ACT FIRST.
A spacious garden-room in Consul Bernick’s house. In front, to the left, a door lends into the Consul’s office; farther back, in the same wall, a similar door. In the middle of the opposite wall is a large entrance door. The back wall is almost entirely composed of plate-glass, with an open doorway leading to a broad flight of steps,[[23]] over which a sun-shade is let down. Beyond the steps a part of the garden can be seen, enclosed by a railing with a little gate. Beyond the railing, and running parallel with it, is a street of small, brightly painted wooden houses. It is summer, and the sun shines warmly. Now and then people pass along the street: they stop and speak to each other: customers come and go at the little corner shop, and so forth.
In the garden-room a number of ladies are gathered round a table. At the head of the table sits Mrs. Bernick. On her left sit Mrs. Holt and her daughter; next to them, Mrs. and Miss Rummel. On Mrs. Bernick’s right sit Mrs. Lynge, Miss Bernick (Martha), and Dina Dorf. All the ladies are busy sewing. On the table lie large heaps of half-finished and cut-out linen, and other articles of clothing. Farther back, at a little table on which are two flower-pots and a glass of eau sucré, sits Doctor Rörlund, reading from a book with gilt edges, a word here and there being heard by the audience. Out in the garden Olaf Bernick is running about, shooting at marks with a crossbow.
Presently Aune, the foreman shipbuilder, enters quietly by the door on the right. The reading ceases for a moment; Mrs. Bernick nods to him and points to the left-hand door. Aune goes quietly to the Consul’s door, knocks softly, pauses a moment, then knocks again. Krap, the Consul’s clerk, opens the door and comes out with his hat in his hand and papers under his arm.
Krap.
Oh, it’s you knocking?
Aune.
The Consul sent for me.
Krap.
Yes; but he can’t see you just now; he has commissioned me——