I'm not downright ill, either; not what is commonly called "ill."
[Clasps his hands above his head.] Mother, my mind is broken
down--ruined--I shall never be able to work again! [With his hands
before his face, he buries his head in her lap, and breaks into bitter
sobbing.]

MRS. ALVING. [White and trembling.] Oswald! Look at me! No, no; it's not
true.

OSWALD. [Looks up with despair in his eyes.] Never to be able to work
again! Never!--never! A living death! Mother, can you imagine anything
so horrible?

MRS. ALVING. My poor boy! How has this horrible thing come upon you?

OSWALD. [Sitting upright again.] That's just what I cannot possibly
grasp or understand. I have never led a dissipated life never, in any
respect. You mustn't believe that of me, mother! I've never done that.

MRS. ALVING. I am sure you haven't, Oswald.

OSWALD. And yet this has come upon me just the same--this awful
misfortune!

MRS. ALVING. Oh, but it will pass over, my dear, blessed boy. It's
nothing but over-work. Trust me, I am right.

OSWALD. [Sadly.] I thought so too, at first; but it isn't so.

MRS. ALVING. Tell me everything, from beginning to end.

OSWALD. Yes, I will.

MRS. ALVING. When did you first notice it?

OSWALD. It was directly after I had been home last time, and had got
back to Paris again. I began to feel the most violent pains in my
head--chiefly in the back of my head, they seemed to come. It was as
though a tight iron ring was being screwed round my neck and upwards.

MRS. ALVING. Well, and then?

OSWALD. At first I thought it was nothing but the ordinary headache I
had been so plagued with while I was growing up--

MRS. ALVING. Yes, yes--

OSWALD. But it wasn't that. I soon found that out. I couldn't work any
more. I wanted to begin upon a big new picture, but my powers seemed to
fail me; all my strength was crippled; I could form no definite images;
everything swam before me--whirling round and round. Oh, it was an awful
state! At last I sent for a doctor--and from him I learned the truth.

MRS. ALVING. How do you mean?

OSWALD. He was one of the first doctors in Paris. I told him my
symptoms; and then he set to work asking me a string of questions which
I thought had nothing to do with the matter. I couldn't imagine what the
man was after--

MRS. ALVING. Well?

OSWALD. At last he said: "There has been something worm-eaten in you
from your birth." He used that very word--_vermoulu_.

MRS. ALVING