[Shrieks.] Oh no, no-!

HEDDA.

[Involuntarily.] But that's not- LOVBORG.

[Looks at her.] Not true, you think?

HEDDA.

[Collecting herself.] Oh well, of course-since you say so. But it sounded so improbable- LOVBORG.

It is true, all the same.

MRS. ELVSTED.

[Wringing her hands.] Oh G.o.d-oh G.o.d, Hedda-torn his own work to pieces!

LOVBORG.

I have torn my own life to pieces. So why should I not tear my life-work too-?

MRS. ELVSTED.

And you did this last night?

LOVBORG.

Yes, I tell you! Tore it into a thousand pieces-and scattered them on the fiord-far out. There there is cool sea-water at any rate-let them drift upon it-drift with the current and the wind. And then presently they will sink-deeper and deeper-as I shall, Thea.

MRS. ELVSTED.

Do you know, Lovborg, that what you have done with the book-I shall think of it to my dying day as though you had killed a little child.

LOVBORG.

Yes, you are right. It is a sort of child-murder.

MRS. ELVSTED.

How could you, then-! Did not the child belong to me too?

HEDDA.

[Almost inaudibly.] Ah, the child- MRS. ELVSTED.

[Breathing heavily.] It is all over then. Well well, now I will go, Hedda.

HEDDA.

But you are not going away from town?

MRS. ELVSTED.

Oh, I don't know what I shall do. I see nothing but darkness before me. [She goes out by the hall door.

HEDDA.

[Stands waiting for a moment.] So you are not going to see her home, Mr. Lovborg?

LOVBORG.

I? Through the streets? Would you have people see her walking with me?

HEDDA.

Of course I don't know what else may have happened last night. But is it so utterly irretrievable?

LOVBORG.

It will not end with last night-I know that perfectly well. And the thing is that now I have no taste for that sort of life either. I won't begin it anew. She has broken my courage and my power of braving life out.

HEDDA.

[Looking straight before her.] So that pretty little fool has had her fingers in a man's destiny. [Looks at him.] But all the same, how could you treat her so heartlessly.

LOVBORG.

Oh, don't say that I was heartless!

HEDDA.

To go and destroy what has filled her whole soul for months and years! You do not call that heartless!

LOVBORG.

To you I can tell the truth, Hedda.

HEDDA.

The truth?

LOVBORG.

First promise me-give me your word-that what I now confide in you Thea shall never know.

HEDDA.

I give you my word.

LOVBORG.

Good. Then let me tell you that what I said just now was untrue.

HEDDA.

About the ma.n.u.script?

LOVBORG.

Yes. I have not torn it to pieces-nor thrown it into the fiord.

HEDDA.

No, no-. But-where is it then?

LOVBORG.

I have destroyed it none the less-utterly destroyed it, Hedda!

HEDDA.

I don't understand.

LOVBORG.

Thea said that what I had done seemed to her like a child-murder.

HEDDA.

Yes, so she said.

LOVBORG.

But to kill his child-that is not the worst thing a father can do to it.

HEDDA.

Not the worst?

LOVBORG.

Suppose now, Hedda, that a man-in the small hours of the morning-came home to his child's mother after a night of riot and debauchery, and said: "Listen-I have been here and there-in this place and in that. And I have taken our child with-to this place and to that. And I have lost the child-utterly lost it. The devil knows into what hands it may have fallen-who may have had their clutches on it."

HEDDA.

Well-but when all is said and done, you know-this was only a book- LOVBORG.

Thea's pure soul was in that book.

HEDDA.

Yes, so I understand.

LOVBORG.

And you can understand, too, that for her and me together no future is possible.

HEDDA.

What path do you mean to take then?

LOVBORG.

None. I will only try to make an end of it all-the sooner the better.

HEDDA.

[A step nearer him.] Eilert Lovborg-listen to me.-Will you not try to-to do it beautifully?

LOVBORG.

Beautifully? [Smiling.] With vine-leaves in my hair, as you used to dream in the old days-?

HEDDA.

No, no. I have lost my faith in the vine-leaves. But beautifully nevertheless! For once in a way!-Good-bye! You must go now-and do not come here any more.

LOVBORG.

Good-bye, Mrs. Tesman. And give George Tesman my love.

[He is on the point of going.

HEDDA.

No, wait! I must give you a memento to take with you.

[She goes to the writing-table and opens the drawer and the pistol-case; then returns to LOVBORG with one of the pistols.

LOVBORG.

[Looks at her.] This? Is this the memento?

HEDDA.

[Nodding slowly.] Do you recognise it? It was aimed at you once.

LOVBORG.