Reb. Yes, dear, in that you have a great and glorious object to attain—­and I wish you may get it!

Rosmer.  Thanks.  I think I shall. (Happens to look through window, and jumps.) Ah, no, I shan’t—­never now.  I have just seen—­

[Illustration]

Reb. Not the White Horse, dear?  We must really not overdo that White Horse!

Rosmer.  No—­the mill-race, where BEATA—­(Puts on his hat—­takes it off again.) I’m beginning to be haunted by—­no, I don’t mean the horse—­by a terrible suspicion that BEATA may have been right after all!  Yes, I do believe, now I come to think of it, that I must really have been in love with you from the first.  Tell me your opinion.

Reb. (struggling with herself, and still crocheting.) Oh—­I can’t exactly say—­such an odd question to ask me!

Rosmer (shakes his head).  Perhaps; I have no sense of humour—­no respectable Norwegian has—­and I do want to know—­because, you see, if I was in love with you, it was a sin, and if I once convinced myself of that—­

    [Wanders across the room.

Reb. (breaking out).  Oh, these old ancestral prejudices!  Here is your hat, and your stick, too; go and take a walk.

[ROSMER takes hat and stick, first, then goes out and takes a walk; presently Madam HELSETH appears, and tells REBECCA something.  REBECCA tells her something.  They whisper together.  Madam H. nods, and shows in Rector KROLL, who keeps his hat in his hand, and sits on a chair._

Kroll.  I merely called for the purpose of informing you that I consider you an artful and designing person, but that, on the whole, considering your birth and moral antecedents, you know—­(nods at her)—­it is not surprising. (REBECCA walks about, wringing her hands) Why, what is the matter?  Did you really not know that you had no right to your father’s name?  I’d no idea you would mind my mentioning such a trifle!

Reb. (breaking out).  I do mind.  I am an emancipated enigma, but I retain a few little prejudices still.  I don’t like owning to my real age, and I do prefer to be legitimate.  And, after your information—­of which I was quite ignorant, as my mother, the late Mrs. GAMVIK, never once alluded to it—­I feel I must confess everything.  Strong-minded advanced women are like that.  Here is ROSMER. (ROSMER enters with his hat and stick.) ROSMER, I want to tell you and Rector KROLL a little story.  Let us sit down, dear, all three of us. (They sit down, mechanically, on chairs.) A long time ago, before the play began—­(in a voice scarcely audible)—­in Ibsenite dramas, all the interesting things somehow do happen before the play begins—­

Rosmer.  But, REBECCA, I know all this.  KROLL—­(looks hard at her).  Perhaps I had better go?