dressed
like a woman?

AXEL. What? I, dressed like a woman?

ABEL. The way you wear your hair and go around bare-necked, while she
wears stiff collars and short hair; be careful, she'll soon take your
trousers away from you.

AXEL. How you talk!

ABEL. And what is your position in your own house? You beg money from
her, and she puts you under her guardianship. No, you are not a man! But
that's why she took you, when her affairs were in bad shape.

AXEL. You hate Bertha; what have you against her?

ABEL. I don't know, but perhaps I, too, have been struck with that same
passion for justice.

AXEL. Look here. Don't you believe in your great cause any longer?

ABEL. Sometimes! Sometimes not! What can one believe in any more?
Sometimes it strikes me that the old ways were better. As mothers we had
an honored and respected position when in that way we fulfilled our
duty as citizens; as housewives we were a great power, and to bring up
a family was not an ignominious occupation. Give me a cognac, Axel. We
have talked so much.

AXEL [Getting cognac]. Why do you drink?

ABEL. I don't know. If one could only find the exceptional man!

AXEL. What sort would that be?

ABEL. The man who rules a woman!

AXEL. Well, and if you found one?

ABEL. Then I would--as they say--fall in love with him. Think if this
whole noise were _blague_. Think!

AXEL. No, there is surely life, motion in the movement, whatever it is.

ABEL. Yes, there's so much motion--forward and backward! And a good deal
of folly can come of the "motion," if they only get the majority for it.

AXEL. If it turns out that way, then you've made a damned lot of noise
uselessly, for now it's beginning to be loathsome to live.

ABEL. We make so much noise that we make your heads reel. That's the
trouble! Well, Axel, your position will be freer now that Bertha has
been able to sell.

AXEL. Sell! Has she sold a picture?

ABEL. Don't you know that? The small picture with the apple-tree.

AXEL. No, she hasn't said anything about it. When did it happen?

ABEL. Day before yesterday. Don't you know about it? Well, then she
intends to surprise you with the money.

AXEL. Surprise me? She takes care of the cash herself.

ABEL. So! Then it will--Hush, she is coming.

[Bertha comes in.]

BERTHA [To Abel]. Oh, good evening; are you here? What made you leave
us?

ABEL. I thought it was tiresome.

BERTHA. Yes, there is no fun in rejoicing for others!

A