Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 8).djvu/400

 own circle he has always been looked upon as a shining light

Gregers.

Not without reason, surely. Look at the depth of his mind!

Relling.

I have never discovered it. That his father believed in it I don't so much wonder; the old lieutenant has been an ass all his days.

Gregers.

He has had a child-like mind all his days; that is what you cannot understand.

Relling.

Well, so be it. But then, when our dear, sweet Hialmar went to college, he at once passed for the great light of the future amongst his comrades too! He was handsome, the rascal—red and white—a shop-girl's dream of manly beauty; and with his superficially emotional temperament, and his sympathetic voice, and his talent for declaiming other people's verses and other people's thoughts

Gregers.

[Indignantly.] Is it Hialmar Ekdal you are talking about in this strain?

Relling.

Yes, with your permission; I am simply giving you an inside view of the idol you are grovelling before.

Gregers.

I should hardly have thought I was quite stone blind.