THIRD ACT.
On the right, a smart verandah, attached to Dr. Herdal's dwelling-house, and communicating with the Drawing-room and Dispensary by glass-doors. On the left a tumble-down rockery, with a headless plaster Mercury. In front, a lawn, with a large silvered glass globe on a stand. Chairs and tables. All the furniture is of galvanised iron. A sunset is seen going on among the trees.
Dr. Herdal (comes out of Dispensary-door cautiously, and whispers). Hilda, are you in there?
[Taps with fingers on Drawing-room door.
Hilda (comes out with a half-teasing smile). Well—and how is the Rainbow-powder getting on, Dr. Herdal?
Dr. Herd. (with enthusiasm). It is getting on simply splendidly. I sent the new Assistant out to take a little walk, so that he should not be in the way. There is Arsenic in the powder, Hilda, and Digitalis too, and Strychnine, and the best Beetle-killer!
Hilda (with happy, wondering eyes). Lots of Beetle-killer? And you will give some of it to her, to make her free and buoyant. I think one really has the right—when people happen to stand in the way——!
Dr. Herd. Yes, you may well say so, Hilda. Still—(dubiously)—it does occur to me that such doings may perhaps be misunderstood—by the narrow-minded and conventional.
[They go on the lawn, and sit down.
Hilda (with an outburst). Oh, that all seems to me so foolish—so irrelevant! As if the whole thing wasn't intended as an Allegory!
Dr. Herd. (relieved). Ah, so long as it is merely allegorical of course—— But what is it an allegory of, Hilda?
Hilda (reflects in vain). How can you sit there and ask such questions? I suppose I am a symbol, of some sort.
Dr. Herd. (as a thought flashes upon him). A cymbal? That would certainly account for your bra—— Then am I a cymbal too, Hilda?
Hilda. Why yes—what else? You represent the Artist-worker, or the Elder Generation, or the Pursuit of the Ideal, or a Bilious Conscience—or something or other. You're all right!
Dr. Herd. (shakes his head). Am I? But I don't quite see—— Well, well, cymbals are meant to clash a little. And I see plainly now that I ought to prescribe this powder for as many as possible. Isn't it terrible, Hilda, that so many poor souls never really die their own deaths—pass out of the world without even the formality of an inquest? As the district Coroner, I feel strongly on the subject.
Hilda. And, when the Coroner has finished sitting on all the bodies, perhaps—but I shan't tell you now. (Speaks as if to a child.) There, run away and finish making the Rainbow-powder, do!
Dr. Herd. (skips up into the Dispensary). I will—I will! Oh, I do feel such a troll—such a light-haired, light-headed old devil!
Rübub (enters garden-gate). I have had my dismissal—but I'm not going without saying good-bye to Mrs. Herdal.
Hilda. Dr. Herdal would disapprove—you really must not, Mr. Kalomel. And, besides, Mrs. Herdal is not at home. She is in the town buying me a reel of cotton. Dr. Herdal is in. He is making real Rainbow powders for regenerating everybody all round. Won't that be fun?
Rübub. Making powders? Ha! ha! But you will see he won't take one himself. It is quite notorious to us younger men that he simply daren't do it.
Hilda. (with a little snort of contempt). Oh, I daresay—that's so likely! (Defiantly.) I know he can, though. I've seen him!
Rübub. There is a tradition that he once—but not now—he knows better. I think you said Mrs. Herdal was in the town? I will go and look for her. I understand her so well. [Goes out by gate.
Hilda (calls). Dr. Herdal! Come out this minute. I want you—awfully!
Dr. Herd. (puts his head out). Just when I am making such wonderful progress with the powder! (Comes down and leans on a table.) Have you hit upon some way of giving it to Aline? I thought if you were to put it in her arrowroot——?
Hilda. No, thanks. I won't have that now. I have just recollected that it is a rule of mine never to injure anybody I have once been formally introduced to. Strangers don't count. No, poor Mrs. Herdal mustn't take that powder!
Dr. Herd. (disappointed). Then is nothing to come of making Rainbow powders, after all, Hilda?
Hilda (looks hard at him). People say you are afraid to take your own physic. Is that true?
Dr. Herd. Yes, I am. (After a pause—with candour.) I find it invariably disagrees with me.
Hilda (with a half-dubious smile). I think I can understand that. But you did once. You swallowed your own pills that day at the table d'hôte, ten years ago. And I heard a harp in the air, too!
Dr. Herd. (open-mouthed). I don't think that could have been Me. I don't play any instrument. And that was quite a special thing, too. It's not every day I can do it. Those were only bread pills, Hilda.
Hilda (with flashing eyes). But you rolled them; you took them. And I want to see you stand once more free and high and great, swallowing your own preparations. (Passionately.) I will have you do it! (Imploringly.) Just once more, Dr. Herdal!
Dr. Herd. If I did, Hilda, my medical knowledge, slight as it is, leads me to the conclusion that I should in all probability burst.
Hilda (looks deeply into his eyes). So long as you burst beautifully! But no doubt that Miss Blakdraf——
Dr. Herd. You must believe in me utterly and entirely. I will do anything—anything, Hilda, to provide you with agreeable entertainment. I will swallow my own powder! (To himself, as he goes gravely up to Dispensary.) If only the drugs are sufficiently adulterated!
[Goes in; as he does so, the New Assistant enters the garden in blue spectacles, unseen by Hilda, and follows him, leaving open the glass-door.
Senna Blakdraf (comes wildly out of Drawing-room). Where is dear Dr. Herdal? Oh, Miss Wangel, he has discharged me—but I can't—I simply can't live away from that lovely ledger!
Hilda (jubilantly). At this moment Dr. Herdal is in the Dispensary, taking one of his own powders.
Senna (despairingly). But—but it is utterly impossible! Miss Wangel, you have such a firm hold of him—don't let him do that!
Hilda. I have already done all I can.
[Rübub appears, talking confidentially with Mrs. Herdal, at gate.
Senna. Oh, Mrs. Herdal, Rübub! The Pill-Doctor is going to take one of his own preparations. Save him—quick!
Rübub (with cold politeness). I am sorry to hear it—for his sake. But it would be quite contrary to professional etiquette to prevent him.
Mrs. Herd. And I never interfere with my husband's proceedings. I know my duty, Miss Blakdraf, if others don't!
Hilda (exulting with great intensity). At last! Now I see him in there, great and free again, mixing the powder in a spoon—with jam!.... Now he raises the spoon. Higher—higher still! (A gulp is audible from within.) There, didn't you hear a harp in the air? (Quietly.) I can't see the spoon any more. But there is one he is striving with, in blue spectacles!
"My—my Pill-Doctor!"
The New Assistant's Voice (within). The Pill-Doctor Herdal has taken his own powder!
Hilda (as if petrified). That voice! Where have I heard it before? No matter—he has got the powder down! (Waves a shawl in the air, and shrieks with wild jubilation.) It's too awfully thrilling! My—my Pill-Doctor!
The N. A. (comes out on verandah). I am happy to inform you that—as, to avoid accidents, I took the simple precaution of filling all the Dispensary-jars with Camphorated Chalk—no serious results may be anticipated from Dr. Herdal's rashness. (Removes spectacles.) Nora, don't you know me?
Hilda (reflects). I really don't remember having the pleasure——And I'm sure I heard a harp in the air!
Mrs. Herd. I fancy, Miss Wangel, it must have been merely a bee in your bonnet!
The N. A. (tenderly). Still the same little singing-bird! Oh, Nora, my long-lost lark!
Hilda (sulky). I'm not a lark—I'm a Bird of Prey—and, when I get my claws into anything——!
The N. A. Macaroons, for instance? I remember your tastes of old. See, Nora! (Produces a paper-bag from his coat-tail pocket.) They were fresh this morning!
Hilda (wavering). If you insist on calling me Nora, I think you must be just a little mad yourself.
The N. A. We are all a little mad—in Norway. But Torvald Helmer is sane enough still to recognise his own little squirrel again! Surely, Nora, your education is complete at last—you have gained the experience you needed?
Hilda (nods slowly). Yes, Torvald, you're right enough there. I have thought things out for myself, and have got clear about them. And I have quite made up my mind that Society and the Law are all wrong, and that I am right.
Helmer (overjoyed). Then you have learnt the Great Lesson, and are fit to undertake the charge of your children's education at last! You've no notion how they've grown! Yes, Nora, our marriage will be a true marriage now. You will come back to the Doll's-House, won't you?
Hilda-Nora-Helmer-Wangel (hesitates). Will you let me forge cheques if I do, Torvald?
Helmer (ardently). All day. And at night, Nora, we will falsify the accounts—together!
H. N. H. W. (throws herself into his arms, and helps herself to macaroons). That will be fearfully thrilling! My—my Manager!
Dr. Herd. (comes out, very pale, from Dispensary). Hilda, I did take the——I'm afraid I interrupt you?
Helmer. Not in the least. But this lady is my little lark, and she is going back to her cage by the next steamer.
Dr. Herd. (bitterly). Am I never to have a gleam of happiness—? But stay—do I see my little Senna once more?
Rübub. Pardon me—my little Senna. She always believed so firmly in my pill!
Dr. Herd. Well—well. If it must be. Rübub, I will take you into partnership, and we will take out a patent for that pill, jointly. Aline, my poor dear Aline, let us try once more if we cannot bring a ray of brightness into our cheerless home!
Mrs. Herd. Oh, Haustus, if only we could—but why do you propose that to me—now?
Dr. Herd. (softly—to himself). Because I have tried being a troll—and found that nothing came of it, and it wasn't worth sixpence!
[Hilda-Nora goes off to the right with Helmer; Senna to the left with Rübub; Dr. Herdal and Mrs. Herdal sit on two of the galvanised iron-chairs, and shake their heads disconsolately as the Curtain falls.
The End.