t at the table under the
hanging lamp, and are soon deep in an eager examination of
the papers. HEDDA crosses to the stove and sits in the arm-
chair. Presently BRACK goes up to her.

HEDDA.

[In a low voice.] Oh, what a sense of freedom it gives one, this act of
Eilert Lovborg's.

BRACK.

Freedom, Mrs. Hedda? Well, of course, it is a release for him--

HEDDA.

I mean for me. It gives me a sense of freedom to know that a deed
of deliberate courage is still possible in this world,--a deed of
spontaneous beauty.

BRACK.

[Smiling.] H'm--my dear Mrs. Hedda--

HEDDA.

Oh, I know what you are going to say. For you are a kind of specialist
too, like--you know!

BRACK.

[Looking hard at her.] Eilert Lovborg was more to you than perhaps you
are willing to admit to yourself. Am I wrong?

HEDDA.

I don't answer such questions. I only know that Eilert Lovborg has had
the courage to live his life after his own fashion. And then--the last
great act, with its beauty! Ah! that he should have the will and the
strength to turn away from the banquet of life--so early.

BRACK.

I am sorry, Mrs. Hedda,--but I fear I must dispel an amiable illusion.

HEDDA.

Illusion?

BRACK.

Which could not have lasted long in any case.

HEDDA.

What do you mean?

BRACK.

Eilert Lovborg did not shoot himself--voluntarily.

HEDDA.

Not voluntarily?

BRACK.

No. The thing did not happen exactly as I told it.

HEDDA.

[In suspense.] Have you concealed something? What is it?

BRACK.

For poor Mrs. Elvsted's sake I idealised the facts a little.

HEDDA.

What are the facts?

BRACK.

First, that he is already dead.

HEDDA.

At the hospital?

BRACK.

Yes--without regaining consciousness.

HEDDA.

What more have you concealed?

BRACK.

This--the event did not happen at his lodgings.

HEDDA.

Oh, that can make no difference.

BRACK.

Perhaps it may. For I must tell you--Eilert Lovborg was found shot
in--in Mademoiselle Diana's boudoir.

HEDDA.

[Makes a motion as if to rise, but sinks back again.] That is
impossible, Judge Brack! He cannot have been there again to-day.

BRACK.

He was there this afternoon. He went there, he said, to demand the
return of something which they had taken from him. Talked wildly about a
lost child--

HEDDA.

Ah--so that is why--

BRACK.

I thought probably he meant his m