Martha: So that was it? Ah, then I understand why you came. But he will want you back, Lona.
Lona: An old step-sister--what use will he have for her now? Men break many very dear ties to win their happiness.
Martha: That sometimes is so.
Lona: But we two will stick together, Martha.
Martha: Can I be anything to you?
Lona: Who more so? We two foster-sisters--haven't we both lost our children? Now we are alone.
Martha: Yes, alone. And therefore, you ought to know this too--I loved him more than anything in the world.
Lona: Martha! (Grasps her by the arm.) Is that true?
Martha: All my existence lies in those words. I have loved him and waited for him. Every summer I waited for him to come. And then he came--but he had no eyes for me.
Lona: You loved him! And it was you yourself that put his happiness into his hands.
Martha: Ought I not to be the one to put his happiness into his hands, since I loved him? Yes, I have loved him. All my life has been for him, ever since he went away. What reason had I to hope, you mean? Oh, I think I had some reason, all the same. But when he came back--then it seemed as if everything had been wiped out of his memory. He had no eyes for me.
Lona: It was Dina that overshadowed you, Martha?
Martha: And it is a good thing she did. At the time he went away, we were of the same age; but when I saw him again--oh, that dreadful moment!--I realised that now I was ten years older than he. He had gone out into the bright sparkling sunshine, and breathed in youth and health with every breath; and here I sat meanwhile, spinning and spinning--Lona: Spinning the thread of his happiness, Martha.
Martha: Yes, it was a golden thread I spun. No bitterness! We have been two good sisters to him, haven't we, Lona?
Lona (throwing her arms round her): Martha!
(BERNICK comes in from his room.)
Bernick (to the other men, who are in his room): Yes, yes, arrange it any way you please. When the time comes, I shall be able to--. (Shuts the door.) Ah, you are here. Look here, Martha--I think you had better change your dress; and tell Betty to do the same. I don't want anything elaborate, of course--something homely, but neat. But you must make haste.
Lona: And a bright, cheerful face, Martha; your eyes must look happy.
Bernick: Olaf is to come downstairs too; I will have him beside me.
Lona: Hm! Olaf.
Martha: I will give Betty your message. (Goes out by the farther door on the left.)
Lona: Well, the great and solemn moment is at hand.
Bernick (walking uneasily up and down): Yes, it is.
Lona: At such a moment I should think a man would feel proud and happy.
Bernick (looking at her): Hm!
Lona: I hear the whole town is to be illuminated.
Bernick: Yes, they have some idea of that sort.
Lona: All the different clubs will assemble with their banners-- your name will blaze out in letters of fire--tonight the telegraph will flash the news to every part of the country: "In the bosom of his happy family, Mr. Bernick received the homage of his fellow citizens, as one of the pillars of society."
Bernick: That is so; and they will begin to cheer outside, and the crowd will shout in front of my house until I shall be obliged to go out and bow to them and thank them.
Lona: Obliged to?
Bernick. Do you suppose I shall feel happy at that moment?
Lona: No, I don't suppose you will feel so very happy.
Bernick: Lona, you despise me.
Lona: Not yet.
Bernick: And you have no right to; no right to despise me! Lona, you can have no idea how utterly alone I stand in this cramped and stunted community--where I have had, year after year, to stifle my ambition for a fuller life. My work may seem many- sided, but what have I really accomplished? Odds and ends-- scraps. They would not stand anything else here. If I were to go a step in advance of the opinions and views that are current at the moment, I should lose all my influence. Do you know what we are--we who are looked upon as pillars of society? We are nothing more, nor less, than the tools of society.
Lona: Why have you only begun to realise that now?
Bernick: Because I have been thinking a great deal lately--since you came back--and this evening I have thought more seriously than ever before. Oh, Lona, why did not I really know you then-- in the old days, I mean?
Lona: And if you had?
Bernick: I should never have let you go; and, if I had had you, I should not be in the position I am in tonight.
Lona: And do you never consider what she might have been to you-- she whom you chose in my place?
Bernick: I know, at all events, that she has been nothing to me of what I needed.
Lona: Because you have never shared your interests with her; because you have never allowed her full and frank exchange of thoughts with you; because you have allowed her to be borne under by self-reproach for the shame you cast upon one who was dear to her.
Bernick: Yes, yes; it all comes from lying and deceit.
Lona: Then why not break with all this lying and deceit?
Bernick: Now? It is too late now, Lona.
Lona: Karsten, tell me--what gratification does all this show and deception bring you?
Bernick: It brings me none. I must disappear someday, and all this community of bunglers with me. But a generation is growing up that will follow us; it is my son that I work for--I am providing a career for him. There will come a time when truth will enter into the life of the community, and on that foundation he shall build up a happier existence than his father.
Lona: With a lie at the bottom of it all? Consider what sort of an inheritance it is that you are leaving to your son.
Bernick (in tones of suppressed despair): It is a thousand times worse than you think. But surely some day the curse must be lifted; and yet--nevertheless--. (Vehemently.) How could I bring all this upon my own head! Still, it is done now; I must go on with it now. You shall not succeed in crushing me! (HILMAR comes in hurriedly and agitatedly from the right, with an open letter in his hand.)
Hilmar: But this is--Betty, Betty.
Bernick: What is the matter? Are they coming already?
Hilmar: No, no--but I must speak to some one immediately. (Goes out through the farther door on the left.)
