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] Look here. I have kept all
the loose notes he used to dictate from.
HEDDA.
[A step forward.] Ah---!
TESMAN.
You have kept them, Mrs. Elvsted! Eh?
MRS. ELVSTED.
Yes, I have them here. I put them in my pocket when I left home.
Here they still are---
TESMAN.
Oh, do let me see them!
MRS. ELVSTED.
[Hands him a bundle of papers.] But they are in such disorder--all
mixed up.
TESMAN.
Fancy, if we could make something out of them, after all! Perhaps if
we two put our heads together---
MRS. ELVSTED.
Oh yes, at least let us try---
TESMAN.
We will manage it! We must! I will dedicate my life to this task.
HEDDA.
You, George? Your life?
TESMAN.
Yes, or rather all the time I can spare. My own collections must
wait in the meantime. Hedda--you understand, eh? I owe this to
Eilert's memory.
HEDDA.
Perhaps.
TESMAN.
And so, my dear Mrs. Elvsted, we will give our whole minds to it.
There is no use in brooding over what can't be undone--eh? We must
try to control our grief as much as possible, and---
MRS. ELVSTED.
Yes, yes, Mr. Tesman, I will do the best I can.
TESMAN.
Well then, come here. I can't rest until we have looked through the
notes. Where shall we sit? Here? No, in there, in the back room.
Excuse me, my dear Judge. Come with me, Mrs. Elvsted.
MRS. ELVSTED.
Oh, if only it were possible!
[TESMAN and MRS. ELVSTED go into the back room. She takes
off her hat and cloak. They both sit at the table under the
hanging lamp, and are soon deep in an eager examination of
the papers. HEDDA crosses to the stove and sits in the arm-
chair. Presently BRACK goes up to her.
HEDDA.
[In a low voice.] Oh, what a sense of freedom it gives one, this act
of Eilert Lovborg's.
BRACK.
Freedom, Mrs. Hedda? Well, of course, it is a release for him---
HEDDA.
I mean for me. It gives me a sense of freedom to know that a deed
of deliberate courage is still possible in this world,--a deed of
spontaneous beauty.
BRACK.
[Smiling.] H'm--my dear Mrs. Hedda---
HEDDA.
Oh, I know what you are going to say. For you are a kind of
specialist too, like--you know!
BRACK.
[Looking hard at her.] Eilert Lovborg was more to you than perhaps
you are willing to admit to yourself. Am I wrong?
HEDDA.
I don't answer such questions. I only know that Eilert Lovborg has
had the courage to live his life after his own fashion. And then--
the last great act, with its beauty! Ah! that he should have the
will and the strength to turn away from the banquet of life--so early.
BRACK.
I am sorry, Mrs. Hedda,--but I fear I must dispel an amiable illusion.
HEDDA.
Illusion?
BRACK.
Which could not have lasted long in any case.
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