Hjalmar. Very simply. Gina didn’t stop here long, for there was so much confusion here at that time—your mother’s illness—Gina could not see to everything, so she gave notice and left. That was a year before your mother’s death—or maybe the same year.
Gregers. It was the same year, and I was up at the Works at the time. And then afterwards——
Hjalmar. Well, Gina lived at home with her mother, a Mrs. Hansen—a very worthy and hard-working woman, who kept a small eating-house. And she had a room to let, too, a very pretty, comfortable room.
Gregers. And you were probably delighted to take it?
Hjalmar. Yes, indeed; it was your father who suggested it to me. And there, you see—there I really got to know Gina.
Gregers. And so you got engaged?
Hjalmar. Yes. Young folk soon get to care for one another—h’m——
Gregers (rises and walks up and down). Tell me—when you got engaged—was it then that father—I mean—was it then that you began to take up photography?
Hjalmar. Exactly, for I was anxious to settle down as soon as possible. And so both your father and I thought photography would be the likeliest thing, and Gina thought so, too. And there was a reason for that, you see, it fitted in so well, as Gina had learnt to retouch.
Gregers. That fitted in most remarkably.