Doll's House (9781443435505) Read Online Free PDF

from you! And it would put me in a horribly disagreeable position—
    KROGSTAD
    Only disagreeable?
    NORA
    (
Impetuously
). Well, do it, then!—and it will be the worse for you. My husband will see for himself what a blackguard you are, and you certainly won’t keep your post then.
    KROGSTAD
    I asked you if it was only a disagreeable scene at home that you were afraid of?
    NORA
    If my husband does get to know of it, of course he will at once pay you what is still owing, and we shall have nothing more to do with you.
    KROGSTAD
    (
Coming a step nearer
). Listen to me, Mrs. Helmer. Either you have a very bad memory or you know very little of business. I shall be obliged to remind you of a few details.
    NORA
    What do you mean?
    KROGSTAD
    When your husband was ill, you came to me to borrow two hundred and fifty pounds.
    NORA
    I didn’t know anyone else to go to.
    KROGSTAD
    I promised to get you that amount—
    NORA
    Yes, and you did so.
    KROGSTAD
    I promised to get you that amount, on certain conditions. Your mind was so taken up with your husband’s illness, and you were so anxious to get the money for your journey, that you seem to have paid no attention to the conditions of our bargain. Therefore it will not be amiss if I remind you of them. Now, I promised to get the money on the security of a bond which I drew up.
    NORA
    Yes, and which I signed.
    KROGSTAD
    Good. But below your signature there were a few lines constituting your father a surety for the money; those lines your father should have signed.
    NORA
    Should? He did sign them.
    KROGSTAD
    I had left the date blank; that is to say, your father should himself have inserted the date on which he signed the paper. Do you remember that?
    NORA
    Yes, I think I remember—
    KROGSTAD
    Then I gave you the bond to send by post to your father. Is that not so?
    NORA
    Yes.
    KROGSTAD
    And you naturally did so at once, because five or six days afterwards you brought me the bond with your father’s signature. And then I gave you the money.
    NORA
    Well, haven’t I been paying it off regularly?
    KROGSTAD
    Fairly so, yes. But—to come back to the matter in hand—that must have been a very trying time for you, Mrs. Helmer?
    NORA
    It was, indeed.
    KROGSTAD
    Your father was very ill, wasn’t he?
    NORA
    He was very near his end.
    KROGSTAD
    And died soon afterwards?
    NORA
    Yes.
    KROGSTAD
    Tell me, Mrs. Helmer, can you by any chance remember what day your father died?—on what day of the month, I mean.
    NORA
    Papa died on the twenty-ninth of September.
    KROGSTAD
    That is correct; I have ascertained it for myself. And, as that is so, there is a discrepancy (
taking a paper from his pocket
) which I cannot account for.
    NORA
    What discrepancy? I don’t know—
    KROGSTAD
    The discrepancy consists, Mrs. Helmer, in the fact that your father signed this bond three days after his death.
    NORA
    What do you mean? I don’t understand—
    KROGSTAD
    Your father died on the twenty-ninth of September. But, look here; your father has dated his signature the second of October. It is a discrepancy, isn’t it? (NORA
is silent
.) Can you explain it to me? (NORA
is still silent
.) It is a remarkable thing, too, that the words “2nd of October,” as well as the year, are not written in your father’s handwriting but in one that I think I know. Well, of course it can be explained; your father may have forgotten to date his signature, and someone else may have dated it haphazard before they knew of his death. There is no harm in that. It all depends on the signature of the name; and that is genuine, I suppose, Mrs. Helmer? It was your father himself who signed his name here?
    NORA
    (
After a short pause, throws her head up and looks defiantly at him
.) No, it was not. It was I that wrote papa’s name.
    KROGSTAD
    Are you aware that is a dangerous confession?
    NORA
    In what way? You shall have your money soon.
    KROGSTAD
    Let me ask you a