ACT II

SCENE.--_A small drawing-room in the house of_ SOLNESS. SOLNESS _is examining_ RAGNAR BROVIK'S _drawings_. MRS. SOLNESS _is attending to her flowers_.

SOLNESS: Is she still asleep?

MRS. SOLNESS _(looking at him_): Is it Miss Wangel you are sitting there thinking about? She was up long ago.

SOLNESS: Oh, was she? So we've found a use for one of our three nurseries, after all, Aline, now that Hilda occupies one of them.

MRS. SOLNESS: Yes, we have. Their emptiness is dreadful.

SOLNESS: We'll get on far better after this, Aline. Things will be easier.

MRS. SOLNESS: Because _she_ has come?

SOLNESS _(checking himself_): I mean when once we've moved into our new house. It's for your sake I've built it.

MRS. SOLNESS: You do far too much for me.

SOLNESS: I can't bear to hear you say that. Stick to what I said. Things 'll be easier in the new place.

MRS. SOLNESS _(lamenting)_: Oh heavens, easier! Halvard, you can never build up a real home again for _me. This_ is no home; It will be just as desolate, as empty there as here.

[HILDA WANGEL _comes in_.

HILDA: Good-morning, Mr. Solness!

SOLNESS (_nods_): Slept well?

HILDA: Deliciously! As if in a cradle. Oh, I lay and stretched myself like--like a princess. But I dreamed I was falling over a precipice. It's tremendously thrilling when you fall and fall----

MRS. SOLNESS (_ready to go out_): I must go into town now, Halvard. (_To_ HILDA) And I'll try to get one or two things that may be of use to you.

HILDA: Oh, you dear, sweet Mrs. Solness. You're frightfully kind----

MRS. SOLNESS: It's only my duty.

[MRS. SOLNESS _goes out_.

HILDA: What made her say that about her duty? Doesn't it sting you?

SOLNESS: H'm! Haven't thought much about it.

HILDA: Yes it does. Why should she talk in that way? She might have said something really warm and cordial, you understand.

SOLNESS: Is that how you'd like to have it?

HILDA: Yes, precisely. (_She wanders over to the table and looks over_ RAGNAR'S _portfolio of drawings_.) Are all these drawings yours?

SOLNESS: No; they're drawn by a young man I employ.

HILDA (_sits down_): Then I suppose he's frightfully clever.

SOLNESS: Oh, he's not bad, for my purpose.

HILDA: I can't understand why you should be so stupid as to go about teaching people. No one but yourself should be allowed to build.

SOLNESS: I keep brooding on that very thought. (_Calling her to the window_) Look over there; that's my new house.

HILDA: It seems to have a tremendously high tower. Are there nurseries in _that_ house, too?

SOLNESS: Three--as there are here. But there will never be any child in them. We have had children, Aline and I, but we didn't keep them long, our two little boys. The fright Aline got when our old house was burnt down affected her health, and she failed to rear them. Yet that fire made me. I built no more churches; but cosy, comfortable homes for human beings. But my position as an artist has been paid for in Aline's happiness. I could have prevented that fire by seeing to a flue. But I didn't. And yet the flue didn't actually cause the fire. Yet it was my fault in a certain sense.

HILDA: I'm afraid you must be--ill.

SOLNESS: I don't think I'll ever be quite of sound mind on that point.

[RAGNAR _enters, and begs a few kind words about his drawings to cheer his father, who is dying_. SOLNESS _dismisses him almost brutally, and bids him never think of building on his own account_.

HILDA (_when_ RAGNAR _has gone_): That was horribly ugly--and hard and bad and cruel as well.

SOLNESS: Oh, you don't understand my position, which I've paid so dear for. _(Confidentially)_ Hilda, don't you agree with me that there exists special chosen people, who have the power of desiring, _craving_ a thing, until at last it _has_ to happen? And aren't there helpers and servers who must do their part too? But they never come of themselves. One has to call them very persistently, inwardly. So the fire happened conveniently for me; but the two little boys and Aline were sacrificed. She will never be the woman she longed to be.

HILDA: I believe you have a sickly conscience. I should like your conscience to be thoroughly robust.

SOLNESS: Is _yours_ robust?

HILDA: I think it is.

SOLNESS: I think the Vikings had robust consciences. And the women they used to carry off had robust consciences, too. They often wouldn't leave their captors on any account. HILDA: These women I can understand exceedingly well.

SOLNESS: Could you come to love a man like that?

HILDA: One can't choose whom one's going to love.

SOLNESS: Hilda, there's something of the bird of prey in you!

HILDA: And why not? Why shouldn't I go a-hunting as well as the rest? Tell me, Mr. Solness, have you never called me to you--inwardly, you know?

SOLNESS _(softly)_: I almost think I must have.

HILDA: What did you want with me?

SOLNESS: You are the younger generation, Hilda.

HILDA: Which you fear so much----

SOLNESS: Towards which, in my heart, I yearn so deeply.

[_In the next scene_ HILDA _compels_ SOLNESS _to write a few kind words on_ RAGNAR'S _drawings, and send them to_ BROVIK. _He entrusts the portfolio to_ KAIA, _and thereupon dismisses her and_ RAGNAR _from his service._ MRS. SOLNESS _re-enters._

MRS. SOLNESS: Are you really dismissing them, Halvard?

SOLNESS: Yes.

MRS. SOLNESS: Her as well?

SOLNESS: Wasn't that what you wished?

MRS. SOLNESS: But how can you get on without _her_----? Oh, no doubt you've someone else in reserve, Halvard.

HILDA _(playfully)_: Well, _I_ for one am not the person to stand at that desk.

SOLNESS: Never mind, never mind. It'll be all right, Aline. Now for moving into our new home--as quickly as we can. This evening we'll hang up the wreath--right on the pinnacle of the tower. What do you say to that, Hilda?

HILDA _(with sparkling eyes_): It'll be splendid to see you up so high once more. MRS. SOLNESS: For heaven's sake, don't, Miss Wangel. My husband!--when he always gets so dizzy.

HILDA: He--dizzy? I've seen him with my own eyes at the top of a high church tower.

MRS. SOLNESS: Impossible!

SOLNESS: True, all the same.

MRS. SOLNESS: You, who can't even go out on the second-floor balcony?

SOLNESS: You will see something different this evening.

MRS. SOLNESS: You're ill, you're ill! I'll write at once to the doctor. Oh, God, Oh, God!

[_She goes out._

HILDA: Don't tell me _my_ master builder daren't, _cannot_ climb as high as he builds. You promised me a kingdom, and then you went and--well! Don't tell me you can ever be dizzy!

SOLNESS: This evening, then, we'll hang up the wreath, Princess Hilda.

HILDA (_bitterly_): Over your new home--yes.

SOLNESS: Over the new house, which will never be a _home_ for _me_.

HILDA (_looks straight in front of her with a far-away expression, and whispers to herself. The only words audible are_): Frightfully thrilling----