THE MAID.

Yes, I will, ma'am. [To herself.] Lord save us!

[She goes out through the wood to the right.

MRS. BORKMAN.

[Standing behind the bench.] So the night air has killed him----

ELLA RENTHEIM.

So it appears.

MRS. BORKMAN.

----strong man that he was.

ELLA RENTHEIM.

[Coming in front of the bench.] Will you not look at him, Gunhild?

MRS. BORKMAN.

[With a gesture of repulsion.] No, no, no. [Lowering her voice.] He was a miner's son, John Gabriel Borkman. He could not live in the fresh air.

ELLA RENTHEIM.

It was rather the cold that killed him.

MRS. BORKMAN.

[Shakes her head.] The cold, you say? The cold--that had killed him long ago.

ELLA RENTHEIM.

[Nodding to her.] Yes--and changed us two into shadows.

MRS. BORKMAN.

You are right there.

ELLA RENTHEIM.

[With a painful smile.] A dead man and two shadows--that is what the cold has made of us.

MRS. BORKMAN.

Yes, the coldness of heart.--And now I think we two may hold out our hands to each other, Ella.

ELLA RENTHEIM.

I think we may, now.

MRS. BORKMAN.

We twin sisters--over him we have both loved.

ELLA RENTHEIM.

We two shadows--over the dead man.

[MRS. BORKMAN behind the bench, and ELLA RENTHEIM in front of it, take each other's hand.