Chapter XXXIX: Act II

SCENE.--_The same garden-room._ MRS. BERNICK. AUNE _enters and greets_
CONSUL BERNICK.

BERNICK: I am not at all pleased, Aune, with the way
things are going on in the yard. The repairs are slow.
The _Palm Tree_ should long since have been at sea.
That American ship, the _Indian Girl_, has been lying here
five weeks. You do not know how to use the new machines,
or else you will not use them.

AUNE: Consul, the _Palm Tree_ can go to sea in two
days, but the _Indian Girl_ is as rotten as matchwood in
the bottom planking. Now, I am getting on for sixty,
and I cannot take to new ways. I am afraid for the
many folk whom the machinery will deprive of a livelihood.

BERNICK: I did not send for you to argue. Listen
now. The _Indian Girl_ must be got ready to sail in two
days, at the same time as our own ship. There are reasons
for this decision. The carping newspaper critics
are pretending that we are giving all our attention to the
_Palm Tree_. If you will not do what I order, I must
look for somebody who will.

AUNE: You are asking impossibilities, consul. But
surely you cannot think of dismissing me, whose father
and grandfather worked here all their lives before me.
Do you know what is meant by the dismissal of an old
workman?

BERNICK: You are a stubborn fellow, Aune. You
oppose me from perversity. I am sorry indeed if we
must part, Aune.

AUNE: We will not part, consul. The _Indian Girl_
shall be cleared in two days.

[AUNE _bows and retires._ HILMAR TÖNNESEN _comes
through the garden gate._

HILMAR: Good-day, Betty! Good-day, Bernick.
Have you heard the new sensation? The two Americans
are going about the streets in company with Dina Dorf.
The town is all excitement about it.

BERNICK (_looking out into the street_): They are
coming here. We must be sure to treat them well.
They will soon be away again.

[JOHAN _and_ LONA _enter. Presently all disperse into
the garden, and_ BERNICK _goes up to_ JOHAN.

BERNICK: Now we are alone, Johan, I must thank
you. For to you I owe home, happiness, position, and
all that I have and am. Not one in ten thousand would
have done all that you then did for me. I was the guilty
one. On the night when that drunken wretch came home
it was for Betty's sake that I broke off the entanglement
with Madame Dorf; but still, that you should act in such
a noble spirit of self-sacrifice as to turn appearances
against yourself, and go away, can never be forgotten
by me.

JOHAN: Oh, well, we were both young and thoughtless.
I was an orphan, alone and free, and was glad to get
away from office drudgery. You had your old mother
alive, and you had just engaged yourself to Betty, who
was very fond of you. We agreed that you must be
saved, and I was proud to be your friend. You had
come back like a prince from abroad, and chose me for
your closest friend. Now I know why. You were
making love to Betty. But I was proud of it.

BERNICK: Are you going back to your American
farm? Not soon, I hope.

JOHAN: As soon as possible. I only came over to
please Lona. She felt homesick. You can never think
what she has been to me. You never could tolerate her,
but to me she has been a mother, singing, lecturing, writing
to support me when I was ill and could not work.
And I may as well tell you frankly that I have told her
all. But do not fear her. She will say nothing. But
who would have dreamt of your taking into your house
that little creature who played angels in the theatre, and
scampered about here? What became of her parents?

BERNICK: I wrote you all that happened. The
drunken scoundrel, after leaving his wife, was killed in
a drinking bout. After the wife died it was through
Martha that we took little Dina in charge.

To the amazement of the Bernicks and some others, Johan makes it known that he has asked Dina to be his wife, and that she has consented. To their further astonishment and annoyance, Lona declares her profound approval of this engagement. Moreover, Lona now challenges Bernick to clear his soul of the lie on which he has stood for these fifteen years. It is a three-fold lie--the lie towards Lona, then the lie towards Betty, then the lie towards Johan. But Bernick shrinks from the terrible shame that would come on him as one of the "pillars of society."