Well, so be it. But then, when our dear, sweet Hialmar went to college, he at once passed for the great light of the future amongst his comrades too! He was handsome, the rascal—red and white—a shop-girl’s dream of manly beauty; and with his superficially emotional temperament, and his sympathetic voice, and his talent for declaiming other people’s verses and other people’s thoughts——
Gregers.
[Indignantly.] Is it Hialmar Ekdal you are talking about in this strain?
Relling.
Yes, with your permission; I am simply giving you an inside view of the idol you are grovelling before.
Gregers.
I should hardly have thought I was quite stone blind.
Relling.
Yes you are—or not far from it. You are a sick man, too, you see.
Gregers.