seman.--Good-bye, good-bye, a kind good-bye to you
all. [She goes out by the door on the right.]

EYOLF. [Softly and triumphantly, to ASTA.] Only think, Auntie, now I
have seen the Rat-Wife too!

[RITA goes out upon the verandah, and fans herself with her
pocket-handkerchief. Shortly afterwards, EYOLF slips cautiously and
unnoticed out to the right.]

ALLMERS. [Takes up the portfolio from the table by the sofa.] Is this
your portfolio, Asta?

ASTA. Yes. I have some of the old letters in it.

ALLMERS. Ah, the family letters--

ASTA. You know you asked me to arrange them for you while you were away.

ALLMERS. [Pats her on the head.] And you have actually found time to do
that, dear?

ASTA. Oh, yes. I have done it partly out here and partly at my own rooms
in town.

ALLMERS. Thanks, dear. Did you find anything particular in them?

ASTA. [Lightly.] Oh, you know you always find something or other in such
old papers. [Speaking lower and seriously.] It is the letters to mother
that are in this portfolio.

ALLMERS. Those, of course, you must keep yourself.

ASTA. [With an effort.] No; I am determined that you shall look through
them, too, Alfred. Some time--later on in life. I haven't the key of the
portfolio with me just now.

ALLMERS. It doesn't matter, my dear Asta, for I shall never read your
mother's letters in any case.

ASTA. [Fixing her eyes on him.] Then some time or other--some quiet
evening--I will tell you a little of what is in them.

ALLMERS. Yes, that will be much better. But do you keep your mother's
letters--you haven't so many mementos of her.

[He hands ASTA the portfolio. She takes it, and lays it on the chair
under her outdoor things. RITA comes into the room again.]

RITA. Ugh! I feel as if that horrible old woman had brought a sort of
graveyard smell with her.

ALLMERS. Yes, she was rather horrible.

RITA. I felt almost sick while she was in the room.

ALLMERS. However, I can very well understand the sort of spellbound
fascination that she talked about. The loneliness of the mountain-peaks
and of the great waste places has something of the same magic about it.

ASTA. [Looks attentively at him.] What is it that has happened to you,
Alfred?

ALLMERS. [Smiling.] To me?

ASTA. Yes, something has happened--something seems almost to have
transformed you. Rita noticed it too.

RITA. Yes, I saw it the moment you came. A change for the better, I
hope, Alfred?

ALLMERS. It ought to