THE LEAGUE OF YOUTH.
ACT FIRST.
The Seventeenth of May.[9] A popular fête in the Chamberlain’s grounds. Music and dancing in the background. Coloured lights among the trees. In the middle, somewhat towards the back, a rostrum. To the right, the entrance to a large refreshment-tent; before it, a table with benches. In the foreground, on the left, another table, decorated with flowers and surrounded with lounging-chairs.
A Crowd of People. Lundestad, with a committee-badge at his button-hole, stands on the rostrum. Ringdal, also with a committee-badge, at the table on the left.
... Therefore, friends and fellow citizens, I drink to our freedom! As we have inherited it from our fathers, so will we preserve it for ourselves and for our children! Three cheers for the day! Three cheers for the Seventeenth of May!
Hurrah! hurrah! hurrah!
[As Lundestad descends from the rostrum.] And one cheer more for old Lundestad!
[Hissing.] Ss! Ss!
[Drowning the others.] Hurrah for Lundestad! Long live old Lundestad! Hurrah!
[The Crowd gradually disperses. Monsen, his son Bastian, Stensgård, and Aslaksen make their way forward through the throng.
'Pon my soul, it’s time he was laid on the shelf!
It was the local situation[10] he was talking about! Ho-ho!
He has made the same speech year after year as long as I can remember. Come over here.
No, no, not that way, Mr. Monsen. We are quite deserting your daughter.
Monsen.
Oh, Ragna will find us again.
She’s all right; young Helle is with her.
Helle?
Yes, Helle. But [Nudging Stensgård familiarly] you have me here, you see, and the rest of us. Come on! Here we shall be out of the crowd, and can discuss more fully what——
[Has meanwhile taken a seat beside the table on the left.
[Approaching.] Excuse me, Mr. Monsen—that table is reserved——
Reserved? For whom?
For the Chamberlain’s party.
Oh, confound the Chamberlain’s party! There’s none of them here.
No, but we expect them every minute.
Then let them sit somewhere else.
[Laying his hand on the chair.] No, the table is reserved, and there’s an end of it.
[Rising.] Come, Mr. Stensgård; there are just as good seats over there. [Crosses to the right.] Waiter! Ha, no waiters either. The Committee should have seen to that in time. Oh, Aslaksen, just go in and get us four bottles of champagne. Order the dearest; tell them to put it down to Monsen!
[Aslaksen goes into the tent; the three others seat themselves.
[Goes quietly over to them and addresses Stensgård.] I hope you won’t take it ill——
Take it ill! Good gracious, no! Not in the least.
[Still to Stensgård.] It’s not my doing; it’s the Committee that decided——
Of course. The Committee orders, and we must obey.
[As before.] You see, we are on the Chamberlain’s own ground here. He has been so kind as to throw open his park and garden for this evening; so we thought——
We’re extremely comfortable here, Mr. Lundestad—if only people would leave us in peace—the crowd, I mean.
[Unruffled.] Very well; then it’s all right.
[Entering from the tent.] The waiter is just coming with the wine.
A table apart, under special care of the Committee! And on our Independence Day of all others! There you have a specimen of the way things go.
But why on earth do you put up with all this, you good people?
The habit of generations, you see.
You’re new to the district, Mr. Stensgård. If only you knew a little of the local situation——
[Brings champagne.] Was it you that ordered—?
Yes, certainly; open the bottle.
[Pouring out the wine.] It goes to your account, Mr. Monsen?
The whole thing; don’t be afraid.
[Clinks glasses with Stensgård.] Here’s welcome among us, Mr. Stensgård! It gives me great pleasure to have made your acquaintance; I cannot but call it an honour to the district that such a man should settle here. The newspapers have made us familiar with your name, on all sorts of public occasions. You have great gifts of oratory, Mr. Stensgård, and a warm heart for the public weal. I trust you will enter with life and vigour into the—h’m, into the——
The local situation.
Oh yes, the local situation. I drink to that.
Whatever I do, I shall certainly put life and vigour into it.
Bravo! Hear, hear! Another glass in honour of that promise.
No, stop; I’ve already——
Oh, nonsense! Another glass, I say—to seal the bond!
[They clink glasses and drink. During what follows Bastian keeps on filling the glasses as soon as they are empty.
However—since we have got upon the subject—I must tell you that it’s not the Chamberlain himself that keeps everything under his thumb. No, sir—old Lundestad is the man that stands behind and drives the sledge.
So I am told, in many quarters. I can’t understand how a Liberal like him——
Lundestad? Do you call Anders Lundestad a Liberal? To be sure, he professed Liberalism in his young days, when he was still at the foot of the ladder. And then he inherited his seat in Parliament from his father. Good Lord! everything runs in families here.
But there must be some means of putting a stop to all these abuses.
Yes, damn it all, Mr. Stensgård—see if you can’t put a stop to them!
I don’t say that I——
Yes, you! You are just the man. You have the gift of the gab, as the saying goes; and what’s more: you have the pen of a ready writer. My paper’s at your disposal, you know.
If anything is to be done, it must be done quickly. The preliminary election[11] comes on in three days now.
And if you were elected, your private affairs would not prevent your accepting the charge?
My private affairs would suffer, of course; but if it appeared that the good of the community demanded the sacrifice, I should have to put aside all personal considerations.
Good; that’s good. And you have a party already: that I can see clearly.
I flatter myself the majority of the younger, go-ahead generation——
H’m, h’m! 'ware spies!
May I beg for the loan of a spare seat; I want to sit over there.
The benches are fastened here, you see; but won’t you take a place at this table?
Here? At this table? Oh yes, with pleasure.pleasure. [Sits.] Dear, dear! Champagne, I believe.
Yes; won’t you join us in a glass?
No, thank you! Madam Rundholmen’s champagne——Well, well, just half a glass to keep you company. If only one had a glass, now.
Bastian, go and get one.
Oh, Aslaksen, just go and fetch a glass.
Don’t let me interrupt you, gentlemen. I wouldn’t for the world——! Thanks, Aslaksen. [Bows to Stensgård.] A strange face—a recent arrival! Have I the pleasure of addressing our new legal luminary, Mr. Stensgård?
Quite right. [Introducing them.] Mr. Stensgård, Mr. Daniel Heire——
Capitalist.
Ex-capitalist, you should rather say. It’s all gone now; slipped through my fingers, so to speak. Not that I’m bankrupt—for goodness' sake don’t think that.
Drink, drink, while the froth is on it.
But rascality, you understand—sharp practice and so forth——I say no more. Well, well, I am confident it is only temporary. When I get my outstanding law-suits and some other little matters off my hands, I shall soon be on the track of our aristocratic old Reynard the Fox. Let us drink to that! You won’t, eh?
I should like to know first who your aristocratic old Reynard the Fox may be.
Hee-hee; you needn’t look so uncomfortable, man. You don’t suppose I’m alluding to Mr. Monsen. No one can accuse Mr. Monsen of being aristocratic. No; it’s Chamberlain Bratsberg, my dear young friend.
What!What! In money matters the Chamberlain is surely above reproach.
You think so, young man? H’m; I say no more. [Draws nearer.] Twenty years ago I was worth no end of money. My father left me a great fortune. You’ve heard of my father, I daresay? No? Old Hans Heire? They called him Gold Hans. He was a shipowner: made heaps of money in the blockade time; had his window-frames and door-posts gilded; he could afford it——I say no more; so they called him Gold Hans.
Didn’t he gild his chimney-pots too?
No; that was only a penny-a-liner’s lie; invented long before your time, however. But he made the money fly; and so did I in my time. My visit to London, for instance—haven’t you heard of my visit to London? I took a prince’s retinue with me. Have you really not heard of it, eh? And the sums I have lavished on art and science! And on bringing rising talent to the front!
[Rises.] Well, good-bye, gentlemen.
What? Are you leaving us?
Yes; I want to stretch my legs a bit. [Goes.
[Speaking low.] He was one of them—just as grateful as the rest, hee-hee! Do you know, I kept him a whole year at college?
Indeed? Has Aslaksen been to college?
Like young Monsen. He made nothing of it; also like——I say no more. Had to give him up, you see; he had already developed his unhappy taste for spirits——
But you’ve forgotten what you were going to tell Mr. Stensgård about the Chamberlain.
Oh, it’s a complicated business. When my father was in his glory, things were going downhill with the old Chamberlain—this one’s father, you understand; he was a Chamberlain too.
Of course; everything runs in families here.
Including the social graces——I say no more. The conversion of the currency, rash speculations, extravagances he launched out into, in the year 1816 or thereabouts, forced him to sell some of his land.
And your father bought it?
Bought and paid for it. Well, what then? I come into my property; I make improvements by the thousand——
Of course.
Your health, my young friend!—Improvements by the thousand, I say—thinning the woods, and so forth. Years pass; and then comes Master Reynard—the present one, I mean—and repudiates the bargain!
But, my dear Mr. Heire, you could surely have snapped your fingers at him.
Not so easily! Some small formalities had been overlooked, he declared. Besides, I happened then to be in temporary difficulties, which afterwards became permanent. And what can a man do nowadays without capital?
You’re right there, by God! And in many ways you can’t do very much with capital either. That I know to my cost. Why, even my innocent children——
[Thumps the table.] Ugh, father! if I only had certain people here!
Your children, you say?
Yes; take Bastian, for example. Perhaps I haven’t given him a good education?
A threefold education! First for the University; then for painting; and then for—what is it?—it’s a civil engineer he is now, isn’t it?
Yes, that I am, by the Lord!
Yes, that he is; I can produce his bills and his certificates to prove it! But who gets the town business? Who has got the local road-making—especially these last two years? Foreigners, or at any rate strangers—in short, people no one knows anything about!
Yes; it’s shameful the way things go on. Only last New Year, when the managership of the Savings Bank fell vacant, what must they do but give Monsen the go-by, and choose an individual that knew—[Coughs]—that knew how to keep his purse-strings drawn—which our princely host obviously does not. Whenever there’s a post of confidence going, it’s always the same! Never Monsen—always some one that enjoys the confidence—of the people in power. Well, well; commune suffragium, as the Roman Law puts it; that means shipwreck in the Common Council, sir.[12] It’s a shame! Your health!
Thanks! But, to change the subject—how are all your law-suits getting on?
They are still pending; I can say no more for the present. What endless annoyance they do give me! Next week I shall have to summon the whole Town Council before the Arbitration Commission.[13]
Is it true that you once summoned yourself before the Arbitration Commission?
Myself? Yes; but I didn’t put in an appearance.
Ha, ha! You didn’t, eh?
I had a sufficient excuse: had to cross the river, and it was unfortunately the very year of Bastian’s bridge—plump! down it went, you know——
Why, confound it all——!
Take it coolly, young man! You are not the first that has bent the bow till it breaks. Everything runs in families, you know——I say no more.
Ho ho ho! You say no more, eh? Well, drink, then, and say no more! [To Stensgård.] You see, Mr. Heire’s tongue is licensed to wag as it pleases.
Yes, freedom of speech is the only civic right I really value.
What a pity the law should restrict it.
Hee-hee! Our legal friend’s mouth is watering for a nice action for slander, eh? Make your mind easy, my dear sir! I’m an old hand, let me tell you!
Especially at slander?
Your pardon, young man! That outburst of indignation does honour to your heart. I beg you to forget an old man’s untimely frankness about your absent friends.
Absent friends?
I have nothing to say against the son, of course—nor against the daughter. And if I happened to cast a passing slur upon the Chamberlain’s character——
The Chamberlain’s? Is it the Chamberlain’s family you call my friends?
Well, you don’t pay visits to your enemies, I presume?
Visits?
What?
Ow, ow, ow! Here am I letting cats out of bags——!
Have you been paying visits at the Chamberlain’s?
Nonsense! A misunderstanding——
A most unhappy slip on my part. But how was I to know it was a secret? [To Monsen.] Besides, you musn’t take my expressions too literally. When I say a visit, I mean only a sort of formal call; a frock-coat and yellow gloves affair——
I tell you I haven’t exchanged a single word with any of that family!
Is it possible? Were you not received the second time either? I know they were “not at home” the first time.
[To Monsen.] I had a letter to deliver from a friend in Christiania—that was all.
[Rising.] I’ll be hanged if it isn’t positively revolting! Here is a young man at the outset of his career; full of simple-minded confidence, he seeks out the experienced man-of-the-world and knocks at his door; turns to him, who has brought his ship to port, to beg for——I say no more! The man-of-the-world shuts the door in his face; is not at home; never is at home when it’s his duty to be——I say no more! [With indignation.] Was there ever such shameful insolence!
Oh, never mind that stupid business.
Not at home! He, who goes about professing that he is always at home to reputable people!
Does he say that?
A mere empty phrase. He’s not at home to Mr. Monsen either. But I can’t think what has made him hate you so much. Yes, hate you, I say; for what do you think I heard yesterday?
I don’t want to know what you heard yesterday.
Then I say no more. Besides, the expressions didn’t surprise me—coming from the Chamberlain, I mean. Only I can’t understand why he should have added “demagogue.”
Demagogue!
Well, since you insist upon it, I must confess that the Chamberlain called you an adventurer and demagogue.
[Jumps up.] What!
Adventurer and demagoguedemagogue—or demagogue and adventurer; I won’t answer for the order.
And you heard that?
I? If I had been present, Mr. Stensgård, you may be sure I should have stood up for you as you deserve.
There, you see what comes of——
How dare the old scoundrel——?
Come, come, come! Keep your temper. Very likely it was a mere figure of speech—a harmless little joke, I have no doubt. You can demand an explanation to-morrow; for I suppose you are going to the great dinner-party, eh?
I am not going to any dinner-party.
Two calls and no invitation——!
Demagogue and adventurer! What can he be thinking of?
Look there! Talk of the devil——! Come, Bastian.
What did he mean by it, Mr. Heire?
Haven’t the ghost of an idea.—It pains you? Your hand, young man! Pardon me if my frankness has wounded you. Believe me, you have yet many bitter lessons to learn in this life. You are young; you are confiding; you are trustful. It is beautiful; it is even touching; but—but—trustfulness is silver, experience is gold: that’s a proverb of my own invention, sir! God bless you!