Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 11).djvu/206



[With emotion.] He cannot bring himself to go out?

I suppose not. He has his great cloak and his hat hanging in the cupboard—the cupboard in the hall you know

[To herself.] The cupboard we used to hide in when we were little

[Nods.] And now and then—late in the evening—I can hear him come down as though to go out. But he always stops when he is halfway downstairs, and turns back—straight back to the gallery.

[Quietly.] Do none of his old friends ever come up to see him?

He has no old friends.

He had so many—once.

H'm! He took the best possible way to get rid of them. He was a dear friend to his friends, was John Gabriel.