ASTA. Yes, something has happened--something seems almost to have transformed you. Rita noticed it too.

RITA. Yes, I saw it the moment you came. A change for the better, I hope, Alfred?

ALLMERS. It ought to be for the better. And it must and shall come to good.

RITA. [With an outburst.] You have had some adventure on your journey!

Don't deny it! I can see it in your face!

ALLMERS. [Shaking his head.] No adventure in the world--outwardly at least. But--

RITA. [Eagerly.] But--?

ALLMERS. It is true that within me there has been something of a revolution.

RITA. Oh Heavens--!

ALLMERS. [Soothingly, patting her hand.] Only for the better, my dear Rita. You may be perfectly certain of that.

RITA. [Seats herself on the sofa.] You must tell us all about it, at once--tell us everything!

ALLMERS. [Turning to ASTA.] Yes, let us sit down, too, Asta. Then I will try to tell you as well as I can.

[He seats himself on the sofa at RITA's side. ASTA moves a chair forward, and places herself near him.]

RITA. [Looking at him expectantly.] Well--?

ALLMERS. [Gazing straight before him.] When I look back over my life--and my fortunes--for the last ten or eleven years, it seems to me almost like a fairy-tale or a dream. Don't you think so too, Asta?

ASTA. Yes, in many ways I think so.

ALLMERS. [Continuing.] When I remember what we two used to be, Asta--we two poor orphan children--

RITA. [Impatiently.] Oh, that is such an old, old story.

ALLMERS. [Not listening to her.] And now here I am in comfort and luxury. I have been able to follow my vocation. I have been able to work and study--just as I had always longed to. [Holds out his hand.] And all this great--this fabulous good fortune we owe to you, my dearest Rita.

RITA. [Half playfully, half angrily, slaps his hand.] Oh, I do wish you would stop talking like that.

ALLMERS. I speak of it only as a sort of introduction.

RITA. Then do skip the introduction!

ALLMERS. Rita,--you must not think it was the doctor's advice that drove me up to the mountains.

ASTA. Was it not, Alfred?

RITA. What was it, then?

ALLMERS. It was this: I found there was no more peace for me, there in my study.

RITA. No peace! Why, who disturbed you?

ALLMERS. [Shaking his head.] No one from without. But I felt as though I were positively abusing--or, say rather, wasting--my best powers--frittering away the time.

ASTA. [With wide eyes.] When you were writing at your book?

ALLMERS. [Nodding.] For I cannot think that my powers are confined to that alone. I must surely have it in me to do one or two other things as well.

RITA. Was that what you sat there brooding over?

ALLMERS. Yes, mainly that.

RITA. And so that is what has made you so discontented with yourself of late; and with the rest of us as well. For you know you were discontented, Alfred.

ALLMERS. [Gazing straight before him.] There I sat bent over my table, day after day, and often half the night too--writing and writing at the great thick book on "Human Responsibility." H'm!

ASTA. [Laying her hand upon his arm.] But, Alfred--that book is to be your life-work.

RITA. Yes, you have said so often enough.

ALLMERS. I thought so. Ever since I grew up, I have thought so. [With an affectionate expression in his eyes.] And it was you that enabled me to devote myself to it, my dear Rita--

RITA. Oh, nonsense!

ALLMERS. [Smiling to her.]--you, with your gold, and your green forests--

RITA. [Half laughing, half vexed.] If you begin all that rubbish again, I shall beat you.

ASTA. [Looking sorrowfully at him.] But the book, Alfred?

ALLMERS. It began, as it were, to drift away from me. But I was more and more beset by the thought of the higher duties that laid their claims upon me.

RITA. [Beaming, seizes his hand.] Alfred!

ALLMERS. The thought of Eyolf, my dear Rita.

RITA. [Disappointed, drops his hand.] Ah--of Eyolf!

ALLMERS. Poor little Eyolf has taken deeper and deeper hold of me. After that unlucky fall from the table--and especially since we have been a.s.sured that the injury is incurable--

RITA. [Insistently.] But you take all the care you possibly can of him, Alfred!

ALLMERS. As a schoolmaster, yes; but not as a father. And it is a father that I want henceforth to be to Eyolf.

RITA. [Looking at him and shaking her head.] I don't think I quite understand you.

ALLMERS. I mean that I will try with all my might to make his misfortune as painless and easy to him as it can possibly be.