air.) Oh--oh! But this must be the last
time.--I shan't need this sort of thing any more! Never again! (Gets up
wearily.) Ah, I had forgotten. Berent!

[The Curtain falls.]

[The interval between this scene and the next should be as short as
possible.]

SCENE II

(SCENE.-TJAELDE'S private office. On the left, a desk strewn with
ledgers and papers. On the right, a stove. An easy chair by the stove.
A table in the foreground to the right; on it an inkstand and pens. Two
armchairs; one at the table facing the audience, the other at the side
of the table. Windows on either side of the desk; a door beyond the
stove. A door in the background, leading to other offices. A bell-pull
hangs down the wall. A chair on either side of the door. Quite at the
back, on the left, a staircase leading direct to TJAELDE'S bedroom.
BERENT and TJAELDE come in from the back.)

Tjaelde. You must excuse my receiving you here. But the other rooms are
all upside down; we have had some people to dinner.

Berent. I heard you had guests.

Tjaelde. Yes, Mr. Lind from Christiana.

Berent. Quite so.

Tjaelde. Won't you sit down? (BERENT lays down his hat and coat on a
chair by the door. He comes slowly forward, sits down at the side of the
table, and takes some papers from his breast-pocket. TJAELDE sits down
at the other chair by the table and watches him indifferently.)

Berent. What we now want is some fixed standard by which to make our
valuations, especially of real estate. Have you any objection to our
making your business a basis for arriving at that?

Tjaelde. None at all.

Berent. Then may I make my comments on your own figures, and ask you a
few questions about them?

Tjaelde. By all means.

Berent. Well, to begin with, let us take your properties immediately
round here; they will give us the best idea of local values. For
instance, take the Mjolstad forest; you have put that down, I see, at
L16,500.

Tjaelde (indifferently). Have I?

Berent. You bought it for L10,000.

Tjaelde. Yes, four years ago. Timber prices ruled low then.

Berent. And since then you have cut down more than L20,000 worth of
timber there.

Tjaelde. Who told you so?

Berent. Mr. Holst.

Tjaelde. Holst knows nothing about it.

Berent. We must try to be very accurate, you know.

Tjaelde. Well, of course, the whole valuation is not my concern; but
those whom it does concern will protest.

Berent (taking no notice of his objection). So I thin