and wade with difficulty through the snow.

BORKMAN.
[Stopping at the verge of the steep declivity on the left.]
Come here, Ella, and you shall see.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[Coming up to him.] What do you want to show me, John?

BORKMAN.
[Pointing outwards.] Do you see how free and open the country
lies before us--away to the far horizon?

ELLA RENTHEIM.
We have often sat on this bench before, and looked out into a
much, much further distance.

BORKMAN.
It was a dreamland we then looked out over.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[Nodding sadly.] It was the dreamland of our life, yes. And
now that land is buried in snow. And the old tree is dead.

BORKMAN.
[Not listening to her.] Can you see the smoke of the great
steamships out on the fiord?

ELLA RENTHEIM.
No.

BORKMAN.
I can. They come and they go. They weave a network of
fellowship all round the world. They shed light and warmth over
the souls of men in many thousands of homes. That was what I
dreamed of doing.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[Softly.] And it remained a dream.

BORKMAN.
It remained a dream, yes. [Listening.] And hark, down by the
river, dear! The factories are working! My factories! All those
that I would have created! Listen! Do you hear them humming? The
night shift is on--so they are working night and day. Hark! hark!
the wheels are whirling and the bands are flashing--round and
round and round. Can't you hear, Ella?

ELLA RENTHEIM.
No.

BORKMAN.
I can hear it.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[Anxiously.] I think you are mistaken, John.

BORKMAN.
[More and more fired up.] Oh, but all these--they are only like
the outworks around the kingdom, I tell you!

ELLA RENTHEIM.
The kingdom, you say? What kingdom?

BORKMAN.
My kingdom, of course! The kingdom I was on the point of
conquering when I--when I died.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[Shaken, in a low voice.] Oh, John, John!

BORKMAN.
And now there it lies--defenceless, masterless--exposed to all
the robbers and plunderers. Ella, do you see the mountain chains
there--far away? They soar, they tower aloft, one behind the
other! That is my vast, my infinite, inexhaustible kingdom!

ELLA RENTHEIM.
Oh, but there comes an icy blast from that kingdom, John!

BORKMAN.
That blast is the breath of life to me. That blast comes to
me like a greeting from subject spirits. I seem to touch them,
the prisoned millions; I can see the veins of metal stretch out