Helmer-Do you ask me that? Your duties to your husband and your children. Nora I have other duties equally sacred. Helmer or at least Before all else you are a wife and a mother. Nora-That I no longer believe. I think that before all else I am a human being, just as much as you are I will try to become one. I know that most people agree with you, Torvald, and that they say so in books. But henceforth I can't be satisfied with what most people say, and what is in books. I must think things out for myself, and try to get clear about them. Helmer Are you not clear about your place in your own home? Have you not an infallible guide in questions like these? Have you not religion? Nora — Oh, Torvald, I don't know properly what religion is. Nora-I know nothing but what our clergyman told me when I was confirmed. He explained that religion was this and that. When I get away from here and stand alone, I I will look into that matter too. I will see whether what he has taught me is true, or, at any rate, whether it is true for me. Helmer-Oh, this is unheard of! But if religion cannot keep you right, let me appeal to your conscience-for I suppose you have some moral feeling? Or, answer me perhaps you have none? Nora-Well, Torvald, it's not easy to say. I really don't know — I'm all at sea about these things. I only know that I think quite differently from you about them. I hear, too, that the laws are different from what I thought; but I can't believe that they are right. It appears that a woman has no right to spare her dying father, or to save her husband's life. I don't believe that. Helmer - You talk like a child. You don't understand the society in which you live. Nora-No, I don't. But I shall try to. my mind which is right—society or I. Helmer - Nora, you are ill, you are feverish. I almost think you're out of your senses. Nora I have never felt so much clearness and certainty as to-night. - Helmer You are clear and certain enough to forsake husband and children? Nora Yes, I am. Helmer - Then there's only one explanation possible. Nora What is that? Helmer You no longer love me. Nora No; that is just it. Helmer Nora! can you say so? Nora - Oh, I'm so sorry, Torvald; for you've always been so kind to me. But I can't help it. I do not love you any longer. Helmer [keeping his composure with difficulty] — Are you clear and certain on this point too? -- Nora Yes, quite. That is why I won't stay here any longer. Helmer-And can you also make clear to me how I have forfeited your love? Nora - Yes, I can. It was this evening, when the miracle did not happen; for then I saw you were not the man I had taken you for. Helmer-Explain yourself more clearly; I don't under stand. Nora - I have waited so patiently all these eight years; for of course I saw clearly enough that miracles don't happen every day. When this crushing blow threatened me, I said to myself confidently, "Now comes the miracle!" When Krogstad's letter lay in the box, it never occurred to me that you would think of submitting to that man's conditions. I was convinced that you would say to him, "Make it known to all the world; " and that then Helmer - Well? When I had given my own wife's name up to disgrace and shame Nora - Then I firmly believed that you would come forward, take everything upon yourself, and say, "I am the guilty one." Helmer-Nora! Nora-You mean I would never have accepted such a sacrifice? No, certainly not. But what would my assertions have been worth in opposition to yours? That was the miracle that I hoped for and dreaded. And it was to hinder that that I wanted to die. Helmer I would gladly work for you day and night, Nora -bear sorrow and want for your sake—but no man sacrifices his honor, even for one he loves. Nora Millions of women have done so. Helmer -Oh, you think and talk like a silly child. Nora - Very likely. But you neither think nor talk like the man I can share my life with. When your terror was over -not for me, but for yourself when there was nothing more to fear, then it was to you as though nothing had happened. I was your lark again, your doll — whom you would take twice as much care of in future, because she was so weak and fragile. [Stands up.] Torvald, in that moment it burst upon me that I had been living here these eight years with a strange man, and had borne him three children. Oh! I can't bear to think of it I could tear myself to pieces! Helmer [sadly]-I see it, I see it; an abyss has opened -between us. But, Nora, can it never be filled up? you. Nora As I now am, I am no wife for you. Helmer I have strength to become another man. Nora - Perhaps - when your doll is taken away from Helmer-To part-to part from you! No, Nora, no; I can't grasp the thought. Nora [going into room, right]—The more reason for the thing to happen. [She comes back with outdoor things and a small traveling Wait till to-morrow. Nora [putting on cloak]—I can't spend the night in a strange man's house. Helmer But can't we live here as brother and sister? Nora [fastening her hat]· You know very well that wouldn't last long. Good-by, Torvald. No, I won't go to the children. I know they're in better hands than mine. I now am, I can be nothing to them. Helmer But sometime, Nora; sometime As Nora - How can I tell? I have no idea what will become of me. Helmer-But you are my wife, now and always! Nora-Listen, Torvald when a wife leaves her husband's house, as I am doing, I have heard that in the eyes of the law he is free from all duties towards her. At any rate, I release you from all duties. You must not feel yourself bound any more than I shall. There must be perfect freedom on both sides. There, there is your ring back. Give me mine. Helmer That too? Nora- That too. Helmer-Here it is. Nora - Very well. Now it's all over. Here are the keys. The servants know about everything in the house, better than I do. To-morrow, when I have started, Christina will come to pack up my things. I will have them sent after me. Helmer - All over! all over! Nora, will you never think of me again? Nora Oh, I shall often think of you, and the children, and this house. Helmer-May I write to you, Nora? Nora No, never. You must not. Helmer I must help you if you need it. Nora-No, I say. No, I say. I take nothing from strangers. you? Nora [taking her traveling bag] - Oh, Torvald, then the miracle of miracles would have to happen. Helmer-What is the miracle of miracles? Nora - Both of us would have to change so that Torvald, I no longer believe in miracles. Helmer But I will believe. We must so change that Oh, Nora That communion between us shall be a marriage. Good-by. [She goes out. Helmer [sinks in a chair by the door with his face in his hands] - Nora! Nora! [He looks round and stands up.] Empty. She's gone. [A hope inspires him.] Ah! miracle of miracles The [From below is heard the reverberation of a heavy door closing. 66 A PASTOR'S LOVE.1 BY ÉDOUARD ROD. (From "The White Rocks": translated by J. C. Brogan.) [ÉDOUARD ROD: A French author; born at Nyon in 1857. He studied at Berne and Berlin, and soon became recognized as a brilliant and scholarly essayist. He declined the chair of foreign literature in the University of Geneva. He subsequently established a reputation as a novelist. Among his works are: "A Propos de L'Assommoir' (1879), "The Germans at Paris" (1880), "Palmyre Veulard" (1881), “La Chute de Miss Topsy" (1882), “L'Autopsie du Docteur Z——" (2d ed., 1884), "La Femme d'Henry Vanneau" (1884), Wagner and the German Esthetic" (1886), "La Course à la Mort" (1888), Études sur le XIX Siècle" (1888), "The Meaning of Life" (1889), "Scènes de la Vie Cosmopolite" (1890), "Nouvelles Romandes " (1891), "Dante " (1891), "Stendhal" (1891), “Les Idées Morales du Temps Présent" (1892), "La Sacrifiée" (1892), "La Vie Privée de Michel Tessier (1893), "La Seconde Vie de Michel Tessier" (1894), "Le Silence" (1894), "Les Roches Blanches" (1895), Là-Haut," (1897), and "Essai sur Goethe " (1898).] 66 e I. ANTOINETTE let some moments pass, as if to give him time for the enjoyment of this furtive sentiment which nothing yet tarnished. Then she answered, without allowing the softness of her voice to be impaired by the half-severity of her words: "We must not exaggerate; love and charity ought not to lead to criminal indulgence. I should not like you to misunderstand me. I do not excuse this unfortunate girl; I pity her; that's all. And if I take an interest in her fate, it is because I think she may be saved." Had she, then, divined his obscure thoughts -thoughts not yet reduced to form, moving about hither and thither unseen in the deep recesses of his heart and making him already feel compassionate towards the failings of others in order to render him compassionate towards himself? He turned away his eyes without answering Mme. Massod de Bussens, and changed the conversation. "Your household arrangements are all completed now?" she asked, after a short silence. Trembloz hastened to enter into some details: "Yes, madame, our preparations did not give us much trou 1 Copyright, 1896, by T. Y. Crowell & Co. Used by permission. |