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] There!
We have killed two birds with one stone.
MRS. ELVSTED.
What do you mean?
HEDDA.
Could you not see that I wanted him to go?
MRS. ELVSTED.
Yes, to write the letter---
HEDDA.
And that I might speak to you alone.
MRS. ELVSTED.
[Confused.] About the same thing?
HEDDA.
Precisely.
MRS. ELVSTED.
[Apprehensively.] But there is nothing more, Mrs. Tesman! Absolutely
nothing!
HEDDA.
Oh yes, but there is. There is a great deal more--I can see that.
Sit here--and we'll have a cosy, confidential chat.
[She forces MRS. ELVSTED to sit in the easy-chair beside the
stove, and seats herself on one of the footstools.
MRS. ELVSTED.
[Anxiously, looking at her watch.] But, my dear Mrs. Tesman--I was
really on the point of going.
HEDDA.
Oh, you can't be in such a hurry.--Well? Now tell me something about
your life at home.
MRS. ELVSTED.
Oh, that is just what I care least to speak about.
HEDDA.
But to me, dear---? Why, weren't we schoolfellows?
MRS. ELVSTED.
Yes, but you were in the class above me. Oh, how dreadfully afraid
of you I was then!
HEDDA.
Afraid of me?
MRS. ELVSTED.
Yes, dreadfully. For when we met on the stairs you used always to
pull my hair.
HEDDA.
Did I, really?
MRS. ELVSTED.
Yes, and once you said you would burn it off my head.
HEDDA.
Oh that was all nonsense, of course.
MRS. ELVSTED.
Yes, but I was so silly in those days.--And since then, too--we have
drifted so far--far apart from each other. Our circles have been so
entirely different.
HEDDA.
Well then, we must try to drift together again. Now listen. At
school we said _du_(4) to each other; and we called each other by
our Christian names---
MRS. ELVSTED.
No, I am sure you must be mistaken.
HEDDA.
No, not at all! I can remember quite distinctly. So now we are
going to renew our old friendship. [Draws the footstool closer to
MRS. ELVSTED.] There now! [Kisses her cheek.] You must say _du_
to me and call me Hedda.
MRS. ELVSTED.
[Presses and pats her hands.] Oh, how good and kind you are! I am
not used to such kindness.
HEDDA.
There, there, there! And I shall say _du_ to you, as in the old days,
and call you my dear Thora.
MRS. ELVSTED.
My name is Thea.(5)
HEDDA.
Why, of course! I meant Thea. [Looks at her compassionately.] So
you are not accustomed to goodness and kindness, Thea? Not in your
own home?
MRS. ELVSTED.
Oh, if I only had a home! But I haven't any; I have never had a home.
HEDDA.
[Looks at her for a moment.] I almost suspected as much.
MRS. ELVSTED.
[Gazing helplessly before her.] Yes--yes--yes.
HEDDA.
I don't quite remember--was it not as housekeeper that you first went
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