine alone. You shall be wholly mine. That I have
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: a right to demand of you.
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: Shrugging his shoulders, Oh, my dear, Rita, it is of
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: no use demanding anything. Everything must be freely given.
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: Looks anxiously at him.
• 39:07
  Speaker 3: And that you cannot do henceforth.
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: No, I cannot. I must divide myself between aof and you.
• 39:14
  Speaker 3: But if Aolf had never been born, what then.
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: Ah, that would be another matter. Then I should have
• 39:21
  Speaker 2: only you to care for.
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: Then I wish he had never been born, Rita, you.
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: Don't know what you are saying.
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: Trembling with emotion.
• 39:29
  Speaker 3: Kit was in pain unspeakable that I brought him into
• 39:32
  Speaker 3: the world. But I bore it all with joy and
• 39:35
  Speaker 3: rapture for your sake.
• 39:36
  Speaker 1: Oh yes, I know, I know, But there it must end.
• 39:41
  Speaker 3: I will live my life together with you, wholly with you.
• 39:45
  Speaker 3: I cannot go on being only Aolf's mother, only his mother,
• 39:49
  Speaker 3: and nothing more. I will not, I tell you, I cannot.
• 39:53
  Speaker 3: I will be all in all to you, to you, Alfred.
• 39:57
  Speaker 2: But that is just what you are, rita through our child.
• 40:01
  Speaker 3: Rapid nauseous phrases. Nothing else. No, Alfred, I am not
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: to be put off like that. I was fitted to
• 40:09
  Speaker 3: become the child's mother, but not to be a mother
• 40:11
  Speaker 3: to him. You must take me as I am, Alfred.
• 40:14
  Speaker 2: And yet you used to be so fond of aof.
• 40:17
  Speaker 3: I was so sorry for him because you troubled yourself
• 40:21
  Speaker 3: so little about him. You kept him reading and grinding
• 40:24
  Speaker 3: at books. You scarcely even saw him nothing slowly.
• 40:28
  Speaker 2: Now I was blind. The time had not yet come
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: for me looking in his face.
• 40:34
  Speaker 3: But now I suppose it has come.
• 40:36
  Speaker 2: Yes, at last, now I see that the highest task
• 40:40
  Speaker 2: I can have in the world is to be a
• 40:42
  Speaker 2: true father.
• 40:43
  Speaker 3: To aof And to me, what will you be to me?
• 40:47
  Speaker 2: I will always go on caring for you with calm,
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: deep tenderness.
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: He tries to take her hands, evading him.
• 40:56
  Speaker 3: I don't care a bit for your calm, deep tenderness.
• 41:00
  Speaker 3: I want you utterly and entirely and alone, just as
• 41:05
  Speaker 3: I had you in the first, rich, beautiful days. Never,
• 41:10
  Speaker 3: never will I consent to be put off with scraps
• 41:12
  Speaker 3: and leavings, Alfred.
• 41:14
  Speaker 2: I should have thought there was happiness in plenty for
• 41:17
  Speaker 2: all three of us.
• 41:18
  Speaker 3: Rita, then you are easy to please.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: Seats herself at the table on the left.
• 41:23
  Speaker 3: Now listen to me approaching.
• 41:26
  Speaker 2: Well, what is it?
• 41:28
  Speaker 1: Looking up at him with a veil glow in her eyes.
• 41:31
  Speaker 3: When I got your telegram yesterday evening?
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: Yes?
• 41:34
  Speaker 3: What?
• 41:34
  Speaker 2: Then?
• 41:35
  Speaker 3: Then I dressed myself in white?
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: Yes, I noticed you were in white when I arrived.
• 41:40
  Speaker 3: I had let down my hair.
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: Here, sweet masses of hair.
• 41:44
  Speaker 3: So that it flowed down my neck and shoulders.
• 41:47
  Speaker 2: I saw it, I saw it. Oh, how lovely you were, Rita.
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: There were rose tinted shades over both the lamps, and
• 41:55
  Speaker 3: we were alone, we two, the only waking beings in
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: the whole house. And there was champagne on the table.
• 42:02
  Speaker 2: I did not drink any of it, looking bitterly at him.
• 42:06
  Speaker 3: No, that is true. There stood the champagne, but you
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: tasted it. Not, As the poet says.
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: She rises from the armchair, goes with an air of weariness,
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: over to the sofa, and seats herself half reclining upon it,
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: crosses the room and stands before her.
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: I was so taken up with serious thoughts. I had
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: made up my mind to talk to you of our future, Rita,
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: and first and foremost.
• 42:35
  Speaker 3: Of aof, And so you did.
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: No, I had not time to for you began to undress.
• 42:41
  Speaker 3: Yes, and meanwhile you talked about aof, don't you remember?
• 42:46
  Speaker 3: You wanted to know all about little AOF's digestion.
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: Looking reproachfully at her, Rita.
• 42:52
  Speaker 3: And then you got into your bed and slept the
• 42:55
  Speaker 3: sleep of the.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: Just shaking his head, Rita, Rita, lying at full length
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: and looking up at him. Alfred.
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: Yes, there stood your champagne. But you tasted it?
• 43:09
  Speaker 2: Not, No, I did not taste it.
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: He goes away from her and stands in the garden doorway.
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: Reader lies for some time, motionless, with closed eyes suddenly
• 43:20
  Speaker 1: springing up.
• 43:21
  Speaker 3: But let me tell you one thing, Alfred.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: Turning in the doorway.
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: Well, you ought not.
• 43:26
  Speaker 3: To feel quite so secure as you do.
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: Not secure.
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: No, you ought not to be so indifferent, not certain
• 43:33
  Speaker 3: of your property.
• 43:34
  Speaker 2: In me drawing nearer, What do you mean by that?
• 43:38
  Speaker 3: Never, in a single thought have I been untrue to you, Alfred,
• 43:41
  Speaker 3: Never for an instant.
• 43:43
  Speaker 2: No, Rita, I know that I who know you so well.
• 43:46
  Speaker 1: With sparkling eyes but if you disdain me, disdain I
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: don't understand what you mean.
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: Oh you don't know all that might rise up within
• 43:55
  Speaker 3: me if if, if I should ever see that you
• 43:58
  Speaker 3: did not care for me, that you do not love
• 44:00
  Speaker 3: me as you used to.
• 44:02
  Speaker 2: But my dearest Rita, years bring a certain change with them,
• 44:07
  Speaker 2: and that must one day occur even in us, as
• 44:10
  Speaker 2: in every one else.
• 44:12
  Speaker 3: Never in me. And I will not hear of any
• 44:14
  Speaker 3: change in you either. I could not bear it, Alfred.
• 44:18
  Speaker 3: I want to keep you to myself alone, looking at
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: her with concern.
• 44:23
  Speaker 2: You have a terribly jealous nature.
• 44:25
  Speaker 3: I can't make myself different from what I am. If
• 44:29
  Speaker 3: you go and divide yourself between me and any one else,
• 44:33
  Speaker 3: what then then I will take my revenge on you. Alfred.
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: How take your revenge?
• 44:38
  Speaker 3: I don't know how. Oh yes, I do know well enough.
• 44:42
  Speaker 3: Well I will go and throw myself away.
• 44:46
  Speaker 2: Throw yourself away?
• 44:48
  Speaker 3: Do you say yes that I will. I'll throw myself
• 44:52
  Speaker 3: straight into the arms of the first man that comes
• 44:54
  Speaker 3: in my way.
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: Looking tenderly at her and shaking his head.
• 44:58
  Speaker 2: That you will never do my loyal, proud, truehearted Rita.
• 45:03
  Speaker 1: Putting her arms round his neck.
• 45:05
  Speaker 3: Oh you don't know what I might come to be
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: if you, if you did not love me anymore.
• 45:12
  Speaker 2: Did not love you, Rita, How can you say such
• 45:14
  Speaker 2: a thing?
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: Half laughing? Lets him go?
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: Why should I not spread my nets for that that
• 45:22
  Speaker 3: road maker man that hangs about here?
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: Oh?
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: Thank goodness, you are only joking, not at all.
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: He would do as well as anyone else.
• 45:31
  Speaker 2: Ah, but I suspect he is more or less taken
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: up already, So.
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: Much the better for then I should take him away
• 45:38
  Speaker 3: from someone else. And that is just what Ayolf has
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: done to me.
• 45:41
  Speaker 2: Can you say that our little Aolf has done that?
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: Pointing with her forefinger.
• 45:47
  Speaker 3: There you see, you see the moment you mention Eyolf's name,
• 45:52
  Speaker 3: you grow tender and your voice quivers, threatening me.
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: Clenching her hands.
• 45:58
  Speaker 3: You almost tempt me to wish.
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: Looking at her anxiously.
• 46:02
  Speaker 2: What do I tempt you to wish?
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: Rita vehemently going away from him.
• 46:06
  Speaker 3: No, no, no, I won't tell you that, never.
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: Drawing nearer to her, Rita.
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: I implore you, for my sake and for your own,
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: do not let yourself be tempted into evil.
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: Borgheim and Asta come up from the garden. They both
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: show signs of restrained emotion. They look serious and dejected.
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: Esther remains out on the Verandah Borgheim comes into the room.
• 46:32
  Speaker 5: So that is over, Miss Olmers and I have had
• 46:34
  Speaker 5: our last walk together.
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: Looks at him with surprise.
• 46:38
  Speaker 3: Ah, and there is no longer journey to follow the walk?
• 46:42
  Speaker 5: Yes for me, for you alone, Yes, for me alone.
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: Glence is darkly at Almers.
• 46:48
  Speaker 3: Do you hear that?
• 46:49
  Speaker 1: Turns to Borgheim.
• 46:51
  Speaker 3: I'll wager it is someone with the evil eye that
• 46:53
  Speaker 3: has played you this trick. The evil eye, Yes, the
• 46:57
  Speaker 3: evil eye.
• 46:58
  Speaker 5: Do you believe in me? Missus Omers?
• 47:01
  Speaker 3: Yes, I have begun to believe in the evil eye,
• 47:04
  Speaker 3: especially in a child's evil eye.
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: Wata how can you?
• 47:09
  Speaker 3: It is you that make me so wicked and hateful?
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: Alfred confused? Cries and shrieks are heard in the distance
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: from the direction of the fjord going to the glass door.
• 47:19
  Speaker 1: What noise is that in the doorway?
• 47:22
  Speaker 4: Look at all those people running down to the pier.
• 47:24
  Speaker 2: What can it be?
• 47:25
  Speaker 1: Looks out for a moment, No doubt.
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: It's those street urchins at some mischief again.
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: Cause, leaning over the veranda railings, I.
• 47:33
  Speaker 5: Say, you boys down there, what's the matter?
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: Several voices are heard, answering indistinctly and confusedly.
• 47:40
  Speaker 3: What do they say?
• 47:41
  Speaker 5: They say, it's a child that's drowned.
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: A child drowned, a little boy. They say, Oh, they
• 47:47
  Speaker 2: can all swim, every one of them.
• 47:49
  Speaker 3: Where is aolf?
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: Keep quiet? Quiet? Aolf is down in the garden playing.
• 47:54
  Speaker 1: No, he wasn't in the garden with upstretched arms.
• 47:58
  Speaker 3: Oh, if only it isn't.
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: He listens and calls down, whose child is it?
• 48:04
  Speaker 5: Do you say?
• 48:05
  Speaker 1: Indistinct voices are heard. Borgheim and Asta utter a suppressed cry,
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: and rush out through the garden in an agony of dread.
• 48:14
  Speaker 2: It isn't, ah, half, it isn't aolf.
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: Rita on the veranda, listening.
• 48:19
  Speaker 3: Hush, be quiet, let me hear what they are saying.
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: Rita rushes back with a piercing shriek into the room,
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: following her.
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: What did they say?
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: Sinking down beside the armchair on the left.
• 48:31
  Speaker 3: They said, the crutch is floating.
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: Almost paralyzed.
• 48:37
  Speaker 5: No, no, no, aolf aof oh, but they must save.
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: Him, they must, they must, so precious a life.
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: He rushes down through the garden and of Act first
• 49:01
  Speaker 3: Six