lowing
themselves to be treated in such an unseemly way, and their treating me
in such an unseemly way?

Gertrud. Was it really as bad as that?

Harald. You would not believe what it was like, I assure you!

Gertrud (standing still). Poor father! Poor father! (Throws her arms
round HARALD'S neck.) Be good to them, Harald!--just because of
their faults, dear! We are their children, you know, and it is God's
commandment, even if we were not their children.

Harald. If only I could take you up in my arms and carry you off home
with me now! Your love takes possession of my heart and my will, and
purifies both of them. I am at a crisis in my life now--and now you
should be on my side!

Gertrud. Listen!--to begin with, I will go with you to your meeting
to-night!

Harald. Yes, yes,--I will come and fetch you!

Gertrud. Down at the door here!

Harald. Yes!

Gertrud. And, in the next place, I am going to walls into the town with
you now.

Harald. But then I shall have to see you home again.

Gertrud. Do you object?

Harald. No, no! And you shall teach me a lot of things on the way!

Gertrud. Yes, you will be so wise before we get back! (They go out to
the right.)

(The EDITOR and EVJE come out of the park. JOHN follows them, unseen by
them, and slips past them to the right when they stop for a moment. The
following conversation is carried on in hurried tones, and every time
the EDITOR raises his voice EVJE hushes him, and speaks himself in a
persistently lowered voice.)

Evje. But what concern of yours--or of the public's--are my private
affairs? I don't want to have anything to do with politics.

The Editor, Well, then, you ought not to have had anything to do with
_him_.

Evje. When I first made his acquaintance he was not a politician.

The Editor. Then you ought to have dropped him when he became one.

Evje. Ought I to have dropped you too, when you became one?

The Editor. Let me repeat, for the last time, that we are not talking
about me!

Evje. Hush, hush! What a fellow you are! You get into a rage if any one
chaffs you. But you want to hit out at everybody all round!

The Editor. Do you suppose I am myself?

Evje. Who the devil are you, if you are not yourself?

The Editor. I am merely the servant of the public.

Evje. The public executioner, that is to say?

The Editor. Well, yes, if you prefer it. But you shall pay for that word
some day.

Evje. There--you see! Always talking of pa