"Henrik Ibsen - Pillars Of Society" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ibsen Henrik)

Hilmar: No, I am not.
Mrs. Bernick: Perhaps you did not sleep well last night?
Hilmar: No, I slept very badly. I went for a walk yesterday evening for my
health's sake; and I finished up at the club and read a book about a Polar
expedition. There is something bracing in following the adventures of men who
are battling with the elements.
Mrs. Rummel: But it does not appear to have done you much good, Mr. Tonnesen.
Hilmar: No, it certainly did not. I lay all night tossing about, only half
asleep, and dreamt that I was being chased by a hideous walrus.
Olaf (who meanwhile has come up the steps from the garden) : Have you been
chased by a walrus, uncle?
Hilmar: I dreamt it, you duffer! Do you mean to say you are still playing about
with that ridiculous bow? Why don't you get hold of a real gun?
Olaf: I should like to, butЧ
Hilmar: There is some sense in a thing like that; it is always an excitement
every time you fire it off.
Olaf: And then I could shoot bears, uncle. But daddy won't let me.
Mrs. Bernick: You really mustn't put such ideas into his head, Hilmar.
Hilmar: Hm! It's a nice breed we are educating up now-a-days, isn't it! We talk
a great deal about manly sports, goodness knowsЧbut we only play with the
question, all the same; there is never any serious inclination for the bracing
discipline that lies in facing danger manfully. Don't stand pointing your
crossbow at me, blockheadЧit might go off!
Olaf: No, uncle, there is no arrow in it.
Hilmar: You don't know that there isn'tЧthere may be, all the same. Take it
away, I tell you !ЧWhy on earth have you never gone over to America on one of
your father's ships? You might have seen a buffalo hunt then, or a fight with
Red Indians.
Mrs. Bernick: Oh, HilmarЧ!
Olaf: I should like that awfully, uncle; and then perhaps I might meet Uncle
Johan and Aunt Lona.
Hilmar: Hm!ЧRubbish.
Mrs. Bernick: You can go down into the garden again now, Olaf.
Olaf: Mother, may I go out into the street too?
Mrs. Bernick: Yes, but not too far, mind.
(OLAF runs down into the garden and out through the gate in the fence.)
Rorlund: You ought not to put such fancies into the child's head, Mr. Tonnesen.
Hilmar: No, of course he is destined to be a miserable stay-at-home, like so
many others.
Rorlund: But why do you not take a trip over there yourself?
Hilmar: I? With my wretched health? Of course I get no consideration on that
account. But putting that out of the question, you forget that one has certain
obligations to perform towards the community of which one forms a part. There
must be some one here to hold aloft the banner of the Ideal.ЧUgh, there he is
shouting again !
The Ladies: Who is shouting?
Hilmar: I am sure I don't know. They are raising their voices so loud in there
that it gets on my nerves.
Mrs. Bernick: I expect it is my husband, Mr. Tonnesen. But you must remember he
is so accustomed to addressing large audiences.