Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 6).djvu/78

 ASLAKSEN.

I didn't choose my circumstances.

FIELDBO.

No; God chose them for you.

ASLAKSEN.

No, he didn't—men chose them. Daniel Heire chose, when he took me from the printing-house and sent me to college. And Chamberlain Bratsberg chose, when he ruined Daniel Heire and sent me back to the printing-house.

Fieldbo.

Now you know that's not true. The Chamberlain did not ruin Daniel Heire; Daniel Heire ruined himself.

Aslaksen.

Perhaps! But how dared Daniel Heire ruin himself, in the face of his responsibilities towards me? God's partly to blame too, of course. Why should he give me talent and ability? Well, of course I could have turned them to account as a respectable handicraftsman; but then comes that tattling old fool

Fieldbo.

It's base of you to say that. Daniel Heire acted with the best intentions.

Aslaksen.

What good do his "best intentions" do me? You hear them in there, clinking glasses and drinking healths? Well, I too have sat at that table in my day, dressed in purple and fine linen, like the best of them! That was just the thing for me, that was—for me, that had read so much