Naturally, sir, for I give higher interest.

Yes, but you charge higher interest on loans.loans.

But I don’t make so many difficulties about security and so forth.

That is just the mischief of it; for now we have people making bargains to the tune of ten or twenty thousand dollars,^[18] though neither of the parties has so much as a brass farthing. That is what sets me against you, Mr. Monsen. And there is another thing too that touches me still more nearly. Do you think it was with my good will that my son flung himself into all these wild speculations?

But how can I help that?

It was your example that infected him, as it did the others. Why could you not stick to your last?

Remain a lumberman, like my father?

Was it a disgrace to be in my employment? Your father made his bread honourably, and was respected in his own class.

Yes, until he’d almost worked his life out, and at last went over the waterfall with his raft. Do you know anything of life in that class, Chamberlain? Have you ever realised what the men have to endure who toil for you deep in the forests, and along the river-reaches, while you sit comfortably at home and fatten on the profits? Can you blame such a man for struggling to rise in the world? I had had a little more schooling than my father; perhaps I had rather more brains too——

Very likely. But by what means have you risen in the world? You began by selling brandy. Then you bought up doubtful debts, and enforced them mercilessly;—and so you got on and on. How many people have you not ruined to push yourself forward!

That’s the course of business; one up, another down.

But there are different methods of business. I know of respectable families whom you have brought to the workhouse.

Daniel Heire is not very far from the workhouse.

I understand you; but I can justify my conduct before God and man! When the country was in distress, after the separation from Denmark, my father made sacrifices beyond his means. Thus part of our property came into the hands of the Heire family. What was the result? The people who lived upon the property suffered under Daniel Heire’s incompetent management. He cut down timber to the injury, I may even say to the ruin, of the district. Was it not my obvious duty to put a stop to it if I was able? And it happened that I was able; I had the law on my side; I was well within my rights when I re-entered upon my family property.

I, too, have always had the law on my side.

But what about your sense of right, your conscience, if you have such a thing? And how you have broken down all social order! How you have impaired the respect that should attach to wealth! People never think of asking nowadays how such and such a fortune was made, or how long it has been in such and such a family; they only ask: how much is so-and-so worth?—and they esteem him accordingly. Now I suffer by all this; I find myself regarded as a sort of associate of yours; people speak of us in one breath, because we are the two largest proprietors in the neighbourhood. This state of things I cannot endure! I tell you once for all: that is why I am set against you.

This state of things shall come to an end, sir; I will give up business, and make way for you at every point; but I beg you, I implore you, to help me!

I will not.

I’m willing to pay what you like——

To pay! And you dare to——!

If not for my sake, then for your son’s!

My son’s!

Yes, he’s in it. I reckon he stands to win some twenty thousand dollars.

Stands to win?

Yes.

Then, good God, who stands to lose all this money?

How do you mean?

If my son wins, some one or other must lose!

It’s a good stroke of business; I’m not in a position to say more. But I need a solid name; only just your endorsement——

Endorsement! On a bill——?

Only for ten or fifteen thousand dollars.

Do you suppose for a moment that——? My name! In such an affair! My name? As surety, no doubt?

A mere matter of form——

A matter of swindling! My name! Not upon any consideration. I have never put my name on other men’s paper.

Never? That’s an exaggeration, Chamberlain.

It is the literal truth.

No, not literal; I’ve seen it with my own eyes.

What have you seen?

Your name—on one bill at least.

It is false, I tell you! You have never seen it!

I have! On a bill for two thousand dollars. Think again!

Neither for two thousand nor for ten thousand! On my sacred word of honour, never!

Then it’s a forgery.

Forgery?

Yes, a forgery—for I have seen it.

Forgery? Forgery! Where did you see it? In whose hands?

That I won’t tell you.

Ha-ha! We shall soon find that out.out.

Listen to me——!

Silence! It has come to this then! Forgery. They must mix me up in their abominations! No wonder, then, that people bracket me with the rest of you. But it is my turn now!

Chamberlain—for your own sake and for the sake of others——

Off with you! Out of my sight! It is you that are at the root of it all!—Yes you are! Woe unto him from whom offences come. Your home-life is scandalous. What sort of society do you get about you? Persons from Christiania and elsewhere, who think only of eating and drinking, and do not care in what company they gorge themselves. Silence! I have seen with my own eyes your distinguished guests tearing along the roads at Christmas-time like a pack of howling wolves. And there is worse behind. You have had scandals with your own maid-servants. You drove your wife out of her mind by your ill-treatment and debauchery.

Come, this is going too far! You shall pay for these words!

Oh, to the deuce with your threats! What harm can you do to me? Me? You asked what I had to say against you. Well, I have said it. Now you know why I have kept you out of decent society.

Yes, and now I’ll drag your decent society down——

That way!

I know my way, Chamberlain!

[Opens the door on the right and calls.] Ringdal, Ringdal—come here!

What is it, sir?

[Calls into the drawing-room.] Doctor, please come this way!—Now, Ringdal, now you shall see my prophecies fulfilled.

[Entering.] What can I do for you, Chamberlain?

What prophecies, sir?

What do you say to this, Doctor? You have always accused me of exaggerating when I said that Monsen was corrupting the neighbourhood.

Well, what then?

We are getting on, I can tell you! What do you think? There are forgeries going about.

Forgeries?

Yes, forgeries! And whose name do you think they have forged? Why, mine!

Who in the world can have done it?

How can I tell? I don’t know all the scoundrels in the district. But we shall soon find out.—Doctor, do me a service. The papers must have come into the hands either of the Savings Bank or the Iron-works Bank. Drive up to Lundestad; he is the director who knows most about things. Find out whether there is any such paper——

Certainly; at once.

Lundestad is here at the works to-day; there’s a meeting of the school committee.

So much the better. Find him; bring him here.

I’ll go at once.

And you, Ringdal, make inquiries at the Ironworks. As soon as we have got to the bottom of the matter, we’ll lay an information. No mercy to the scoundrels!

Very good, sir. Bless me, who’d have thought of such a thing?

My dear father——!

Oh, are you there?

I want so much to speak to you.

H’m; I’m not much in the humour for speaking to any one. What do you want?

You know I have never mixed you up in my affairs, father.

No; that is an honour I should certainly have declined.

But now I am forced to——

What are you forced to do?

Father, you must help me!

With money! You may be very sure that——

Only this once! I swear I’ll never again——The fact is, I am under certain engagements to Monsen of Stonelee——

I know that. You have a brilliant speculation on hand.

A speculation? We? No! Who told you so?

Monsen himself.

Has Monsen been here?

He has just gone. I showed him the door.

If you don’t help me, father, I am ruined.

You?

Yes. Monsen has advanced me money. I had to pay terribly dear for it; and now the bills have fallen due——

There we have it! What did I tell you——?

Yes, yes; it’s too late now——

Ruined! In two years! But how could you expect anything else? What had you to do among these charlatans that go about dazzling people’s eyes with wealth that never existed! They were no company for you. Among people of that sort you must meet cunning with cunning, or you’ll go to the wall; you have learnt that now.

Father, will you save me or will you not?

No; for the last time, no. I will not.

My honour is at stake——

Oh, let us have no big phrases! There’s no honour involved in commercial success nowadays; quite the opposite, I had almost said. Go home and make up your accounts; pay every man his due, and have done with it, the sooner the better.

Oh, you don’t know——

Is that Erik’s voice?—Good heavens, what is the matter?

Nothing. Go into the drawing-room again.

No, I won’t go. I will know. Erik, what is it? Tell me!

It’s only that I am ruined!

Ruined!

There, you see!

What is ruined?

Everything.

Do you mean you have lost your money?

Money, house, inheritance—everything!

Is that what you call everything?

Come, let us go, Selma. You are all I have left me. We must bear the blow together.

The blow? Bear it together? [With a cry.] Do you think I am fit for that, now?

For heaven’s sake——!

What do you mean?

Oh, Selma, take care!

No, I won’t take care! I cannot go on lying and shamming any longer! I must speak the truth. I will not “bear” anything!

Selma!

Child, what are you saying?

Oh, how cruel you have been to me! Shamefully—all of you! It was my part always to accept—never to give. I have been like a pauper among you. You never came and demanded a sacrifice of me; I was not fit to bear anything. I hate you! I loathe you!

What can this mean?

She is ill; she is out of her mind!

How I have thirsted for a single drop of your troubles, your anxieties! But when I begged for it you only laughed me off. You have dressed me up like a doll; you have played with me as you would play with a child. Oh, what a joy it would have been to me to take my share in your burdens! How I longed, how I yearned, for a large, and high, and strenuous part in life! Now you come to me, Erik, now that you have nothing else left. But I will not be treated simply as a last resource. I will have nothing to do with your troubles now. I won’t stay with you! I will rather play and sing in the streets——! Let me be! Let me be!

Thora, was there any meaning in all that, or——

Oh, yes, there was meaning in it; if only I had seen it sooner.

No! All else I can lose, but not her! Selma, Selma!

[Enters from the right.] Chamberlain!

Well, what is it?

I have been to the Bank——

The Bank? Oh, yes, about the bill——

It’s all right; they have never had any bill endorsed by you——

False alarm, Chamberlain!

Indeed? Not at the Savings Bank either?

Certainly not. During all the years I’ve been a director I have never once seen your name; except, of course, on your son’s bill.

My son’s bill?

Yes, the bill you accepted for him early this spring.

My son? My son? Do you dare to tell me——?

Why, bless me, just think a moment; the bill for two thousand dollars drawn by your son——

[Groping for a chair.] Oh, my God——!

For heaven’s sake——!

It’s not possible that——!

[Who has sunk down on a chair.] Quietly, quietly! Drawn by my son, you say? Accepted by me? For two thousand dollars?

[To Lundestad.] And this bill is in the Savings Bank?

Not now; it was redeemed last week by Monsen——

By Monsen——?

Monsen may still be at the works; I’ll go——

Stop here!

Good-morning, gentlemen! Good-morning, Chamberlain! Thank you so much for the delightful evening we spent yesterday. What do you think I’ve just heard——?

Excuse me; we are busy——

So are other people, I can tell you; our friend from Stonelee, for example——

Monsen?

Hee-hee; it’s a pretty story! The electioneering intrigues are in full swing. And what do you think is the last idea? They are going to bribe you, Chamberlain!

To bribe——?

They judge the tree by its fruit.

Deuce take me if it isn’t the most impudent thing I ever heard of! I just looked in at Madam Rundholmen’s to have a glass of bitters. There sat Messrs. Monsen and Stensgård drinking port—filthy stuff! I wouldn’t touch it; but they might have had the decency to offer me a glass, all the same. However, Monsen turned to me and said, “What do you bet that Chamberlain Bratsberg won’t go with our party at the preliminary election to-morrow?” “Indeed,” said I, “how’s that to be managed?” “Oh,” he said, “this bill will persuade him——”

Bill——?

At the election——?

Well? What then?

Oh, I know no more. They said something about two thousand dollars. That’s the figure they rate a gentleman’s conscience at! Oh, it’s abominable, I say!

A bill for two thousand dollars?

And Monsen has it?

No, he handed it over to Stensgård.

Indeed!

To Stensgård?

Are you sure of that?

Quite certain. “You can make what use you please of it,” he said. But I don’t understand——