r her father.

FOLDAL.
[Happily.] Oh, pooh! What does it matter about me, if only
the child----! Well, so I am too late, then, after all. I must
go home again and comfort her mother. I left her crying in the
kitchen.

BORKMAN.
Crying?

FOLDAL.
[Smiling.] Yes, would you believe it, she was crying her eyes
out when I came away.

BORKMAN.
And you are laughing, Vilhelm?

FOLDAL.
Yes, _I_ am, of course. But she, poor thing, she doesn't know
any better, you see. Well, good-bye! It's a good thing I have
the tramway so handy. Good-bye, good-bye, John Gabriel. Good-bye,
Madam.

[He bows and limps laboriously out by the way he came.

BORKMAN.
[Stands silent for a moment, gazing before him.] Good-bye,
Vilhelm! It is not the first time in your life that you've
been run over, old friend.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[Looking at him with suppressed anxiety.] You are so pale,
John, so very pale.

BORKMAN.
That is the effect of the prison air up yonder.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
I have never seen you like this before.

BORKMAN.
No, for I suppose you have never seen an escaped convict before.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
Oh, do come into the house with me, John!

BORKMAN.
It is no use trying to lure me in. I have told you----

ELLA RENTHEIM.
But when I beg and implore you----? For your own sake----

[THE MAID opens the door, and stands in the doorway.

THE MAID.
I beg your pardon. Mrs. Borkman told me to lock the front door
now.

BORKMAN.
[In a low voice, to ELLA.] You see, they want to lock me up
again!

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[To THE MAID.] Mr. Borkman is not quite well. He wants to have
a little fresh air before coming in.

THE MAID.
But Mrs. Borkman told me to----

ELLA RENTHEIM.
I shall lock the door. Just leave the key in the lock.

THE MAID.
Oh, very well; I'll leave it.
[She goes into the house again.

BORKMAN.
[Stands silent for a moment, and listens; then goes hastily
down the steps and out into the open space.] Now I am outside
the walls, Ella! Now they will never get hold of me again!

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[Who has gone down to him.] But you are a free man in there,
too, John. You can come and go just as you please.

BORKMAN.
[Softly, as though in terror.] Never under a roof again! It
is so good to be out here in the night. If I went up into the
gallery now, ceiling and walls would shrink together and crush
me--crush me flat as a fly.

E