Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 9).djvu/68

 Rosmer.

Are you really and seriously standing at a turning-point?

Brendel.

Surely my own boy knows that, stand he where he may, Ulric Brendel always stands really and seriously.—Yes, Johannes, I am going to put on a new man—to throw off the modest reserve I have hitherto maintained.

Rosmer. How?

Brendel.

I am about to take hold of life with a strong hand; to step forth; to assert myself. We live in a tempestuous, an equinoctial age.—I am about to lay my mite on the altar of Emancipation.

Kroll. You too?

Brendel.

[To them all.] Is the local public at all familiar with my occasional writings?

Kroll. No, I must candidly confess that

Rebecca.

I have read several of them. My adopted father had them in his library.

Brendel.

Fair lady, then you have wasted your time. For, let me tell you, they are so much rubbish.