Hedvig. Oh! they arrange things for her, and build for her, and all that.
Gregers. I understand; for I suppose the wild duck’s the most distinguished personage in there.
Hedvig. Of course she is; for she’s a real wild bird. And it’s a pity about her, too, for she has no one to care for, poor thing.
Gregers. She hasn’t a family like the rabbits.
Hedvig. No. The fowls, too, have so many they were chicks with together, but she has been taken right away from all her own. And then it’s all so strange about those wild ducks. No one knows them, and nobody knows where they come from either.
Gregers. And so she has been to the ocean depths.
Hedvig (looks up at him for a moment and smiles). Why do you say “the ocean depths?”
Gregers. What else should I say?
Hedvig. You might have said the “bottom of the sea,” or the “sea bottom.”
Gregers. Oh! mayn’t I just as well say in the ocean depths?