No More Learning

SOLNESS: I can't bear to hear you say that. Stick to
what I said. Things 'll be easier in the new place.

MRS. SOLNESS _(lamenting)_: Oh heavens, easier!
Halvard, you can never build up a real home again for
_me. This_ is no home; It will be just as desolate, as
empty there as here.

[HILDA WANGEL _comes in_.

HILDA: Good-morning, Mr. Solness!

SOLNESS (_nods_): Slept well?

HILDA: Deliciously! As if in a cradle. Oh, I lay
and stretched myself like--like a princess. But I
dreamed I was falling over a precipice.
It's tremendously
thrilling when you fall and fall----

MRS. SOLNESS (_ready to go out_): I must go into town
now, Halvard. (_To_ HILDA) And I'll try to get one or
two things that may be of use to you.

HILDA: Oh, you dear, sweet Mrs. Solness. You're
frightfully kind----

MRS. SOLNESS: It's only my duty.

[MRS. SOLNESS _goes out_.

HILDA: What made her say that about her duty?
Doesn't it sting you?

SOLNESS: H'm! Haven't thought much about it.

HILDA: Yes it does. Why should she talk in that
way? She might have said something really warm and
cordial, you understand.