ACT I
(SCENE.--A handsomely furnished, carpeted room, with a door at
the back leading to a lobby. The FATHER is sitting on a couch on
the left-hand side, in the foreground, reading a newspaper. Other
papers are lying on a small table in front of him. AXEL is on
another couch drawn up in a similar position on the right-hand
side. A newspaper, which he is not reading, is lying on his knee.
The MOTHER is sitting, sewing, in an easy-chair drawn up beside a
table in the middle of the room.)
[LAURA enters.]
Laura. Good morning, mother! (Kisses her.)
Mother. Good morning, dear. Have you slept well?
Laura. Very well, thanks. Good morning, dad! (Kisses him.)
Father. Good morning, little one, good morning. Happy and in
good spirits?
Laura. Very. (Passes in front of AXEL.) Good morning, Axel! (Sits
down at the table, opposite her mother.)
Axel. Good morning.
Mother. I am very sorry to say, my child, that I must give up
going to the ball with you to-night. It is such a long way to go,
in this cold spring weather.
Father (without looking up from his paper). Your mother is not
well. She was coughing in the night.
Laura. Coughing again?
Father. Twice. (The MOTHER coughs, and he looks up.) There, do
you hear that? Your mother must not go out, on any account.
Laura. Then I won't go, either.
Father. That will be just as well; it is such raw weather. (To
the MOTHER.) But you have no shawl on, my love; where is your
shawl?
Laura. Axel, fetch mother's shawl; it is hanging in the lobby.
(AXEL goes out into the lobby.)
Mother. We are not really into spring yet. I am surprised the
stove is not lit in here.
Laura (to AXEL, who is arranging the shawl over the MOTHER'S
shoulders). Axel, ring the bell and let us have a fire. (He does
so, and gives the necessary instructions to the Servant.)
Mother. If none of us are going to the ball, we ought to send
them a note. Perhaps you would see to that, Axel?
Axel. Certainly--but will it do for us to stay away from this
ball?
Laura. Surely you heard father say that mother has been coughing
in the night.
Axel. Yes, I heard; but the ball is being given by the only
friend I have in these parts, in your honour and mine. We are the
reason of the whole entertainment--surely we cannot stay away
from it?
Laura. But it wouldn't be any pleasure to us to go without
mother.
Axel. One often has to do what is not any pleasure.
Laura. When it is a matter of duty, certainly. But our first duty
is to mother, and we cannot possibly leave her alone at home
when she is ill.
Axel. I had no idea she was ill.
Father (as he reads). She coughed twice in the night. She coughed
only a moment ago.
Mother. Axel means that a cough or two isn't illness, and he
is quite right.
Father (still reading). A cough may be a sign of something very
serious. (Clears his throat.) The chest--or the lungs. (Clears
his throat again.) I don't think I feel quite the thing myself,
either.
Laura. Daddy dear, you are too lightly clothed.
Mother. You dress as if it were summer--and it certainly isn't
that.
Father. The fire will burn up directly. (Clears his throat
again.) No, not quite the thing at all.
Laura. Axel! (He goes up to her.) You might read the paper to us
till breakfast is ready.
Axel. Certainly. But first of all I want to know if we really are
not to go to the ball?
Laura. You can go, if you like, and take our excuses.
Mother. That wouldn't do. Remember you are married now.
Axel. That is exactly why it seems to me that Laura cannot stay
at home. The fact that she is my wife ought to have most weight
with her now; and this ball is being given for us two, who have
nothing the matter with us, besides being mainly a dance for
young people--
Mother. And not for old folk.
Laura. Thank you; mother has taken to dancing again since I
have grown up. I have never been to a ball without mother's
leading off the dances.
Mother. Axel apparently thinks it would have been much better
if I had not done so.
Father (as he reads). Mother dances most elegantly.
Axel. Surely I should know that, seeing how often I have had the
honour of leading off with mother. But on this occasion forty or
fifty people have been invited, a lot of trouble and expense
incurred and a lot of pleasure arranged, solely for our sakes. It
would be simply wicked to disappoint them.
Father (still reading). We can give a ball for them, in return.
Mother. All the more as we owe heaps of people an invitation.
Laura. Yes, that will be better; we have more room here, too. (A
pause.)
Axel (leaning over LAURA'S chair). Think of your new ball dress--
my first present to you. Won't that tempt you? Blue muslin,
with silver stars all over it? Shall they not shine for the first
time to-night?
Laura (smiling). No, there would be no shine in the stars if
mother were not at the dance.
Axel. Very well--I will send our excuses. (Turns to go out.)
Father (still reading). Perhaps it will be better for me to
write. (AXEL stops.)
Mother. Yes, you will do it best.
[MATHILDE comes in, followed by a Servant, who throws the doors
open.]
Mathilde. Breakfast is ready.
Father (taking his wife's arm). Keep your shawl on, my dear; it
is cold in the hall. (They go out.)
Axel (as he offers LAURA his arm and leads her towards the door).
Let me have a word with you, before we follow them!
Laura. But it is breakfast time.
Axel (to MATHILDE, who is standing behind them waiting). Do you
mind going on? (MATHILDE goes out, followed by the Servant. AXEL
turns to LAURA.) Will nothing move you? Go with me to this dance!
Laura. I thought that was what you were going to say.
Axel. For _my_ sake!
Laura. But you saw for yourself that mother and father do not
wish it?
Axel. _I_ wish it.
Laura. When mother and father do not?
Axel. Then I suppose you are their daughter in the first place,
and my wife only in the second?
Laura (with a laugh). Well, that is only natural.
Axel. No, it is not natural; because two days ago you promised to
forsake your father and your mother and follow me.
Laura (laughing). To the ball? I certainly never promised that.
Axel. Wherever I wish.
Laura. But you mustn't wish that, Axel darling--because it is
quite impossible.
Axel. It is quite possible, if you like to do it.
Laura. Yes, but I don't like.
Axel. That same day you also heard that a man is his wife's lord
and master. You must be willing to leave them, if I wish it; it
was on those terms that you gave me your hand, you obstinate
little woman.
Laura. It was just so as to be able to be always with father and
mother, that I did it.
Axel. So that was it. Then you have no wish to be always with me?
Laura. Yes--but not to forsake them.
Axel. Never?
Laura. Never? (Softly.) Yes, some day--when I must.
Axel. When must you?
Laura. When? When mother and father--are gone. But why think
about such things?
Axel. Don't cry, darling! Listen to me. Would you never be
willing to follow me--until they have left us?
Laura. No!--how can you think so?
Axel. Ah, Laura, you don't love me.
Laura. Why do you say such a thing? You only want to make me
unhappy.
Axel. You don't even know what love is.
Laura. I don't?--That is not kind of you.
Axel. Tell me what it is then, sweetheart!
Laura (kissing him). Now you mustn't talk about it any more;
because you know, if you do, I shall have red eyes, and then
father and mother will want to know why they are red, and I
shall not be able to tell them, and it will be very embarrassing.
Axel. Better a few tears now than many later on.
Laura. But what have I done to cry about?
Axel. You have given your hand without giving your heart with it;
your tongue said "yes," but not your will; you have given
yourself without realising what it means. And so, what ought to
be the greatest and purest happiness in my life begins to turn to
sorrow, and the future looks dark.
Laura. Oh, dear!--and is all this my fault?
Axel. No, it is my own fault. I have been deluding myself with
flattering hopes. I thought it would be so easy a matter for my
love to awaken yours; but I cannot make you understand me.
Every way I have tried has failed. So I must call up my courage,
and try the last chance.
Laura. The last chance? What do you mean?
Axel. Laura, I can't tell you how dearly I love you!
Laura. If you did, you wouldn't hurt me. I never hurt you.
Axel. Well, give in to me in just this one thing, and I
shall believe it is the promise of more. Go with me to the ball!
Laura. You know I cannot do that!
Axel. Ah! then I dare not delay any longer!
Laura. You frighten me! You look so angry.
Axel. No, no. But things cannot go on like this any longer. I
can't stand it!
Laura. Am I so bad, then? No one ever told me so before.
Axel. Don't cry, my dainty little fairy. You have nothing to
blame yourself for--except for being so bewitchingly sweet
whether you are laughing or crying. You exhale sweetness like a
flower. I want your influence to pervade every place where I am,
to distract me when I am moody and laugh away my longings. Hush,
hush--no red eyes. Let no one see that. Here is your mother
coming--no, it is Mathilde.
[Enter MATHILDE.]
Mathilde. Your coffee is getting cold.
Axel. We are just coming. At least, Laura is. I want to speak to
you for a moment, if I may.
Mathilde. To me?
Axel. If you will allow me.
Mathilde. By all means.
Laura. But you are coming in to breakfast?
Axel. In a moment, darling.
Laura. And you are not angry with me any longer?
Axel (following her). I never was that. I never could be!
Laura. I am so glad! (Runs out.)
Mathilde. What is it you want?
Axel. Can you keep a secret?
Mathilde. No.
Axel. You won't?
Mathilde. No.
Axel. You won't share any more confidences with me? (Takes her
hand.) You used to--
Mathilde (drawing back her hand and moving away from him).
Yes, I used to.
Axel. Why won't you any longer? (Goes up to her.) What is
changed?
Mathilde. You. You are married now.
Axel. No, that is just what I am not.
Mathilde. Indeed.
Axel. You have sharp eyes. You must have seen that.
Mathilde. I thought it was all just as you wished.
Axel. You are giving me very abrupt answers. Have I offended
you?
Mathilde. What makes you ask that?
Axel. Because lately you have avoided me. Remember how kind
you were to me once--indeed, that I owe you everything. It was
through you, you know, that I got at her. I had to make
assignations with you, in order to meet her. I had to offer you
my arm so as to be able to give her the other, and to talk to you
so that she might hear my voice. The little darling thought she
was doing you a service--
Mathilde. When as a matter of fact it was I that was doing her
one--
Axel. Yes, and without suspecting it! That was the amusing part
of it.
Mathilde. Yes, that was the amusing part of it.
Axel. But soon people began to say that you and I were secretly
engaged, and that we were making a stalking-horse of Laura; so
for her sake I had to bring matters to a head rather quickly.
Mathilde. Yes, you took a good many people by surprise.
Axel. Including even yourself, I believe--not to mention the old
folk and Laura. But the worst of it is that I took my own
happiness by surprise, too.
Mathilde. What do you mean?
Axel. Of course I knew Laura was only a child; but I thought she
would grow up when she felt the approach of love. But she has
never felt its approach; she is like a bud that will not open,
and I cannot warm the atmosphere. But you could do that--you, in
whom she has confided all her first longings--you, whose kind
heart knows so well how to sacrifice its happiness for others.
You know you are to some extent responsible, too, for the fact
that the most important event in her life came upon her a little
unpreparedly; so you ought to take her by the hand and guide
her first steps away from her parents and towards me--direct her
affections towards me--
Mathilde. I? (A pause.)
Axel. Won't you?
Mathilde. No--
Axel. But why not? You love her, don't you?
Mathilde. I do; but this is a thing--
Axel. --that you can do quite well! For you are better off than
the rest of us--you have many more ways of reaching a person's
soul than we have. Sometimes when we have been discussing
something, and then you have given your opinion, it has reminded
me of the refrains to the old ballads, which sum up the essence
of the whole poem in two lines.
Mathilde. Yes, I have heard you flatter before.
Axel. I flatter? Why, what I have just asked you to do is a
clearer proof than anything else how great my--
Mathilde. Stop, stop! I won't do it!
Axel. Why not? At least be frank with me!
Mathilde. Because--oh, because-- (Turns away.)
Axel. But what has made you so unkind? (MATHILDE stops for
a moment, as though she were going to answer; then goes hurriedly
out.) What on earth is the matter with her? Has anything gone
wrong between her and Laura? Or is it something about the house
that is worrying her? She is too level-headed to be disturbed by
trifles.--Well, whatever it is, it must look after itself; I have
something else to think about. If the one of them _can't_
understand me, and the other _won't_, and the old couple neither
can nor will, I must act on my own account--and the sooner the
better! Later on, it would look to other people like a rupture.
It must be done now, before we settle down to this state of
things; for if we were to do that, it would be all up with us. To
acquiesce in such an unnatural state of affairs would be like
crippling one's self on purpose. I am entangled hand and foot
here in the meshes of a net of circumspection. I shall have to
sail along at "dead slow" all my life--creep about among their
furniture and their flowers as warily as among their habits. You
might just as well try to stand the house on its head as to alter
the slightest thing in it. I daren't move!--and it is becoming
unbearable. Would it be a breach of a law of nature to move this
couch a little closer to the wall, or this chair further away
from it? And has it been ordained from all eternity that this
table must stand just where it does? _Can_ it be shifted? (Moves
it.) It actually can! And the couch, too. Why does it stand so
far forward? (Pushes it back.) And why are these chairs
everlastingly in the way? This one shall stand there--and this
one there. (Moves them.) I will have room for my legs; I
positively believe I have forgotten how to walk. For a whole year
I have hardly heard the sound of my own footstep--or of my own
voice; they do nothing but whisper and cough here. I wonder if I
have any voice left? (Sings.)
"Bursting every bar and band,
My fetters will I shatter;
Striding out, with sword in hand,
Where the fight"--
(He stops abruptly, at the entrance of the FATHER, the MOTHER,
LAURA and MATHILDE, who have come hurriedly from the breakfast
table. A long pause.)
Laura. Axel, dear!
Mathilde. What, all by himself?
Mother. Do you think you are at a ball?
Father. And playing the part of musician as well as dancer?
Axel. I am amusing myself.
Father. With our furniture?
Axel. I only wanted to see if it was possible to move it.
Mother. If it was possible to move it?
Laura. But what were you shouting about?
Axel. I only wanted to try if I had any voice left.
Laura. If you had any voice left?
Mother. There is a big wood near the house, where you can
practise that.
Father. And a waterfall--if you are anxious to emulate
Demosthenes.
Laura. Axel, dear--are you out of your mind?
Axel. No, but I think I soon shall be.
Mother. Is there anything wrong?
Axel. Yes, a great deal.
Mother. What is it? Some unpleasant news by post?
Axel. No, not that--but I am unhappy.
Mother. Two days after your wedding?
Father. You have a very odd way of showing it.
Axel. I am taken like that sometimes.
Mother. But what is it? Evidently you are not as happy as we
hoped you would be. Confide in us, Axel; we are your parents
now, you know.
Axel. It is something I have been thinking about for a long time,
but have not had the courage to mention.
Mother. Why? Aren't we good to you?
Axel. You are much too good to me.
Father. What do you mean by that?
Axel. That everything is made far too smooth for me here; my
faculties get no exercise; I cannot satisfy my longing for
activity and conflict--nor my ambition.
Father. Dear me! What do you want, if you please?
Axel. I want to work for myself, to owe my position in life to
my own efforts--to become something.
Father. Really.--What a foolish idea! (Moves towards the door.)
Mother. But an idea we must take an interest in. He is our
child's husband now, remember. What do you want to be, my boy?
Member of Parliament?
Axel. No; but my uncle, who has about the largest legal practice
in these parts, offered long ago to hand it over to me.
Mother. But you wouldn't be able to look after it from here,
would you, Axel?
Father (at the door). A ridiculous idea!--Come back to breakfast.
(Turns to go.)
Mother. That is true, isn't it? You couldn't look after it from
here?
Axel. No; but I can move into town.
All. Move into town? (A pause. The FATHER turns back from the
door.)
Father. That is still more impossible, of course.
Mother. There must be something at the bottom of this. Is
anything worrying you? (Lowering her voice.) Are you in debt?
Axel. No, thanks to the kindness of you two. You have freed me
from that.
Mother. Then what is it, Axel? You have been so, strange lately--
what is it, my dear boy?
Father. Nonsensical ideas--probably his stomach is disordered.
Remember the last time I ate lobster!--Come along in and have a
glass of sherry, and you will forget all about it.
Axel. No, it isn't a thing one can forget. It is always in my
thoughts--more and more insistently. I must have work for my
mind--some outlet for my ambition. I am bored here.
Mother. Two days after your wedding!
Father. Set to work then, for heaven's sake! What is there to
hinder you? Would you like to take charge of one of my farms?
Or to start some improvements on the estate?--or anything you
please! I have no doubt you have ideas, and I will provide the
money--only do not let us have any of this fuss!
Axel. But then I shall be indebted to you for everything, and
shall feel dependent.
Father. So you would rather feel indebted to your uncle?
Axel. He will give me nothing. I must buy it from him.
Father. Really!--How?
Axel. With my work and my--. Oh well, I suppose you would
lend me a little capital?
Father. Not a penny.
Axel. But why?
Father. I will tell you why. Because my son in law must be my
son-in-law, and not a speculating lawyer who sits with his door
open and a sign hung out to beg for custom.
Axel. Is a lawyer's profession a dishonourable one, then?
Father. No, it is not. But you have been received into one of the
oldest and richest families in the country, and you owe some
respect to its traditions. Generation after generation, from time
immemorial, the heads of our family have been lords of the manor
--not office seekers or fortune hunters. The honourable offices I
have held have all been offered to me and not sought by me; and I
am not going to have you chattering about your university degree
or your talents. You shall stay quietly here, and you will be
offered more than you want.
Mother. Come, come, my dear, don't get heated over it; that
always makes you so unwell. Let us arrive at some arrangement
without wrangling. Axel, you must be reasonable; you know he
cannot stand any over-exertion. Laura, get your father a glass of
water. Come, my dear, let us go back to the dining-room.
Father. Thanks, I have no appetite left now.
Mother. There, you see!--Axel, Axel!
Laura. For shame, Axel!
Mother. Sit down, dear, sit down! My goodness, how hot you are!
Father. It is so warm in here.
Mother. That is the stove. Shut it down, Mathilde!
Laura (to AXEL). You are a nice one, I must say!
Father. The chairs--put them straight! (They do so.) And the
table! (They do so.) That is better.
Mother. That is the worst of a stranger in the house--something
of this sort may so easily happen.
Father. But a thing like this!--I have never in my life been
contradicted before.
Mother. It is for the first and last time! He will soon learn who
you are and what is due to you.
Father. And to think that, the first time, it should be my
son-in-law that--
Mother. He will regret it for the rest of your life, you may be
sure, and when you are gone he will have no peace of mind. We can
only hope that the atmosphere of affection in this house will
improve him. Really, lately, Axel has behaved as if he were
bewitched.
Laura. Yes, hasn't he?
Mother. Good gracious, Laura, do you mean that you--
Laura. No, I didn't mean anything.
Mother. Laura, are you trying to conceal something?
Father. And from us? (Gets up.) Are things as bad as that?
Laura. I assure you, dear people, it is nothing; it is only--
Father and Mother (together). Only--?
Laura. No, no, it is nothing--only you frighten me so.
Father and Mother (together). She is crying!
Mathilde. She is crying!
Father. Now, sir--why is she crying?
Laura. But, father, father--look, I am not crying the least bit.
Mother and Mathilde. Yes, she is crying!
Axel. Yes--and will cry every day until we make a change here! (A
pause, while they all look at him.) Well, as so much has been
said, it may as well all come out. Our marriage is not a happy
one, because it lacks the most essential thing of all.
Mother. Merciful heavens, what are you saying!
Father. Compose yourself; let me talk to him. What do you
mean, sir?
Axel. Laura does not love me--
Laura. Yes, that is what he says!
Axel. She hasn't the least idea what love means, and will never
learn as long as she is in her father's house.
Mother and Father. Why?
Axel. Because she lives only for her parents; me, she looks upon
merely as an elder brother who is to assist her in loving them.
Mother. Is that so distasteful to you, then?
Axel. No, no. I am devoted to you and grateful to you, and I am
proud of being your son; but it is only through her that I am
that--and she has never yet really taken me to her heart. I am
quite at liberty to go away or to stay, as I please; _she_ is a
fixture here. There is never one of her requests to me, scarcely
a single wish she expresses--indeed, scarcely a sign of
endearment she shows me, that she has not first of all divided up
into three portions; and I get my one-third of it, and get it
last or not at all.
Mother. He is jealous--and of us!
Father. Jealous of us!
Laura. Yes, indeed he is, mother.
Father. This is mere fancy, Axel--a ridiculous idea. Do not let
any one else hear you saying that.
Axel. No, it is neither mere fancy nor is it ridiculous. It
colours the whole of our relations to one another; it gnaws at my
feelings, and then I torment her, make you angry, and lead an
idle, empty, ill-tempered existence--
Father. You are ill, there is no doubt about it.
Axel. I am, and you have made me ill.
Father and Mother (together). We have?
Father. Please be a little--
Axel. You allow her to treat me simply as the largest sized of
all the dolls you have given her to play with. You cannot bear to
see her give away any more of her affection than she might give
to one of her dolls.
Father. Please talk in a more seemly manner! Please show us a
proper respect--
Axel. Forgive me, my dear parents, if I don't. What I mean is that
a child cannot be a wife, and as long as she remains with you she
will always be a child.
Mother. But, Axel, did we not tell you she was only a child--
Father. We warned you, we asked you to wait a year or two--
Mother. Because we could not see that she loved you sufficiently.
Father. But your answer was that it was just the child in her
that you loved.
Mother. Just the child's innocence and simplicity. You said you
felt purer in her presence; indeed, that she sometimes made you
feel as if you were in church. And we, her father and mother,
understood that, for we had felt it ourselves.
Father. We felt that just as much as you, my son.
Mother. Do you remember one morning, when she was asleep,
that you said her life was a dream which it would be a sin to
disturb?
Father. And said that the mere thought of her made you tread
more softly for fear of waking her.
Axel. That is quite true. Her childlike nature shed happiness
upon me, her gentle innocence stilled me. It is quite true that I
felt her influence upon my senses like that of a beautiful
morning.
Father. And now you are impatient with her for being a child!
Axel. Exactly! At the time when I was longing to lead her to the
altar, I daresay I only thought of her as an inspiration to my
better self and my best impulses. She was to me what the Madonna
is to a good Catholic; but now she has become something more than
that. The distance between us no longer exists; I cannot be
satisfied with mere adoration, I must love; I cannot be satisfied
with kneeling to her, I need my arms around her. Her glance has
the same delicacy it always had, the same innocence; but I can no
longer sit and gaze at her by the hour. Her glance must lose
itself in mine in complete surrender. Her hand, her arm, her mouth
are the same as they were; but I need to feel her hand stroking my
hair, her arm round my neck, her mouth on mine; her thoughts must
embrace mine and be like sunshine in my heart. She was a symbol to
me, but the symbol has become flesh and blood. When first she came
into my thoughts it was as a child; but I have watched her day
by day grow into a woman, whose shyness and ignorance make
her turn away from me, but whom I must possess. (LAURA moves
quickly towards him.)
Mother. He loves our child!
Father. He loves her! (Embraces his wife.) What more is there to
say, then? Everything is as it should be. Come along and have a
glass of sherry!
Axel. No, everything is not as it should be. I can get her
gratitude sometimes in a lucky moment, but not her heart. If I am
fond of a certain thing, she is not. If I wish a thing, she wishes
the opposite--for instance, if it's only a question of going to a
ball, she won't take any pleasure in it unless her mother can go
too.
Mother. Good heavens, is it nothing but that!
Laura. No, mother, it is nothing else; it is this ball.
Father. Then for any sake go to the ball! You are a couple of
noodles. Come along, now.
Axel. The ball? It is not the ball. I don't care a bit about the
ball.
Laura. No, that is just it, mother. When he gets what he wants, it
turns out that it wasn't what he wanted at all, but something
quite different. I don't understand what it is.
Axel. No, because it is not a question of any one thing, but of
our whole relations to one another. Love is what I miss; she does
not know what it means, and never will know--as long as she
remains at home here. (A pause.)
Mother (slowly). As long as she remains at home?
Father (coming nearer to him, and trembling slightly). What do you
mean by that?
Axel. It will be only when Laura finds she can no longer lean
upon her parents, that she may possibly come to lean upon me.
Mother. What does he mean?
Father. I don't understand--
Axel. If she is to be something more than a good daughter--if she
is to be a good wife--Laura must go away from here.
Mother. Laura go away?
Father. Our child?
Laura (to her MOTHER). Mother!
Axel. It would be wronging her whom I love so deeply, it would
be wronging myself, and wronging you who mean so well, if now,
when the power is in my hands, I had not the spirit to make use of
it. Here, Laura lives only for you; when you die, life will be
over for her. But that is not what marriage means, that is not
what she promised at the altar, and that is what I cannot submit
to. To go on like this will only make us all unhappy; and that is
why Laura must go with me! (The MOTHER starts forward; LAURA goes
to MATHILDE.)
Father. You cannot mean what you say.
Axel. I am in deadly earnest, and no one can shake my resolution.
Mother. Then Heaven have mercy on us! (A pause.)
Father. You know, Axel, that God gave us five children; and you
know, too, that He took four away from us again. Laura is now
our only child, our only joy.
Mother. We can't bear to lose her, Axel! She has never been away
from us a single day since she was born. She is the spoilt child
of our sorrow; if death itself claimed her, we should have to
hold fast on to her.
Father. Axel, you are not a wicked man; you have not come
amongst us to make us all unhappy?
Axel. If I were to give in now, this state of things would occur
again every week or so, and none of us could stand that. For that
reason, my dear parents, prove yourselves capable of a sacrifice.
Let us put an end to it once for all--and let Laura move into
town with me next week.
Father. Good heavens--it is impossible!
Mother. You won't have the heart to do that. Look at her, and
then say that again! (AXEL turns away.) No, I knew you could not.
(To the FATHER.) You talk to him! Tell him the truth, set him
right, since he has broken in upon a good and loving family only
to bring misfortune to it.
Father. In this house, as far back as I can remember, no hard
words have ever been used. It seems to me like some evil dream,
that I am struggling to wake out of and cannot! (A pause.) Mr.
Hargaut, when we gave our daughter to you, we made no conditions.
We admitted you into a happy family, to a position of wealth, to
a promising future; and we expected, in return, some little
affection, some little appreciation--at least some little respect.
But you behave like--like a stranger, who is admitted to one's
intimacy and good offices, and then one morning goes off with the
most valuable possessions in the house--like an ungrateful, cruel--!
We have confided our child, the dearest, sweetest child, our only
child, to--a man without a heart! We were two happy parents, rich
in her love--parents whom every one envied and we now are two poor
bereaved wretches, who must creep away together into a corner in
their unhappy disillusionment. (Sits down.)
Mother. And this is the way you can treat the man who has given
you everything! What answer have you to give him?
Axel. It makes my heart bleed. If I had thought it would be as
hard as this, indeed I would never have begun it; but if we leave
the matter unsettled, now that it has been broached, we shall
never be on proper terms with one another again. Of that I am
certain. If it is a matter that pains us all, for that very
reason let us go through with it and get it settled.
Father. Poor confiding fools that we have been!
Mother. Can't you give us some respite, so that we may think
things over quietly? This is simply tearing us apart.
Axel. It would only prolong your pain, and it would end in your
hating me. No, it must be done now--at once; otherwise it will
never be done.
Mother. Oh dear, oh dear! (Sits down.)
Father. Axel! Listen to us for a moment! It is quite possible you
may be in the right; but for that very reason I beg you--I, who
have never yet begged anything of any one--I beg you, be
merciful! I am an old man, and cannot stand it--and she (looking
at his wife) still less.
Axel. Ah, I am not hard-hearted--but I must try to be resolute.
If I lose now, I shall be losing her for life, I know. Therefore
she _shall_ go with me!
Mother (springing up). No, she shall not! If you loved her, as
you say you do, you hypocrite, you would remain where she is--and
here she shall stay!
Laura (who has been standing beside MATHILDE, goes to her
Mother). Yes, to my dying day.
Father (getting up). No! We must not alter God's law. It is
written: "A man shall forsake his father and his mother, and
cleave only unto his wife"--and in the same way she must cleave
only to him. Laura shall go when he wishes.
Laura. Father, can you--have you the heart to--?
Father. No, I haven't the heart to, my child. But I shall do it
nevertheless, because it is right. Oh, Laura!--(Embraces her. The
MOTHER joins her embrace to his.)
Mathilde (to AXEL). You Jesuit!--You have no consideration, no
mercy; you trample upon hearts as you would upon the grass
that grows in your path. But you shall not find this so easy as
you think. It is true she is a child--but I shall go with her! I
don't know you, and I don't trust you. (Clenches her fist.) But I
shall watch over her!
[Curtain.]
Content of ACT I [Bjornstjerne Bjornson's play: The Newly-Married Couple]
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