r, and yet obliged to be always on the look-out
for chances. One must live, and so one becomes selfish. When you told me
of the happy turn your fortunes have taken--you will hardly believe
it--I was delighted not so much on your account as on my own.

_Nora_. How do you mean?--Oh, I understand. You mean that perhaps
Torvald could get you something to do.

_Mrs. Linde_. Yes, that was what I was thinking of.

_Nora_. He must, Christine. Just leave it to me; I will broach the
subject very cleverly--I will think of something that will please him
very much. It will make me so happy to be of some use to you.

_Mrs. Linde_. How kind you are, Nora, to be so anxious to help me! It is
doubly kind in you, for you know so little of the burdens and troubles
of life.

_Nora_. I--? I know so little of them?

_Mrs Linde_ (_smiling_). My dear! Small household cares and that sort of
thing!--You are a child, Nora.

_Nora_ (_tosses her head and crosses the stage_). You ought not to be so
superior.

_Mrs. Linde_. No?

_Nora_. You are just like all the others. They all think that I am
incapable of anything really serious--

_Mrs. Linde_. Come, come--

_Nora_.--that I have gone through nothing in this world of cares.

_Mrs. Linde_. But, my dear Nora, you have just told me all your
troubles.

_Nora_. Pooh!--those were trifles. (_Lowering her voice_.) I have not
told you the important thing.

_Mrs. Linde_. The important thing? What do you mean?

_Nora_. You look down upon me altogether, Christine--but you ought not
to. You are proud, aren't you, of having-worked so hard and so long for
your mother?

_Mrs. Linde_. Indeed, I don't look down on any one. But it is true that
I am both proud and glad to think that I was privileged to make the end
of my mother's life almost free from care.

_Nora_. And you are proud to think of what you have done for your
brothers.

_Mrs. Linde_. I think I have the right to be.

_Nora_. I think so, too. But now, listen to this; I too have something
to be proud and glad of.

_Mrs. Linde_. I have no doubt you have. But what do you refer to?

_Nora_. Speak low. Suppose Torvald were to hear! He mustn't on any
account--no one in the world must know, Christine, except you.

_Mrs. Linde_. But what is it?

_Nora_. Come here. (_Pulls her down on the sofa beside her_.) Now I will
show you that I too have something to be proud and glad of. It was I who
saved Torvald's life.

_Mrs. Linde_. "Saved"