The Master Builder Part 59

The Master Builder Part 59

But I have seen him with my own eyes right up at the top of a high church-tower!


MRS. SOLNESS.


Yes, I hear people talk of that; but it is utterly impossible--


SOLNESS.


[Vehemently.] Impossible--impossible, yes! But there I stood all the same!


MRS. SOLNESS.


O, how can you say so, Halvard? Why, you cant even bear to go out on the second-storey balcony here. You have always been like that.


SOLNESS.


You may perhaps see something different this evening.


MRS. SOLNESS.


[In alarm.] No, no, no! Please G.o.d I shall never see that. I will write at once to the doctor--and I am sure he wont let you do it.


SOLNESS.


Why, Aline--!


MRS. SOLNESS.


Oh, you know youre ill, Halvard. This proves it! Oh G.o.d--Oh G.o.d!


[She goes hastily out to the right.


HILDA.


[Looks intently at him.] Is it so, or is it not?


SOLNESS.


That I turn dizzy?


HILDA.


That my master builder dares not--cannot--climb as high as he builds?


SOLNESS.


Is that the way you look at it?


HILDA.


Yes.


SOLNESS.


I believe there is scarcely a corner in me that is safe from you.


HILDA.


[Looks towards the bow-window.] Up there, then. Right up there--


SOLNESS.


[Approaches her.] You might have the topmost room in the tower, Hilda--there you might live like a princess.


HILDA.


[Indefinably, between earnest and jest.] Yes, that is what you promised me.


SOLNESS.


Did I really?


HILDA.


Fie, Mr. Solness! You said I should be a princess, and that you would give me a kingdom. And then you went and--Well!


SOLNESS.


[Cautiously.] Are you quite certain that this is not a dream--a fancy, that has fixed itself in your mind?