Helmer. Well?
Rank. At the next masquerade I shall appear invisible.
Helmer. What a comical idea!
Rank. Don’t you know there is a big black hat—haven’t you heard stories of the hat that made people invisible? You pull it all over you, and then nobody sees you.... But I am quite forgetting why I came in here. Helmer, just give me a cigar—one of the dark Havanas.... Thanks. (He lights his cigar.) And now good-bye ... and thank you for the light.
[He nods to them both and goes.—A Doll’s House, pp. 96-100.]
[320] Frau Alving is speaking with Pastor Manders, and is just relating that she was one day witness to a scene in the adjoining room which proved to her that her departed husband was carrying on an intrigue with her maidservant. In the next room are Oswald, her son, and Regina, the offspring of the intercourse of her husband with the maidservant.
[From within the dining room comes the noise of a chair overturned,
and at the same moment is heard:
Regina (sharply, but whispering). Oswald, take care! Are you mad? Let me go!
Mrs. Alving (starts in terror). Ah! (She stares wildly towards the half opened door; Oswald is heard coughing and humming inside. A bottle is uncorked.)
Manders (excited). What in the world is the matter? What is it, Mrs. Alving?