Complete Works of Henrik Ibsen (181 page)

Bernick: Do you mean to say that you call that — ?

Lona: I call it a lie — a threefold lie: first of all, there is the lie towards me; then, the lie towards Betty; and then, the lie towards Johan.

Bernick: Betty has never asked me to speak.

Lona: Because she has known nothing.

Bernick: And you will not demand it — out of consideration for her.

Lona: Oh, no — I shall manage to put up with their gibes well enough; I have broad shoulders.

Bernick: And Johan will not demand it either; he has promised me that.

Lona: But you yourself, Karsten? Do you feel within yourself no impulse urging you to shake yourself free of this lie?

Bernick: Do you suppose that of my own free will I would sacrifice my family happiness and my position in the world?

Lona: What right have you to the position you hold?

Bernick: Every day during these fifteen years I have earned some little right to it — by my conduct, and by what I have achieved by my work.

Lona: True, you have achieved a great deal by your work, for yourself as well as for others. You are the richest and most influential man in the town; nobody in it dares do otherwise than defer to your will, because you are looked upon as a man without spot or blemish; your home is regarded as a model home, and your conduct as a model of conduct. But all this grandeur, and you with it, is founded on a treacherous morass. A moment may come and a word may be spoken, when you and all your grandeur will be engulfed in the morass, if you do not save yourself in time.

Bernick: Lona — what is your object in coming here?

Lona: I want to help you to get firm ground under your feet, Karsten.

Bernick: Revenge! — you want to revenge yourself! I suspected it. But you won’t succeed! There is only one person here that can speak with authority, and he will be silent.

Lona: You mean Johan?

Bernick: Yes, Johan. If any one else accuses me, I shall deny everything. If any one tries to crush me, I shall fight for my life. But you will never succeed in that, let me tell you! The one who could strike me down will say nothing — and is going away.

(RUMMEL and VIGELAND come in from the right.)

Rummel: Good morning, my dear Bernick, good morning. You must come up with us to the Commercial Association. There is a meeting about the railway scheme, you know.

Bernick: I cannot. It is impossible just now.

Vigeland: You really must, Mr. Bernick.

Rummel: Bernick, you must. There is an opposition to us on foot. Hammer, and the rest of those who believe in a line along the coast, are declaring that private interests are at the back of the new proposals.

Bernick: Well then, explain to them —

Vigeland: Our explanations have no effect, Mr. Bernick.

Rummel: No, no, you must come yourself. Naturally, no one would dare to suspect you of such duplicity.

Lona: I should think not.

Bernick: I cannot, I tell you; I am not well. Or, at all events, wait — let me pull myself together.
(RORLUND comes in from the right.)

Rorlund: Excuse me, Mr. Bernick, but I am terribly upset.

Bernick: Why, what is the matter with you?

Rorlund. I must put a question to you, Mr. Bernick. Is it with your consent that the young girl who has found a shelter under your roof shows herself in the open street in the company of a person who —

Lona: What person, Mr. Parson?

Rorlund: With the person from whom, of all others in the world, she ought to be kept farthest apart!

Lona: Ha! ha!

Rorlund: Is it with your consent, Mr. Bernick?

Bernick
(looking for his hat and gloves)
. I know nothing about it. You must excuse me; I am in a great hurry. I am due at the Commercial Association.

(HILMAR comes up from the garden and goes over to the farther door on the left.)

Hilmar: Betty — Betty, I want to speak to you.

Mrs. Bernick
(coming to the door)
: What is it?

Hilmar: You ought to go down into the garden and put a stop to the flirtation that is going on between a certain person and Dina Dorf! It has quite got on my nerves to listen to them.

Lona: Indeed! And what has the certain person been saying?

Hilmar: Oh, only that he wishes she would go off to America with him. Ugh!

Rorlund: Is it possible?

Mrs. Bernick: What do you say?

Lona: But that would be perfectly splendid!

Bernick: Impossible! You cannot have heard right.

Hilmar: Ask him yourself, then. Here comes the pair of them. Only, leave me out of it, please.

Bernick
(to RUMMEL and VIGELAND)
: I will follow you — in a moment.
(RUMMEL and VIGELAND go out to the right. JOHAN and DINA come up from the garden.)

Johan: Hurrah, Lona, she is going with us!

Mrs. Bernick: But, Johan — are you out of your senses?

Rorlund: Can I believe my ears! Such an atrocious scandal! By what arts of seduction have you — ?

Johan: Come, come, sir — what are you saying?

Rorlund: Answer me, Dina; do you mean to do this — entirely of your own free will?

Dina: I must get away from here.

Rorlund: But with him! — with him!

Dina: Can you tell me of any one else here who would have the courage to take me with him?

Rorlund: Very well, then — you shall learn who he is.

Johan: Do not speak!

Bernick: Not a word more!

Rorlund: If I did not, I should be unworthy to serve a community of whose morals I have been appointed a guardian, and should be acting most unjustifiably towards this young girl, in whose upbringing I have taken a material part, and who is to me —

Johan: Take care what you are doing!

Rorlund: She shall know! Dina, this is the man who was the cause of all your mother’s misery and shame.

Bernick: Mr. Rorlund — ?

Dina: He!
(TO JOHAN.)
Is this true?

Johan: Karsten, you answer.

Bernick: Not a word more! Do not let us say another word about it today.

Dina: Then it is true.

Rorlund: Yes, it is true. And more than that, this fellow — whom you were going to trust — did not run away from home empty-handed; ask him about old Mrs. Bernick’s cash-box.... Mr. Bernick can bear witness to that!

Lona: Liar

Bernick: Ah!

Mrs. Bernick: My God! my God!

Johan
(rushing at RORLUND with uplifted arm)
: And you dare to —

Lona
(restraining him)
: Do not strike him, Johan!

Rorlund: That is right, assault me! But the truth will out; and it is the truth — Mr. Bernick has admitted it — and the whole town knows it. Now, Dina, you know him.
(A short silence.)

Johan
(softly, grasping BERNICK by the arm)
: Karsten, Karsten, what have you done?

Mrs. Bernick
(in tears)
: Oh, Karsten, to think that I should have mixed you up in all this disgrace!

Sandstad
(coming in hurriedly from the right, and calling out, with his hand still on the door-handle)
: You positively must come now, Mr. Bernick. The fate of the whole railway is hanging by a thread.

Bernick
(abstractedly)
: What is it? What have I to —

Lona
(earnestly and with emphasis)
: You have to go and be a pillar of society, brother-in-law.

Sandstad: Yes, come along; we need the full weight of your moral excellence on our side.

Johan
(aside, to BERNICK)
: Karsten, we will have a talk about this tomorrow.
(Goes out through the garden. BERNICK, looking half dazed, goes out to the right with SANDSTAD.)

ACT II
I

(SCENE — The same room. BERNICK, with a cane in his hand and evidently in a great rage, comes out of the farther room on the left, leaving the door half-open behind him.)

Bernick
(speaking to his wife, who is in the other room)
: There! I have given it him in earnest now; I don’t think he will forget that thrashing! What do you say? — And I say that you are an injudicious mother! You make excuses for him, and countenance any sort of rascality on his part — Not rascality? What do you call it, then? Slipping out of the house at night, going out in a fishing boat, staying away till well on in the day, and giving me such a horrible fright when I have so much to worry me! And then the young scamp has the audacity to threaten that he will run away! Just let him try it! — You? No, very likely; you don’t trouble yourself much about what happens to him. I really believe that if he were to get killed — ! Oh, really? Well, I have work to leave behind me in the world; I have no fancy for being left childless — Now, do not raise objections, Betty; it shall be as I say — he is confined to the house.
(Listens.)
Hush; do not let any one notice anything.
(KRAP comes in from the right.)

Krap: Can you spare me a moment, Mr. Bernick?

Bernick
(throwing away the cane)
: Certainly, certainly. Have you come from the yard?

Krap: Yes. Ahem — !

Bernick: Well? Nothing wrong with the “Palm Tree,” I hope?

Krap: The “Palm Tree” can sail tomorrow, but

Bernick: It is the “Indian Girl,” then? I had a suspicion that that obstinate fellow —

Krap: The “Indian Girl” can sail tomorrow, too; but I am sure she will not get very far.

Bernick: What do you mean?

Krap: Excuse me, sir; that door is standing ajar, and I think there is some one in the other room —

Bernick
(shutting the door)
: There, then! But what is this that no one else must hear?

Krap: Just this — that I believe Aune intends to let the “Indian Girl” go to the bottom with every mother’s son on board.

Bernick: Good God! — what makes you think that?

Krap: I cannot account for it any other way, sir.

Bernick: Well, tell me as briefly as you can

Krap: I will. You know yourself how slowly the work has gone on in the yard since we got the new machines and the new inexperienced hands?

Bernick: Yes, yes.

Krap: But this morning, when I went down there, I noticed that the repairs to the American boat had made extraordinary progress; the great hole in the bottom — the rotten patch, you know —

Bernick: Yes, yes — what about it?

Krap: Was completely repaired — to all appearance at any rate, covered up — looked as good as new. I heard that Aune himself had been working at it by lantern light the whole night.

Bernick: Yes, yes — well?

Krap: I turned it over in my head for a bit; the hands were away at their breakfast, so I found an opportunity to have a look around the boat, both outside and in, without anyone seeing me. I had a job to get down to the bottom through the cargo, but I learned the truth. There is something very suspicious going on, Mr. Bernick.

Bernick: I cannot believe it, Krap. I cannot and will not believe such a thing of Aune.

Krap: I am very sorry — but it is the simple truth. Something very suspicious is going on. No new timbers put in, as far as I could see, only stopped up and tinkered at, and covered over with sailcloth and tarpaulins and that sort of thing — an absolute fraud. The “Indian Girl” will never get to New York; she will go to the bottom like a cracked pot.

Bernick: This is most horrible! But what can be his object, do you suppose?

Krap: Probably he wants to bring the machines into discredit — wants to take his revenge — wants to force you to take the old hands on again.

Bernick: And to do this he is willing to sacrifice the lives of all on board.

Krap: He said the other day that there were no men on board the “Indian Girl” — only wild beasts.

Bernick: Yes, but — apart from that — has he no regard for the great loss of capital it would mean?

Krap: Aune does not look upon capital with a very friendly eye, Mr. Bernick.

Bernick: That is perfectly true; he is an agitator and a fomenter of discontent; but such an unscrupulous thing as this — Look here, Krap; you must look into the matter once more. Not a word of it to any one. The blame will fall on our yard if any one hears anything of it.

Krap: Of course, but —

Bernick: When the hands are away at their dinner you must manage to get down there again; I must have absolute certainty about it.

Krap: You shall, sir; but, excuse me, what do you propose to do?

Bernick: Report the affair, naturally. We cannot, of course, let ourselves become accomplices in such a crime. I could not have such a thing on my conscience. Moreover, it will make a good impression, both on the press and on the public in general, if it is seen that I set all personal interests aside and let justice take its course.

Krap: Quite true, Mr. Bernick.

Bernick: But first of all I must be absolutely certain. And meanwhile, do not breathe a word of it.

Krap: Not a word, sir. And you shall have your certainty.
(Goes out through the garden and down the street.)

Bernick
(half aloud)
: Shocking! — But no, it is impossible! Inconceivable!

(As he turns to go into his room, HILMAR comes in from the right.)

Hilmar: Good morning, Karsten. Let me congratulate you on your triumph at the Commercial Association yesterday.

Bernick: Thank you.

Hilmar: It was a brilliant triumph, I hear; the triumph of intelligent public spirit over selfishness and prejudice — something like a raid of French troops on the Kabyles. It is astonishing that after that unpleasant scene here, you could —

Bernick: Yes, yes — quite so.

Hilmar: But the decisive battle has not been fought yet.

Bernick: In the matter of the railway, do you mean?

Hilmar: Yes; I suppose you know the trouble that Hammer is brewing?

Bernick
(anxiously)
: No, what is that?

Hilmar: Oh, he is greatly taken up with the rumour that is going around, and is preparing to dish up an article about it.

Bernick: What rumour?

Hilmar: About the extensive purchase of property along the branch line, of course.

Bernick: What? Is there such a rumour as that going about?

Hilmar: It is all over the town. I heard it at the club when I looked in there. They say that one of our lawyers has quietly bought up, on commission, all the forest land, all the mining land, all the waterfalls —

Bernick: Don’t they say whom it was for?

Hilmar: At the club they thought it must be for some company, not connected with this town, that has got a hint of the scheme you have in hand, and has made haste to buy before the price of these properties went up. Isn’t it villainous? — ugh!

Bernick: Villainous?

Hilmar: Yes, to have strangers putting their fingers into our pie — and one of our own local lawyers lending himself to such a thing! And now it will be outsiders that will get all the profits!

Bernick: But, after all, it is only an idle rumour.

Hilmar: Meanwhile people are believing it, and tomorrow or the next day, I have no doubt Hammer will nail it to the counter as a fact. There is a general sense of exasperation in the town already. I heard several people say that if the rumour were confirmed they would take their names off the subscription lists.

Bernick: Impossible!

Hilmar: Is it? Why do you suppose these mercenary-minded creatures were so willing to go into the undertaking with you? Don’t you suppose they have scented profit for themselves —

Bernick: It is impossible, I am sure; there is so much public spirit in our little community —

Hilmar: In our community? Of course you are a confirmed optimist, and so you judge others by yourself. But I, who am a tolerably experienced observer — ! There isn’t a single soul in the place — excepting ourselves, of course — not a single soul in the place who holds up the banner of the Ideal.
(Goes towards the verandah.)
Ugh, I can see them there —

Bernick: See whom?

Hilmar: Our two friends from America.
(Looks out to the right.)
And who is that they are walking with? As I am alive, if it is not the captain of the “Indian Girl.” Ugh!

Bernick: What can they want with him?

Hilmar. Oh, he is just the right company for them. He looks as if he had been a slave-dealer or a pirate; and who knows what the other two may have been doing all these years.

Bernick: Let me tell you that it is grossly unjust to think such things about them.

Hilmar: Yes — you are an optimist. But here they are, bearing down upon us again; so I will get away while there is time.
(Goes towards the door on the left. LONA comes in from the right.)

Lona: Oh, Hilmar, am I driving you away?

Hilmar: Not at all; I am in rather a hurry; I want to have a word with Betty.
(Goes into the farthest room on the left.)

Bernick
(after a moment’s silence)
: Well, Lona?

Lona: Yes?

Bernick: What do you think of me today?

Lona: The same as I did yesterday. A lie more or less —

Bernick: I must enlighten you about it. Where has Johan gone?

Lona: He is coming; he had to see a man first.

Bernick: After what you heard yesterday, you will understand that my whole life will be ruined if the truth comes to light.

Lona: I can understand that.

Bernick: Of course, it stands to reason that I was not guilty of the crime there was so much talk about here.

Lona: That stands to reason. But who was the thief?

Bernick: There was no thief. There was no money stolen — not a penny.

Lona: How is that?

Bernick: Not a penny, I tell you.

Lona: But those rumours? How did that shameful rumour get about that Johan —

Bernick: Lona, I think I can speak to you as I could to no one else. I will conceal nothing from you. I was partly to blame for spreading the rumour.

Lona: You? You could act in that way towards a man who for your sake — !

Bernick: Do not condemn me without bearing in mind how things stood at that time. I told you about it yesterday. I came home and found my mother involved in a mesh of injudicious undertakings; we had all manner of bad luck — it seemed as if misfortunes were raining upon us, and our house was on the verge of ruin. I was half reckless and half in despair. Lona, I believe it was mainly to deaden my thoughts that I let myself drift into that entanglement that ended in Johan’s going away.

Lona: Hm —

Bernick: You can well imagine how every kind of rumour was set on foot after you and he had gone. People began to say that it was not his first piece of folly — that Dorf had received a large sum of money to hold his tongue and go away; other people said that she had received it. At the same time it was obvious that our house was finding it difficult to meet its obligations. What was more natural than that scandal-mongers should find some connection between these two rumours? And as the woman remained here, living in poverty, people declared that he had taken the money with him to America; and every time rumour mentioned the sum, it grew larger.