John Gabriel Borkman Part 39

BORKMAN.

[Speaking very hoa.r.s.ely.] Oho--my lady is concerned about her health? Yes, yes--I know it is delicate.

ELLA RENTHEIM.

It is your health I am concerned about.

BORKMAN.

Hohoho! A dead man's health! I can't help laughing at you, Ella! [He moves onwards.

ELLA RENTHEIM.

[Following him: holding him back.] What did you call yourself?

BORKMAN.

A dead man, I said. Don't you remember, Gunhild told me to lie quiet where I was?

ELLA RENTHEIM.

[With resolution, throwing her cloak around her.] I will go with you, John.

BORKMAN.

Yes, we two belong to each other, Ella. [Advancing.] So come!

[They have gradually pa.s.sed into the low wood on the left.

It conceals them little by little, until they are quite lost to sight. The house and the open s.p.a.ce disappear.

The landscape, consisting of wooded slopes and ridges, slowly changes and grows wilder and wilder.

ELLA RENTHEIM's VOICE.

[Is heard in the wood to the right.] Where are we going, John?

I don't recognise this place.

BORKMAN's VOICE.

[Higher up.] Just follow my footprints in the snow!

ELLA RENTHEIM's VOICE.

But why need we climb so high?

BORKMAN's VOICE.

[Nearer at hand.] We must go up the winding path.

ELLA RENTHEIM.

[Still hidden.] Oh, but I can't go much further.

BORKMAN.

[On the verge of the wood to the right.] Come, come! We are not far from the view now. There used to be a seat there.

ELLA RENTHEIM.

[Appearing among the trees.] Do you remember it?

BORKMAN.

You can rest there.

[They have emerged upon a small high-lying, open plateau in the wood. The mountain rises abruptly behind them. To the left, far below, an extensive fiord landscape, with high ranges in the distance, towering one above the other.

On the plateau, to the left, a dead fir-tree with a bench under it. The snow lies deep upon the plateau.

[BORKMAN and, after him, ELLA RENTHEIM enter from the right and wade with difficulty through the snow.

BORKMAN.

[Stopping at the verge of the steep declivity on the left.]

Come here, Ella, and you shall see.

ELLA RENTHEIM.

[Coming up to him.] What do you want to show me, John?

BORKMAN.

[Pointing outwards.] Do you see how free and open the country lies before us--away to the far horizon?

ELLA RENTHEIM.

We have often sat on this bench before, and looked out into a much, much further distance.

BORKMAN.

It was a dreamland we then looked out over.

ELLA RENTHEIM.

[Nodding sadly.] It was the dreamland of our life, yes. And now that land is buried in snow. And the old tree is dead.

BORKMAN.

[Not listening to her.] Can you see the smoke of the great steamships out on the fiord?

ELLA RENTHEIM.

No.

BORKMAN.

I can. They come and they go. They weave a network of fellowship all round the world. They shed light and warmth over the souls of men in many thousands of homes. That was what I dreamed of doing.

ELLA RENTHEIM.

[Softly.] And it remained a dream.

BORKMAN.

It remained a dream, yes. [Listening.] And hark, down by the river, dear! The factories are working! My factories! All those that I would have created! Listen! Do you hear them humming? The night shift is on--so they are working night and day. Hark! hark!

the wheels are whirling and the bands are flashing--round and round and round. Can't you hear, Ella?

ELLA RENTHEIM.

No.

BORKMAN.

I can hear it.

ELLA RENTHEIM.

[Anxiously.] I think you are mistaken, John.