thoughts it was
as a child; but I have watched her day by day grow into a woman, whose
shyness and ignorance make her turn away from me, but whom I must
possess. (LAURA moves quickly towards him.)

Mother. He loves our child!

Father. He loves her! (Embraces his wife.) What more is there to say,
then? Everything is as it should be. Come along and have a glass of
sherry!

Axel. No, everything is not as it should be. I can get her gratitude
sometimes in a lucky moment, but not her heart. If I am fond of
a certain thing, she is not. If I wish a thing, she wishes the
opposite--for instance, if it's only a question of going to a ball, she
won't take any pleasure in it unless her mother can go too.

Mother. Good heavens, is it nothing but that!

Laura. No, mother, it is nothing else; it is this ball.

Father. Then for any sake go to the ball! You are a couple of noodles.
Come along, now.

Axel. The ball? It is not the ball. I don't care a bit about the ball.

Laura. No, that is just it, mother. When he gets what he wants, it turns
out that it wasn't what he wanted at all, but something quite different.
I don't understand what it is.

Axel. No, because it is not a question of any one thing, but of our
whole relations to one another. Love is what I miss; she does not know
what it means, and never will know--as long as she remains at home here.
(A pause.)

Mother (slowly). As long as she remains at home?

Father (coming nearer to him, and trembling slightly). What do you mean
by that?

Axel. It will be only when Laura finds she can no longer lean upon her
parents, that she may possibly come to lean upon me.

Mother. What does he mean?

Father. I don't understand--

Axel. If she is to be something more than a good daughter--if she is to
be a good wife--Laura must go away from here.

Mother. Laura go away?

Father. Our child?

Laura (to her MOTHER). Mother!

Axel. It would be wronging her whom I love so deeply, it would be
wronging myself, and wronging you who mean so well, if now, when the
power is in my hands, I had not the spirit to make use of it. Here,
Laura lives only for you; when you die, life will be over for her. But
that is not what marriage means, that is not what she promised at the
altar, and that is what I cannot submit to. To go on like this will only
make us all unhappy; and that is why Laura must go with me! (The MOTHER
starts forward; LAURA goes to MATHILDE.)

Father. You cannot mean