DR. ÖSTERMARK. Yes, that's what happens when one drinks too much. But this is more bitter than I ever thought it could be. I have killed little unborn children to be able to save the mother, and I have felt them tremble in their fight against death. I have cut living muscles, and have seen the marrow flow like butter from healthy bones, but never has anything hurt me so much as this since the day you left me. Then it was as if you had gone away with one of my lungs, so I could only gasp with the other!—Oh, I feel as if I were suffocating now!
MRS. HALL. Help me out of here. It's too noisy. I don't know why we came here, anyway. Give me your hand.
DR. ÖSTERMARK [Leading her to door]. Before it was I who asked for your hand; and it rested so heavily on me, the little delicate hand! Once it struck my face, the little delicate hand, but I kissed it nevertheless.—Oh, now it is withered, and will never strike again.—Ah, dolce Napoli! Joy of life, what became of it? You who were the bride of my youth!
MRS. HALL [In the hall door]. Where is my wrap?
DR. ÖSTERMARK [Closing door]. In the hall, probably. This is horrible! [Lights a cigar]. Oh, dolce Napoli! I wonder if it is as delightful as it's said to be in that cholera breeding fishing harbor. Blague, no doubt! Blague! Blague! Naples—bridal couples, love, joy of life, antiquities, modernity, liberalism, conservatism, idealism, realism, naturalism,—blague, blague, the whole thing!
[Axel, Abel, Willmer, Mrs. Starck and Bertha come in from orchard.]
MRS. STARCK. What is happening to the doctor?
DR. ÖSTERMARK. Pardon, it was only a little qui pro quo. Two strangers sneaked in here and we had to identify them.
MRS. STARCK. The girls?
CARL. Well, that has nothing to do with you. I don't know why, but I seem to feel "the enemy in the air."