The Master Builder Part 81

Oh, I shall die of terror. I cannot bear to see it.

DR. HERDAL.

Then don't look up at him.

HILDA.

There he is standing on the topmost planks! Right at the top!

DR. HERDAL.

n.o.body must move! Do you dear?

HILDA.

[Exulting, with quiet intensity.] At last! At last! Now I see him great and free again!

RAGNAR.

[Almost voiceless.] But this is im--

HILDA.

So I have seen him all through these ten years. How secure he stands!

Frightfully thrilling all the same. Look at him! Now he is hanging the wreath round the vane!

RAGNAR.

I feel as if I were looking at something utterly impossible.

HILDA.

Yes, it is the impossible that he is doing now! [With the indefinable expression in her eyes.] Can you see any one else up there with him?

RAGNAR.

There is no one else.

HILDA.

Yes, there is one he is striving with.

RAGNAR.

You are mistaken.

HILDA.

Then do you hear no song in the air, either?

RAGNAR.

It must be the wind in the tree-tops.

HILDA.

_I_ hear a song--a mighty song! [Shouts in wild jubilation and glee.]

Look, look! Now he is waving his hat! He is waving it to us down here!

Oh, wave, wave back to him! For now it is finished! [s.n.a.t.c.hes the white shawl from the Doctor, waves it, and shouts up to SOLNESS.] Hurrah for Master Builder Solness!

DR. HERDAL.

Stop! Stop! For G.o.d's sake--!

[The ladies on the verandah wave their pocket-handkerchiefs, and the shouts of "Hurrah" are taken up in the street. Then they are suddenly silenced, and the crowd bursts out into a shriek of horror. A human body, with planks and fragments of wood, is vaguely perceived cras.h.i.+ng down behind the trees.

MRS. SOLNESS AND THE LADIES.

[At the same time.] He is falling! He is falling!

[MRS. SOLNESS totters, falls backwards, swooning, and is caught, amid cries and confusion, by the ladies. The crowd in the street breaks down the fence and storms into the garden. At the same time DR. HERDAL, too, rushes down thither. A short pause.

HILDA.

[Stares fixedly upwards and says, as if petrified.] My Master Builder.

RAGNAR.

[Supports himself, trembling, against the railing.] He must be dashed to pieces--killed on the spot.