ve to be fed! To have to--Oh, it's not to be spoken of!

MRS. ALVING. The child has his mother to nurse him.

OSWALD. [Springs up.] No, never that! That is just what I will not have.
I can't endure to think that perhaps I should lie in that state for many
years--and get old and grey. And in the meantime you might die and
leave me. [Sits in MRS. ALVING'S chair.] For the doctor said it wouldn't
necessarily prove fatal at once. He called it a sort of softening of the
brain--or something like that. [Smiles sadly.] I think that expression
sounds so nice. It always sets me thinking of cherry-coloured
velvet--something soft and delicate to stroke.

MRS. ALVING. [Shrieks.] Oswald!

OSWALD. [Springs up and paces the room.] And now you have taken Regina
from me. If I could only have had her! She would have come to the
rescue, I know.

MRS. ALVING. [Goes to him.] What do you mean by that, my darling boy? Is
there any help in the world that I would not give you?

OSWALD. When I got over my attack in Paris, the doctor told me that when
it comes again--and it will come--there will be no more hope.

MRS. ALVING. He was heartless enough to--

OSWALD. I demanded it of him. I told him I had preparations to make--[He
smiles cunningly.] And so I had. [He takes a little box from his inner
breast pocket and opens it.] Mother, do you see this?

MRS. ALVING. What is it?

OSWALD. Morphia.

MRS. ALVING. [Looks at him horror-struck.] Oswald--my boy!

OSWALD. I've scraped together twelve pilules--

MRS. ALVING. [Snatches at it.] Give me the box, Oswald.

OSWALD. Not yet, mother. [He hides the box again in his pocket.]

MRS. ALVING. I shall never survive this!

OSWALD. It must be survived. Now if I'd had Regina here, I should have
told her how things stood with me--and begged her to come to the rescue
at the last. She would have done it. I know she would.

MRS. ALVING. Never!

OSWALD. When the horror had come upon me, and she saw me lying there
helpless, like a little new-born baby, impotent, lost, hopeless--past
all saving--

MRS. ALVING. Never in all the world would Regina have done this!

OSWALD. Regina would have done it. Regina was so splendidly
light-hearted. And she would soon have wearied of nursing an invalid
like me.

MRS. ALVING. Then heaven be praised that Regina is not here.

OSWALD. Well then, it is you that must come to the rescue, mother.

MRS. ALVING. [Shrieks aloud.] I!

OSWALD. Who should do it if no