Ghosts: A Domestic Tragedy in Three Acts

DRAMATIS PERSONAE
Mrs. Alving (a widow). Oswald Alving (her son, an artist). Manders (the Pastor of the parish). Engstrand (a carpenter). Regina Engstrand (his daughter, in Mrs Alving's service).
(The action takes place at Mrs Alving's house on one of the larger fjords of Western Norway.)

(SCENE.—A large room looking upon a garden door in the left-hand wall, and two in the right. In the middle of the room, a round table with chairs set about it, and books, magazines and newspapers upon it. In the foreground on the left, a window, by which is a small sofa with a work-table in front of it. At the back the room opens into a conservatory rather smaller than the room. From the right-hand side of this, a door leads to the garden. Through the large panes of glass that form the outer wall of the conservatory, a gloomy fjord landscape can be discerned, half-obscured by steady rain.
ENGSTRAND is standing close to the garden door. His left leg is slightly deformed, and he wears a boot with a clump of wood under the sole. REGINA, with an empty garden-syringe in her hand, is trying to prevent his coming in.)
Regina (below her breath). What is it you want? Stay where you are. The rain is dripping off you.
Engstrand. God's good rain, my girl.
Regina. The Devil's own rain, that's what it is!
Engstrand. Lord, how you talk, Regina. (Takes a few limping steps forward.) What I wanted to tell you was this—
Regina. Don't clump about like that, stupid! The young master is lying asleep upstairs.
Engstrand. Asleep still? In the middle of the day?