Pillars of Society | Page 7

How can you say such a thing, Mrs. Holt? Not a syllable passed my lips!
Mrs.Lynge: But what does it all mean?
Mrs.Rummel: What made you begin to talk about--? Think--did you not see that Dina was in the room?
Mrs.Lynge: Dina? Good gracious, is there anything wrong with--?
Mrs.Holt: And in this house, too! Did you not know it was Mrs. Bernick's brother--?
Mrs.Lynge: What about him? I know nothing about it at all; I am quite new to the place, you know.
Mrs.Rummel: Have you not heard that--? Ahem! (To her daughter) Hilda, dear, you can go for a little stroll in the garden?
Mrs.Holt: You go too, Netta. And be very kind to poor Dina when she comes back. (HILDA and NETTA go out into the garden.)
Mrs.Lynge: Well, what about Mrs. Bernick's brother?
Mrs.Rummel: Don't you know the dreadful scandal about him?
Mrs.Lynge: A dreadful scandal about Mr. Tonnesen?
Mrs.Rummel: Good Heavens, no. Mr. Tonnesen is her cousin, of course, Mrs. Lynge. I am speaking of her brother--
Mrs.Holt: The wicked Mr. Tonnesen--
Mrs.Rummel: His name was Johan. He ran away to America.
Mrs.Holt: Had to run away, you must understand.
Mrs.Lynge: Then it is he the scandal is about?
Mrs.Rummel: Yes; there was something--how shall I put it?--there was something of some kind between him and Dina's mother. I remember it all as if it were yesterday. Johan Tonnesen was in old Mrs. Bernick's office then; Karsten Bernick had just come back from Paris--he had not yet become engaged--
Mrs.Lynge: Yes, but what was the scandal?
Mrs.Rummel: Well, you must know that Moller's company were acting in the town that winter--
Mrs.Holt: And Dorf, the actor, and his wife were in the company. All the young men in the town were infatuated with her.
Mrs.Rummel: Yes, goodness knows how they could think her pretty. Well, Dorf came home late one evening--
Mrs.Holt: Quite unexpectedly.
Mrs.Rummel: And found his-- No, really it isn't a thing one can talk about.
Mrs.Holt: After all, Mrs. Rummel, he didn't find anything, because the door was locked on the inside.
Mrs.Rummel: Yes, that is just what I was going to say--he found the door locked. And--just think of it--the man that was in the house had to jump out of the window.
Mrs.Holt: Right down from an attic window.
Mrs.Lynge: And that was Mrs. Bernick's brother?
Mrs.Rummel: Yes, it was he.
Mrs.Lynge: And that was why he ran away to America?
Mrs.Holt: Yes, he had to run away, you may be sure.
Mrs.Rummel: Because something was discovered afterwards that was nearly as bad; just think--he had been making free with the cash- box...
Mrs.Holt: But, you know, no one was certain of that, Mrs. Rummel; perhaps there was no truth in the rumour.
Mrs.Rummel: Well, I must say--! Wasn't it known all over the town? Did not old Mrs. Bernick nearly go bankrupt as the result of it? However, God forbid I should be the one to spread such reports.
Mrs.Holt: Well, anyway, Mrs. Dorf didn't get the money, because she--
Mrs.Lynge: Yes, what happened to Dina's parents afterwards?
Mrs.Rummel: Well, Dorf deserted both his wife and his child. But madam was impudent enough to stay here a whole year. Of course she had not the face to appear at the theatre any more, but she kept herself by taking in washing and sewing--
Mrs.Holt: And then she tried to set up a dancing school.
Mrs.Rummel: Naturally that was no good. What parents would trust their children to such a woman? But it did not last very long. The fine madam was not accustomed to work; she got something wrong with her lungs and died of it.
Mrs.Lynge: What a horrible scandal!
Mrs.Rummel: Yes, you can imagine how hard it was upon the Bernicks. It is the dark spot among the sunshine of their good fortune, as Rummel once put it. So never speak about it in this house, Mrs. Lynge.
Mrs.Holt: And for heaven's sake never mention the stepsister, either!
Mrs.Lynge: Oh, so Mrs. Bernick has a step-sister, too?
Mrs.Rummel: Had, luckily-- for the relationship between them is all over now. She was an extraordinary person too! Would you believe it, she cut her hair short, and used to go about in men's boots in bad weather!
Mrs.Holt: And when her step-brother,the black sheep, had gone away, and the whole town naturally was talking about him--what do you think she did? She went out to America to him!
Mr.Rummel: Yes, but remember the scandal she caused before she went, Mrs. Holt.
Mrs.Holt: Hush, don't speak of it.
Mrs.Lynge: My goodness, did she create a scandal too?
Mrs.Rummel: I think you ought to hear it, Mrs. Lynge. Mr. Bernick had just got engaged to Betty Tonnesen, and the two of them went arm in arm into her aunt's room to tell her the news--
Mrs.Holt: The Tonnesens' parents were dead, you know--
Mrs.Rummel: When, suddenly, up got Lona Hessel from her chair and gave our refined and well-bred Karsten Bernick such a box on the ear that his head