Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 9).djvu/208

 Lyngstrand.

I thought, if I could find an opportunity, I might speak to Dr. Wangel.

Ballested.

Yes, do. [Looks out to the left.] Here comes another steamer. Chock full of passengers. It's extraordinary how the tourist business has increased here during the last few years.

Lyngstrand.

Yes, there seems to be a continual coming and going.

Ballested.

The place is full of summer visitors too. I'm sometimes afraid that our good town may lose its character with all this foreign invasion.

Lyngstrand.

Are you a native of the place?

Ballested.

No, I am not. But I have accla—acclimatised myself. I have become attached to the place by the bonds of time and habit.

Lyngstrand.

You have lived here a long time, then?

Ballested.

Well, seventeen or eighteen years. I came here with Skive's[1] dramatic company. But we got into financial difficulties; so the company broke up and was scattered to the winds.

1 Pronounce Sheevë's.