Three Dramas | Page 8

Well--he shall leave this very day.
The Doctor (to HARALD). How are you, Rejn?--Oho! I understand. I
have come at an inopportune moment with my complaints of John?
You have all got something more serious on your minds?
Mrs. Evje. Yes, we have had it out, as we agreed yesterday.
The Doctor. You must forgive me, my dear Rejn, for having told my
old friends the whole truth yesterday. She (pointing to MRS. EVJE)
was an old playfellow of mine, and her husband and I have been friends
from boyhood; so we have no secrets from each other. And Gertrud's
condition makes me very uneasy.
Harald. Why have you never told me that before?
The Doctor. Goodness knows I have often enough given her parents
hints that she was not well; but they have only made up their minds that
her happiness in her engagement would quite cure her. They are a
considerate couple, these two dear people, you know; they didn't want

to seem interfering.
Harald. Their consideration--which I appreciate and have lately had
constant reason to be grateful for--has all at once become a more
powerful weapon than open opposition. It makes a duty of what I
should otherwise have felt to be unfair coercion. But now the situation
is such that I can neither go forward nor back. After what I have gone
through, you must see that I cannot withdraw on the very eve of the
election--and after the election it will be too late. On the other
hand--(with emotion)--I cannot, I dare not, go on with it if it is to cost
me--. (Breaks off.)
Evje (standing in front of the fire). There, there! Take time to think it
over, my dear boy; talk it over with her and with your brother.
The Doctor (who has sat down on a chair to the left, a little away from
the others). I have just been to see your brother. A remarkable man! But
do you know what occurred to me as I sat there? He is dying because
he is a man. The only people that are fit for political life nowadays are
those whose hearts have been turned to stone. (Picks up something
from the table and gets up.) Ah, just look here! Here is a fine specimen
of petrifaction. It is a fragment of palm leaf of some kind, found
impressed in a bit of rock from Spitzbergen. I sent it you myself, so I
know it. That is what you have to be like to withstand arctic storms!--it
will take to harm. But your brother--well, his life had been like that of
the original palm tree, with the air sighing through its branches; the
change of climate was too sudden for him. (Goes up to HARALD.)
You have still to try it. Shall you be able to kill all the humanity that is
in you? If you can make yourself as insensate a thing as this stone, I
daresay you will be able to stand the life. But are you willing to venture
upon political life at such a price? If you are--so be it; but remember
that in that case you must also kill all humanity in Gertrud--in these
two--in every one that is dear to you. Otherwise no one will understand
you or follow you. If you cannot do that, you will never be more than a
dabbler in politics-- a quarter, an eighth part, of a politician--and all
your efforts, in what you consider your vocation, will be pitiable!
Mrs. Evje (who has been occupied at the back of the room, but now sits
down by the fare). That is quite true! I know cases of petrifaction like
that--and God preserve anyone that I love from it!
Evje (coming forward towards HARALD). I don't want to say anything

to hurt your feelings--least of all just now. But I just want to add my
warning, because I believe I have discovered that there is a danger that
persecution may make you hard.
Harald. Yes!--but do you suppose it is only politics that offer that
dangerous prospect?
The Doctor. You are quite right! It is all the cry nowadays, "Harden
yourself!" It isn't only military men and doctors that have to be
hardened; commercial men have to be hardened, civil servants have to
be hardened, or dried up; and everybody else has to be hardened for life,
apparently. But what does it all mean? It means that we are to drive out
all warmth from our hearts, all desire from our imaginations. There is a
child's heart at the bottom of every one of our hearts-ever young, full of
laughter and tears; and that is what we shall have killed before we are
"fitted for the battle of life," as they put it. No,