re he
will find me. (Nods to her, takes his papers and goes into his room, and
shuts the door after him.)

Nora (bewildered with anxiety, stands as if rooted to the spot, and
whispers). He was capable of doing it. He will do it. He will do it in
spite of everything.--No, not that! Never, never! Anything rather than
that! Oh, for some help, some way out of it! (The door-bell rings.)
Doctor Rank! Anything rather than that--anything, whatever it is! (She
puts her hands over her face, pulls herself together, goes to the door
and opens it. RANK is standing without, hanging up his coat. During the
following dialogue it begins to grow dark.)

Nora. Good day, Doctor Rank. I knew your ring. But you mustn't go in to
Torvald now; I think he is busy with something.

Rank. And you?

Nora (brings him in and shuts the door after him). Oh, you know very
well I always have time for you.

Rank. Thank you. I shall make use of as much of it as I can.

Nora. What do you mean by that? As much of it as you can?

Rank. Well, does that alarm you?

Nora. It was such a strange way of putting it. Is anything likely to
happen?

Rank. Nothing but what I have long been prepared for. But I certainly
didn't expect it to happen so soon.

Nora (gripping him by the arm). What have you found out? Doctor Rank,
you must tell me.

Rank (sitting down by the stove). It is all up with me. And it can't be
helped.

Nora (with a sigh of relief). Is it about yourself?

Rank. Who else? It is no use lying to one's self. I am the most wretched
of all my patients, Mrs. Helmer. Lately I have been taking stock of my
internal economy. Bankrupt! Probably within a month I shall lie rotting
in the churchyard.

Nora. What an ugly thing to say!

Rank. The thing itself is cursedly ugly, and the worst of it is that I
shall have to face so much more that is ugly before that. I shall only
make one more examination of myself; when I have done that, I shall know
pretty certainly when it will be that the horrors of dissolution will
begin. There is something I want to tell you. Helmer's refined nature
gives him an unconquerable disgust at everything that is ugly; I won't
have him in my sick-room.

Nora. Oh, but, Doctor Rank--

Rank. I won't have him there. Not on any account. I bar my door to him.
As soon as I am quite certain that the worst has come, I shall send
you my card with a black cross on it, and then you will know that the
loathsome end has begun.

N