Three Comedies by Bjornstjerne M. Bjornson

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Mother. And this is the way you can treat the man who has given
you everything! What answer have you to give him?

Axel. It makes my heart bleed. If I had thought it would be as
hard as this, indeed I would never have begun it; but if we leave
the matter unsettled, now that it has been broached, we shall
never be on proper terms with one another again. Of that I am
certain. If it is a matter that pains us all, for that very
reason let us go through with it and get it settled.

Father. Poor confiding fools that we have been!

Mother. Can't you give us some respite, so that we may think
things over quietly? This is simply tearing us apart.

Axel. It would only prolong your pain, and it would end in your
hating me. No, it must be done now--at once; otherwise it will
never be done.

Mother. Oh dear, oh dear! (Sits down.)

Father. Axel! Listen to us for a moment! It is quite possible you
may be in the right; but for that very reason I beg you--I, who
have never yet begged anything of any one--I beg you, be
merciful! I am an old man, and cannot stand it--and she (looking
at his wife) still less.

Axel. Ah, I am not hard-hearted--but I must try to be resolute.
If I lose now, I shall be losing her for life, I know. Therefore
she _shall_ go with me!

Mother (springing up). No, she shall not! If you loved her, as
you say you do, you hypocrite, you would remain where she is--and
here she shall stay!

Laura (who has been standing beside MATHILDE, goes to her
MOTHER). Yes, to my dying day.

Father (getting up). No! We must not alter God's law. It is
written: "A man shall forsake his father and his mother, and
cleave only unto his wife"--and in the same way she must cleave
only to him. Laura shall go when he wishes.

Laura. Father, can you--have you the heart to--?

Father. No, I haven't the heart to, my child. But I shall do it
nevertheless, because it is right. Oh, Laura!--(Embraces her. The
MOTHER joins her embrace to his.)

Mathilde (to AXEL). You Jesuit!--You have no consideration, no
mercy; you trample upon hearts as you would upon the grass
that grows in your path. But you shall not find this so easy as
you think. It is true she is a child--but I shall go with her! I
don't know you, and I don't trust you. (Clenches her fist.) But I
shall watch over her!

[Curtain.]

ACT II

(SCENE.--AXEL's house, a year later. The room is arranged almost
identically like that in the first act. Two large portraits of
LAURA'S parents, very well executed, hang in full view. LAURA is
sitting at the table, MATHILDE on the couch on the right.)

Mathilde (reading aloud from a book). "'No,' was the decided
answer. Originally it was he that was to blame, but now it is
she. He tore her from her parents, her home and her familiar
surroundings; but since then he has sought her forgiveness so
perseveringly, and her love so humbly, that it would take all the
obstinacy of a spoilt child to withstand him. Just as formerly he
could think of nothing but his love, so now she will consider
nothing except her self-love; but she is so much the more to
blame than he, as her motives are less good than his. She is like
a child that has woke up too early in the morning; it strikes and
kicks at any one that comes to pet it."

Laura. Mathilde--does it really say that?

Mathilde. Indeed it does.

Laura. Just as you read it?

Mathilde. Look for yourself.

Laura (takes the book and looks at it, then lays it down).
It is almost our own story, word for word. I would give anything
to know who has written it.

Mathilde. It is a mere coincidence--

Laura. No, some wicked wretch has seen something like this--some
creature that is heartless enough to be able to mock at a
parent's love; it must be some one who either is worthless
himself or has had worthless parents!

Mathilde. Why, Laura, how seriously you take it!

Laura. Yes, it irritates me, this libelling of all fidelity. What
is fidelity, if it does not mean that a child should be true to
its parents?

Mathilde. But I was just reading to you about that. (Reads.) "The
object of fidelity changes, as we ourselves change. The child's
duty is to be true to its parents; the married, to one another;
the aged, to their children--"

Laura. Don't read any more! I won't hear any more! Its whole
train of thought offends me. (After a pause.) What a horrid book!
(Indifferently.) What happens to them in the end?

Mathilde (in the same tone). To whom?

Laura. That couple--in the book.

Mathilde (still in an indifferent tone). It doesn't end happily.
(A pause.)

Laura (looking up). Which of them suffers?

Mathilde. Which do you think?

Laura (beginning to sew again). She, I should think--because she
is unhappy already.

Mathilde. You have guessed right. She falls in love.

Laura (astonished). Falls in love?

Mathilde. Yes. Sometime or other, love is awakened in the heart
of every woman; and then, if she cannot love her husband, in the
course of time she will love some one else.

Laura (dismayed). Some one else!

Mathilde. Yes. (A pause.)

Laura. That is horrible! (Begins to sew, then lays her hand down
on the table, then begins to sew again.) And what happens to him?

Mathilde. He falls ill, very ill. And then some one finds him out
and comforts him--a woman.

Laura (looking up). How does that happen?

Mathilde. His heart is like an empty house, in an atmosphere of
sadness and longing. Little by little she--the woman who comforts
him--creeps into it; and so in time there comes the day when he
can say he is happy. (A pause.)

Laura (quietly). Who is she?

Mathilde. One of those poor-spirited creatures that can be
content with the aftermath of love.

Laura (after a pause, during which she has been looking fixedly
at MATHILDE). Could you be that?

Mathilde. No!--I must be first or nothing!

Laura. But about her?

Mathilde. The wife?

Laura. Yes. What happens to her?

Mathilde. Directly she realises that love for another has taken
possession of her husband, she turns towards him with all her
heart; but it is too late then. (LAURA sits absorbed for a few
moments; then gets up hurriedly and goes to a little work-table
that is standing at the end of the couch on the left, opens it,
looks for something in it, stops to think, then looks in it
again.) What are you looking for?

Laura. A photograph.

Mathilde. Axel's?

Laura. No--but what has become of it?

Mathilde. Don't you remember that one day you took it up and
said you would not have it? So I hid it.

Laura. You?

Mathilde. Yes--till you should ask about it. (Gets up, opens her
work-table that stands by the right-hand couch.) Here it is.
(Gives it to her.)

Laura. So you have got it! (Lays it in her table drawer without
looking at it, shuts the drawer, goes a few paces away, then
comes back, turns the key in the drawer and takes it out.)
Has Axel read the new book?

Mathilde. I don't know. Shall I give it to him?

Laura. Just as you like. Perhaps you would like to read it aloud
to him. (A Maid comes in with a letter; LAURA takes it, and the
Maid goes out again.) From my parents! (Kisses the letter with
emotion.) The only ones who love me! (Goes out hurriedly. At the
same moment AXEL comes in from the outer door.)

Axel. She always goes when I come in!

Mathilde (getting up). This time it was an accident, though.
(Looks at him.) How pale you are!

Axel (seriously). I am rather worried.--Have you read the new
novel?

Mathilde (putting the book in her pocket). What novel?

Axel. "The Newly-Married Couple"--quite a small book.

Mathilde. Oh, that one--I have just been reading it.

Axel (eagerly). And Laura too? Has Laura read it?

Mathilde. She thinks it is a poor story.

Axel. It isn't that, but it is an extraordinary one. It quite
startles me--it is like coming into one's own room and seeing
one's self sitting there. It has caught hold of unformed thoughts
that lie hidden deep in my soul.

Mathilde. Every good book does that.

Axel. Everything will happen to me just as it does in that book;
the premises are all here, only I had not recognised them.

Mathilde. I have heard of very young doctors feeling the
symptoms of all the diseases they read about.

Axel. Oh, but this is more than mere imagination. My temptations
come bodily before me. My thoughts are the result of what
happens, just as naturally as smoke is the result of fire--and
these thoughts (lancing at MATHILDE) lead me far.

Mathilde. As far as I can see, the book only teaches
consideration for a woman, especially if she is young.

Axel. That is true. But, look here--a young man, brought up among
students, cannot possibly possess, ready-made, all this
consideration that a woman's nature requires. He doesn't become a
married man in one day, but by degrees. He cannot make a clean
sweep of his habits and take up the silken bonds of duty, all in
a moment. The inspiration of a first love gives him the capacity,
but he has to learn how to use it. I never saw what I had
neglected till I had frightened her away from me. But what is
there that I have not done, since then, to win her? I have gone
very gently to work and tried from every side to get at her--I
have tempted her with gifts and with penitence--but you can see
for yourself she shrinks from me more and more. My thoughts,
wearied with longings and with the strain of inventing new
devices, follow her, and my love for her only grows--but there
are times when such thoughts are succeeded by a void so great
that my whole life seems slipping away into it. It is then I need
some one to cling to--. Oh, Mathilde, you have meant very much to
me at times like that. (Goes up to her.)

Mathilde (getting up). Yes, all sorts of things happen in a year
that one never thought of at the beginning of it.

Axel (sitting down). Good God, what a year! I haven't the courage
to face another like it. This book has frightened me.

Mathilde (aside). That's a good thing, anyway.

Axel (getting up). Besides--the amount of work I have to do, to
keep up everything here just as she was accustomed to have it, is
getting to be too much for me, Mathilde. It won't answer in the
long run. If only I had the reward of thanks that the humblest
working-man gets-if it were only a smile; but when I have been
travelling about for a week at a time, exposed to all sorts of
weather in these open boats in winter, do I get any welcome on my
home-coming? When I sit up late, night after night, does she ever
realise whom I am doing it for? Has she as much as noticed that I
have done so--or that I have, at great expense, furnished this
house like her parents'? No, she takes everything as a matter of
course; and if any one were to say to her, "He has done all this
for your sake," she would merely answer, "He need not have done
so, I had it all in my own home."

Mathilde. Yes, you have come to a turning-point now.

Axel. What do you mean?

Mathilde. Nothing particular--here she comes!

Axel. Has anything happened? She is in such a hurry!

[LAURA comes in with an open letter in her hand.]

Laura (in a low voice, to MATHILDE). Mother and father are so
lonely at home that they are going abroad, to Italy; but they are
coming here, Mathilde, before they leave the country.

Mathilde. Coming here? When?

Laura. Directly. I hadn't noticed--the letter is written from the
nearest posting station; they want to take us by surprise--they
will be here in a few minutes. Good heavens, what are we to do?

Mathilde (quickly). Tell Axel that!

Laura. I tell him?

Mathilde. Yes, you must.

Laura (in a frightened voice). I?

Mathilde (to AXEL). Laura has something she wants to tell you.

Laura. Mathilde!

Axel. This is something new.

Laura. Oh, do tell him, Mathilde. (MATHILDE says nothing, but
goes to the back of the room.)

Axel (coming up to her). What is it?

Laura (timidly). My parents are coming.

Axel. Here?

Laura. Yes.

Axel. When? To-day?

Laura. Yes. Almost directly.

Axel. And no one has told me! (Takes up his hat to go.)

Laura (frightened). Axel!

Axel. It is certainly not for the pleasure of finding me here
that they are coming.

Laura. But you mustn't go!

Mathilde. No, you mustn't do that.

Axel. Are they not going to put up here?

Laura. Yes, I thought--if you are willing--in your room.

Axel. So that is what it is to be--I am to go away and they are
to take my place.

Mathilde. Take my room, and I will move into Laura's. I will
easily arrange that. (Goes out.)

Axel. Why all this beating about the bush? It is quite natural
that you should want to see them, and equally natural that I
should remove myself when they come; only you should have broken
it to me--a little more considerately. Because I suppose they are
coming now to take you with them--and, even if it means nothing
to you to put an end to everything like this, at all events you
ought to know what it means to me!

Laura. I did not know till this moment that they were coming.

Axel. But it must be your letters that have brought them here--
your complaints--

Laura. I have made no complaints.

Axel. You have only told them how matters stand here.

Laura. Never. (A pause.)

Axel (in astonishment). What have you been writing to them all
this year, then--a letter every day?

Laura. I have told them everything was going well here.

Axel. Is it possible? All this time? Laura! Dare I believe it?
Such consideration-- (Comes nearer to her.) Ah, at last, then--?

Laura (frightened). I did it out of consideration for them.

Axel (coldly). For them? Well, I am sorry for them, then. They
will soon see how things stand between us.

Laura. They are only to be here a day or two. Then they go
abroad.

Axel. Abroad? But I suppose some one is going with them?--you,
perhaps?

Laura. You can't, can you?

Axel. No.--So you are going away from me, Laura!--I am to remain
here with Mathilde--it is just like that book.

Laura. With Mathilde? Well--perhaps Mathilde could go with them?

Axel. You know we can't do without her here--as things are at
present.

Laura. Perhaps you would rather I--?

Axel. There is no need for you to ask my leave. You go if you
wish.

Laura. Yes, you can do without _me_.--All the same, I think I
shall stay!

Axel. You will stay--with me?

Laura. Yes.

Axel (in a happier voice, coming up to her). _That_ is not out of
consideration for your parents?

Laura. No, that it isn't! (He draws back in astonishment.
MATHILDE comes in.)

Mathilde. It is all arranged. (To AXEL.) You will stay, then?

Axel (looking at LAURA). I don't know.--If I go away for these
few days, perhaps it will be better.

Mathilde (coming forward). Very well, then I shall go away too!

Laura. You?

Axel. You?

Mathilde. Yes, I don't want to have anything to do with what
happens. (A pause.)

Axel. What do you think will happen?

Mathilde. That is best left unsaid--till anything does happen. (A
pause.)

Axel. You are thinking too hardly of your friend now.

Laura (quietly). Mathilde is not my friend.

Axel. Mathilde not your--

Laura (as before). A person who is always deceiving one is no
friend.

Axel. Has Mathilde deceived anybody? You are unjust.

Laura (as before). Am I? It is Mathilde's fault that I am
unhappy now.

Axel. Laura!

Laura. My dear, you may defend her, if you choose; but you must
allow me to tell you plainly that it is Mathilde's advice that
has guided me from the days of my innocent childhood, and has led
me into all the misery I am suffering now! If it were not for her
I should not be married to-day and separated from my parents. She
came here with me--not to help me, as she pretended--but to be
able still to spy on me, quietly and secretly, in her usual way,
and afterwards to make use of what she had discovered. But she
devotes herself to you; because she--no, I won't say it! (With
growing vehemence.) Well, just you conspire against me, you
two--and see whether I am a child any longer! The tree that you
have torn up by the roots and transplanted will yield you no
fruit for the first year, however much you shake its branches! I
don't care if things do happen as they do in that story she has
taken such pleasure in reading to me; but I shall never live to
see the day when I shall beg for any one's love! And now my
parents are coming to see everything, everything--and that is
just what I want them to do! Because I won't be led like a child,
and I won't be deceived! I won't! (Stands quite still for a
moment, then bursts into a violent fit of crying and runs out.)

Axel (after a pause). What is the meaning of that?

Mathilde. She hates me.

Axel (astonished). When did it come to that?

Mathilde. Little by little. Is it the first time you have noticed
it?

Axel (still more astonished). Have you no longer her confidence,
then?

Mathilde. No more than you.

Axel. She, who once believed every one--!

Mathilde. Now she believes no one. (A pause.)

Axel. And what is still more amazing--only there is no mistaking
it--is that she is jealous!

Mathilde. Yes.

Axel. And of you?--When there is not the slightest foundation--.
(Stops involuntarily and looks at her; she crosses the room.)

Mathilde. You should only be glad that this has happened.

Axel. That she is jealous?--or what do you mean?

Mathilde. It has helped her. She is on the high road to loving
you now.

Axel. Now?

Mathilde. Love often comes in that way--especially to the one
who has been made uneasy.

Axel. And you are to be the scapegoat?

Mathilde. I am accustomed to that.

Axel (quickly, as he comes nearer to her). You must have known
love yourself, Mathilde?

Mathilde (starts, then says). Yes, I have loved too.

Axel. Unhappily?

Mathilde. Not happily. But why do you ask?

Axel. Those who have been through such an experience are less
selfish than the rest of us and are capable of more.

Mathilde. Yes. Love is always a consecration, but not always for
the same kind of service.

Axel. Sometimes it only brings unhappiness.

Mathilde. Yes, when people have nothing in them, and no pride.

Axel. The more I get to know of you, the less I seem really to
know you. What sort of a man can this fellow be, that you have
loved without return?

Mathilde (in a subdued voice). A man to whom I am now very
grateful; because marriage is not my vocation.

Axel. What is your vocation, then?

Mathilde. One that one is unwilling to speak about, until one
knows that it has been successful.--And I don't believe I should
have discovered it, but for him.

Axel. And is your mind quite at peace now? Have you no longings?

Mathilde (speaking here, and in what follows, with some
vehemence). Yes, a longing to travel--a long, long way! To fill
my soul with splendid pictures!--Oh, if you have any regard for
me--

Axel. I have more than that, Mathilde--the warmest gratitude--and
more than that, I--

Mathilde (interrupting him). Well, then, make it up with Laura!
Then I shall be able to go abroad with her parents. Oh, if I
don't get away--far away--there is something within me that will
die!

Axel. Go away then, Mathilde--you say so, and therefore I believe
you.

Mathilde. But I am not going till you two are reconciled! I don't
want all three of us to be unhappy. No, I am not unhappy; but I
shall be if you are--and if I don't get abroad now!

Axel. What can I do in the matter?

Mathilde (quickly). Stay here and give the old folk a welcome!
Behave to Laura as if there were nothing the matter, and she will
say nothing!

Axel. Why do you think she will say nothing?

Mathilde. Because of all I have done to make that likely!

Axel. You?

Mathilde. Yes--no--yes; at least, not as you wanted me to, but
indirectly--

Axel. Even at the beginning of all this?

Mathilde. No, not then, it is true. But forget that, because now
I have made it good! I did not know you then--and there were
reasons--

Axel (going nearer to her). Mathilde, you have filled me with an
extraordinary regard for you--as if everything that I have been
denied in another quarter was to be found in you, and as if now
for the first time I--

Mathilde. There is the carriage!

Axel. What shall I do?

Mathilde. Go down and welcome the old folk! Be quick! Look, Laura
is down there already--oh, don't let her miss you just at this
moment! There, that is right. (He goes.) Yes, that was right;
this is my first real victory! (Goes out. Voices are heard
without, and soon afterwards the MOTHER comes in with LAURA, and
after her the FATHER with AXEL and MATHILDE.)

Mother. So here I am in your home, my darling child! (Kisses
her.) It is really worth being separated, for the pleasure of
meeting again! (Kisses her.) And such nice letters from you,
every single day--thank you, darling! (Kisses her again.) And you
look just the same--just the same! Perhaps a trifle paler, but
that is natural. (Kisses her.)

Axel (to the FATHER, who is taking off a coat and several
comforters). May I?

Father (bowing). Thank you, I can manage quite well myself.

Axel. But let me hang them up for you?

Father. Much obliged--I will do it myself! (Takes them out into
the hall.)

Mother (to LAURA, in a low voice). It was hard work to get your
father to come, I can tell you. He still cannot forget--. But we
had to see our little girl before we set off on our travels; and
we had to travel, because it was getting so lonely at home.

Laura. Dear mother! (She and MATHILDE help her to take her
things off.)

Axel (to the FATHER, who has come in again). I hope you had a
pleasant journey, sir?

Father. Remarkably pleasant.

Axel. Caught no cold, I hope?

Father. Nothing to speak of--just a trifle--a slightly relaxed
throat; out late--and heavy dews. You are well?

Axel. Very well, thank you.

Father. I am extremely pleased to hear it.

Mother (to the FATHER). But, do you see--?

Father. What, my love?

Mother. Do you mean to say you don't see?

Father. No, what is it?

Mother. We are at home again! This is our own room over again!

Father (in astonishment). Upon my word--!

Mother. The carpet, the curtains, the furniture, everything--even
down to their arrangement in the room! (Goes across to AXEL and
takes his hand.) A more touching proof of your love for her we
could never have had! (To the FATHER.) Isn't that so?

Father (struggling with his astonishment). Yes, I must say--

Mother. And you never wrote us a single word about this, Laura?

Mathilde. It is not only this room, but the whole house is
arranged like yours as far as possible.

Mother. The whole house! Is it possible!

Father. It is the most charming way of giving pleasure to a young
wife that I ever heard of!

Mother. I am so astonished, Laura, at your never having mentioned
a word of all this in your letters.

Father. Never a word of it!

Mother. Hadn't you noticed it?

Father. Ah, well--what one sees every day, one is apt to think
every one knows all about--isn't that it, little girl? That is
the explanation, isn't it?

Mother. And Axel has given you all this by his own exertions!
Aren't you proud of that?

Father (clapping her on the back). Of course she is, but it was
never Laura's way to say much about her feelings; although this
is really something so--

Mother (laughing). Her letters lately have been nothing but
dissertations upon love.

Laura. Mother!--

Mother. Oh, I am going to tell! But you have a good husband,
Laura.

Laura. Mother!--

Mother (in a lower voice). You have paid him some little
attentions in return, of course?--given him something, or--

Father (pushing in between them). Worked something for him, eh?

(MATHILDE, in the meantime, has brought in wine and filled some
glasses.)

Axel. Now, a glass of wine to welcome you--sherry, your favourite
wine, sir.

Mother. He remembers that! (They each take a glass in their
hands.)

Axel. Laura and I bid you heartily welcome here in our house!
And we hope you will find everything here--(with emotion) just
as you would wish it. I will do my best that you shall, and I am
sure Laura will too.

Mother. Of course she will!--Drink his health! (AXEL touches her
glass with his; her hand trembles, and she spills come wine.) You
have filled the glasses too full, my dear! (They all clink
glasses and drink.)

Father (when the glasses have been filled again). My wife and I--
thank you very much for your welcome. We could not set out on our
journey without first seeing our child--our two children. A good
friend of ours (looking at MATHILDE) advised us to come
unexpectedly. At first we did not want to but now we are glad we
did; because now we can see for ourselves that Laura told the
truth in her letters. You are happy--and therefore we old folk
must be happy too, and bury all recollection of what--what
evidently happened for the best. Hm, hm!--At one time we could
not think it was so--and that was why we did not wish to be
parted from our child; but now we can make our minds quite easy
about it--because now we can trust you. I have complete trust in
you, Axel, my dear son--God bless you! (They grasp hands, and
drink to each other again.)

Mother. Do you know what I should like?

All. No!

Mother. I should like Axel to tell us how your reconciliation
came about.

Laura. Mother!

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