Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 11).djvu/250

 polish, poor thing; but she is a good sort of woman all the same. No, it's the children.

I thought as much.

For the children—well, they have more culture, and therefore they expect more of life.

[Looking at him sympathetically.] And so your children despise you, Vilhelm?

[Shrugging his shoulders.] I haven't made much of a career, you see—there is no denying that.

[''Moving nearer to him, and laying his hand upon his arm.''] Do they not know, then, that in your young days you wrote a tragedy?

Yes, of course they know that. But it doesn't seem to make much impression on them.

Then they don't understand these things. For your tragedy is good. I am firmly convinced of that.