[_He sits down on sofa, and closes his eyes gently._
DR. RANK.
Did you notice it? [_With pride._] It was almost incredible the amount I contrived to put away. But I shall suffer for it to-morrow.
[_Gloomily._] Heredity again! I wish I was dead! I do.
NORA.
Don"t apologise. Torvald was just as bad; but he is always so good-tempered after champagne.
DOCTOR RANK.
Ah, well, I just looked in to say that I haven"t long to live. Don"t weep for me, Mrs. Helmer, it"s chronic--and hereditary too. Here are my P.P.C. cards. I"m a fading flower. Can you oblige me with a cigar?
NORA.
[_With a suppressed smile._] Certainly. Let me give you a light?
[DOCTOR RANK _lights his cigar, after several ineffectual attempts, and goes out_.
HELMER.
[_Compa.s.sionately._] Poo" old Rank--he"sh very bad to-ni"! [_Pulls himself together._] But I forgot--Bishness--I mean, bu-si-ness--mush be "tended to. I"ll go and see if there are any letters. [_Goes to box._]
Hallo! some one"s been at the lock with a hairpin--it"s one of _your_ hairpins!
[_Holding it out to her._
NORA.
[_Quickly._] Not mine--one of Bob"s, or Ivar"s--they both wear hairpins!
HELMER.
[_Turning over letters absently._] You must break them of it--bad habit!
What a lot o" lettersh! _double_ usual quant.i.ty. [_Opens_ KROGSTAD"S.]
By Jove! [_Reads it and falls back completely sobered._] What have you got to say to _this_?
NORA.
[_Crying aloud._] You shan"t save me--let me go! I _won"t_ be saved!
HELMER.
Save _you_, indeed! Who"s going to save _Me_? You miserable little criminal. [_Annoyed._] Ugh--ugh!
NORA.
[_With hardening expression._] Indeed, Torvald, your singing-bird acted for the best!
HELMER.
Singing-bird! Your father was a rook--and you take _after_ him. Heredity again! You have utterly destroyed my happiness. [_Walks round several times._] Just as I was beginning to get on, too!
NORA.
I have--but I will go away and jump into the water.
HELMER.
What good will _that_ do me? People will say I had a hand in this business. [_Bitterly._] If you _must_ forge, you might at least put your dates in correctly! But you never _had_ any principle! [_A ring._] The front-door bell! [_A fat letter is seen to fall into the box_; HELMER _takes it, opens it, sees enclosure, and embraces_ NORA.] Krogstad won"t split. See, he returns the forged I.O.U.! Oh, my poor little lark, _what_ you must have gone through! Come under my wing, my little scared song-bird.... Eh? you _won"t_! Why, what"s the matter _now_?
NORA.
[_With cold calm._] I have wings of my own, thank you, Torvald, and I mean to use them!
HELMER.
What--leave your pretty cage, and [_pathetically_] the old c.o.c.k bird, and the poor little innocent eggs!
NORA.
Exactly. Sit down, and we will talk it over first. [_Slowly._] Has it ever struck you that this is the first time you and I have ever talked seriously together about serious things?
HELMER.
Come, I do like that! How on earth could we talk about serious things when your mouth was always full of macaroons?
NORA.
[_Shakes her head._] Ah, Torvald, the mouth of a mother of a family should have more solemn things in it than macaroons! I see that now, too late. No, you have wronged me. So did papa. Both of you called me a doll, and a squirrel, and a lark! You might have made something of me--and instead of that, you went and made too much of me--oh, you _did_!
HELMER.
Well, you didn"t seem to object to it, and really I don"t exactly see what it is you _do_ want!
NORA.
No more do I--that is what I have got to find out. If I had been properly educated, I should have known better than to date poor papa"s signature three days after he died. Now I must educate _myself_. I have to gain experience, and get clear about religion, and law, and things, and whether Society is right or I am--and I must go away and never come back any more till I _am_ educated!
HELMER.
Then you may be away some little time? And what"s to become of me and the eggs meanwhile?
NORA.
That, Torvald, is entirely your own affair. I have a higher duty than that towards you and the eggs. [_Looking solemnly upward._] I mean my duty towards Myself!
HELMER.