Chapter XXXVIII: Act I

SCENE.--_A large garden-room in_ CONSUL BERNICK'S _house. A number of
ladies are seated in the room_. AUNE, _who has been sent for
by the_ CONSUL, _is addressed by_ KRAP _at the door of the_
CONSUL'S _room_.

KRAP: I am ordered by the consul to tell you that you
must stop those Saturday talks to the workmen about the
injury that our new machines will do to them. Your
first duty is to this establishment. Now you know the
will of the consul.

AUNE: The consul would have said it differently.
But I know I have to thank for this the American that
has put in for repairs.

KRAP: That is enough. You know the consul's wishes.
Pardon, ladies!

[KRAP _bows to ladies, and he and_ AUNE _go into the
street_. RECTOR RÖRLUND _has been reading aloud,
and now shuts the book and begins to converse with
the ladies_.

RÖRLUND: This book forms a welcome contrast to the
hollowness and rottenness we see every day in the papers
and magazines, which reflect the condition of the whited
sepulchres, the great communities to-day. Doubt, restlessness,
and insecurity are undermining society.

DINA: But are not many great things being accomplished?

RÖRLUND: I do not understand what you mean by
great things.

MRS. RUMMEL: Last year we narrowly escaped the
introduction of a railroad.

MRS. BERNICK: My husband managed to block the
scheme, but the papers, in consequence, said shameful
things about him. But we are forgetting, dear rector,
that we have to thank you for devoting so much time
to us.

RÖRLUND: Do you not all make sacrifices in a good
cause to save the lapsed and lost?

HILMAR TÖNNESEN (_coming in with a cigar in his
mouth_): I have only looked in in passing. Good-morning,
ladies! Well, you know Bernick has called a cabinet
council about this railway nonsense again. When it is a
question of money, then everything here ends in paltry
material calculations.

MRS. BERNICK: But at any rate things are better than
formerly, when everything ended in dissipation.

MRS. RUMMEL: Only think of fifteen years ago.
What a life, with the dancing club and music club! I
well remember the noisy gaiety among families.

MRS. LYNGE: There was a company of strolling players,
who, I was told, played many pranks. What was
the truth of the matter?

Mrs. Rummel, when Dina is out of the room, explains to the ladies that the girl is the daughter of a strolling player who years before had come to perform for a season in the town. Dorf, the actor, had deserted both wife and child, and the wife had to take to work to which she was unaccustomed, was seized with a pulmonary malady, and died. Then Dina had been adopted by the Bernicks.

Mrs. Rummel goes on to explain that at that season also Johan, Mrs. Bernick's brother, had run away to America. After his departure it was discovered that he had been playing tricks with the cash-box of the firm, of which his widowed mother had become the head. Karsten, now Consul, Bernick had just come home from Paris. He became engaged to Betty Tönnesen, now his wife, but when he entered her aunt's room, with the girl on his arm, to announce his betrothal, Lona Hessel rose from her chair and violently boxed his ear. Then she packed her box, and went off to America. Little had been heard of Lona, except that she had in America sung in taverns, and had given lectures, and had written a most sensational book.