Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 11).djvu/254

 should have controlled! New veins innumerable! And the water-falls! And the quarries! And the trade routes, and steamship-lines all the wide world over! I would have organised it all—I alone!

Yes, I know, I know. There was nothing in the world you would have shrunk from.

[Clenching his hands together.] And now I have to sit here, like a wounded eagle, and look on while others pass me in the race, and take everything away from me, piece by piece!

That is my fate too.

[Not noticing him.] Only to think of it; so near to the goal as I was! If I had only had another week to look about me! All the deposits would have been covered. All the securities I had dealt with so daringly should have been in their places again as before. Vast companies were within a hair's-breadth of being floated. Not a soul should have lost a halfpenny.

Yes, yes; you were on the very verge of success.

[With suppressed fury.] And then treachery overtook me! Just at the critical moment!