Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 8).djvu/363

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dream that you should live on after me, the dead inventor's well-to-do widow.

Gina. [Drying her tears.] No, you mustn't talk like that, Ekdal. May the Lord never let me see the day I am left a widow!

Hialmar. Oh, the whole dream has vanished. It is all over now. All over!

Gregers Werle opens the passage door cautiously and looks in.

Gregers. May I come in?

Hialmar. Yes, come in.

Gregers. [Comes forward, his face beaming with satisfaction, and holds out both his hands to them.] Well, dear friends——! [Looks from one to the other, and whispers to Hialmar.] Have you not done it yet?

Hialmar. [Aloud.] It is done.

Gregers. It is?

Hialmar. I have passed through the bitterest moments of my life.

Gregers. But also, I trust, the most ennobling.