is destined to be a miserable stay-at-home,
like so many others.

Rorlund: But why do you not take a trip over there yourself?

Hilmar: I? With my wretched health? Of course I get no consideration on
that account. But putting that out of the question, you forget that one
has certain obligations to perform towards the community of which one
forms a part. There must be some one here to hold aloft the banner of
the Ideal.--Ugh, there he is shouting again!

The Ladies: Who is shouting?

Hilmar: I am sure I don't know. They are raising their voices so loud
in there that it gets on my nerves.

Mrs. Bernick: I expect it is my husband, Mr. Tonnesen. But you must
remember he is so accustomed to addressing large audiences.

Rorlund: I should not call the others low-voiced, either.

Hilmar: Good Lord, no!--not on any question that touches their
pockets. Everything here ends in these petty material considerations.
Ugh!

Mrs. Bernick: Anyway, that is a better state of things than it used to
be when everything ended in mere frivolity.

Mrs. Lynge: Things really used to be as bad as that here?

Mrs. Rummel: Indeed they were, Mrs. Lynge. You may think yourself lucky
that you did not live here then.

Mrs. Holt: Yes, times have changed, and no mistake, when I look back
to the days when I was a girl.

Mrs. Rummel: Oh, you need not look back more than fourteen or fifteen
years. God forgive us, what a life we led! There used to be a Dancing
Society and a Musical Society--

Mrs. Bernick: And the Dramatic Club. I remember it very well.

Mrs. Rummel: Yes, that was where your play was performed, Mr. Tonnesen.

Hilmar (from the back of the room): What, what?

Rorlund: A play by Mr. Tonnesen?

Mrs. Rummel: Yes, it was long before you came here, Mr. Rorlund. And it
was only performed once.

Mrs. Lynge: Was that not the play in which you told me you took the
part of a young man's sweetheart, Mrs. Rummel?

Mrs. Rummel (glancing towards RORLUND): I? I really cannot remember,
Mrs. Lynge. But I remember well all the riotous gaiety that used to go
on.

Mrs. Holt: Yes, there were houses I could name in which two large
dinner-parties were given in one week.

Mrs. Lynge: And surely I have heard that a touring theatrical company
came here, too?

Mrs. Rummel: Yes, that was the worst thing of the lot.

Mrs. Holt (uneasily): Ahem!

Mrs. Rummel: Did you say a theatrical company? No, I don't remember
that at all.

Mrs. Lyn