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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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MRS. LINDEN Have you ever found me romantic? KROGSTAD Would you really-? Tell me: do you know all my past? MRS. LINDEN Yes. KROGSTAD And do you know what people say of me? MRS. LINDEN Did you not say just now that with me you could have been another man? KROGSTAD I am sure of it. MRS. LINDEN Is it too late? KROGSTAD Christina, do you know what you are doing? Yes, you do; I see it in your face. Have you the courage then-? MRS. LINDEN I need some one to be a mother to, and your children need a mother. You need me, and I-I need you. Nils, I believe in your better self. With you I fear nothing. KROGSTAD [Seizing her hands.] Thank you-thank you, Christina. Now I shall make others see me as you do.- Ah, I forgotMRS. LINDEN [Listening.] Hush! The tarantella! Go! go! KROGSTAD Why? What is it? MRS. LINDEN Don’t you hear the dancing overhead? As soon as that is over they will be here. KROGSTAD Oh yes, I shall go. Nothing will come of this, after all. Of course, you don’t know the step I have taken against the Helmers. MRS. LINDEN Yes, Nils, I do know. KROGSTAD And yet you have the courage to-? MRS. LINDEN I know to what lengths despair can drive a man. KROGSTAD Oh, if I could only undo it! MRS. LINDEN You could. Your letter is still in the box. KROGSTAD Are you sure? MRS. LINDEN Yes; butKROGSTAD [Looking to her searchingly.] Is that what it all means? You want to save your friend at any price. Say it out-is that your idea? MRS. LINDEN Nils, a woman who has once sold herself for the sake of others, does not do so again. KROGSTAD I shall demand my letter back again. MRS. LINDEN No, no. KROGSTAD Yes, of course. I shall wait till Helmer comes; I shall tell him to give it back to me-that it’s only about my dismissal-that I don’t want it readMRS. LINDEN No, Nils, you must not recall the letter. KROGSTAD But tell me, wasn’t that just why you got me to come here? MRS. LINDEN Yes, in my first alarm. But a day has passed since then, and in that day I have seen incredible things in this house. Helmer must know everything; there must be an end to this unhappy secret. These two must come to a full understanding. They must have done with all these shifts and subterfuges. |
