KROGSTAD. Nothing but dry business matters, Mrs Helmer; absolutely nothing else. NORA. Be so good as to go into the study, then. _[She bows indifferently to him and shuts the door into the hall; then comes back and makes up the fire in the stove.]_ MRS LINDE. Nora—who was that man? NORA. A lawyer, of the name of Krogstad. MRS LINDE. Then it really was he. NORA. Do you know the man? MRS LINDE. I used to—many years ago. At one time he was a solicitor’s clerk in our town. NORA. Yes, he was. MRS LINDE. He is greatly altered. NORA. He made a very unhappy marriage. MRS LINDE. He is a widower now, isn’t he? NORA. With several children. There now, it is burning up. [Shuts the door of the stove and moves the rocking-chair aside.] MRS LINDE. They say he carries on various kinds of business. NORA. Really! Perhaps he does; I don’t know anything about it. But don’t let us think of business; it is so tiresome. DOCTOR RANK. _[comes out of HELMER’S study. Before he shuts the door he calls to him]_. No, my dear fellow, I won’t disturb you; I would rather go in to your wife for a little while. _[Shuts the door and sees Mrs LINDE.]_ I beg your pardon; I am afraid I am disturbing you too. NORA. No, not at all. _[Introducing him]_. Doctor Rank, Mrs Linde. RANK. I have often heard Mrs Linde’s name mentioned here. I think I passed you on the stairs when I arrived, Mrs Linde? MRS LINDE. Yes, I go up very slowly; I can’t manage stairs well. RANK. Ah! some slight internal weakness? MRS LINDE. No, the fact is I have been overworking myself. RANK. Nothing more than that? Then I suppose you have come to town to amuse yourself with our entertainments? MRS LINDE. I have come to look for work. RANK. Is that a good cure for overwork? MRS LINDE. One must live, Doctor Rank. RANK. Yes, the general opinion seems to be that it is necessary. NORA. Look here, Doctor Rank—you know you want to live. RANK. Certainly. However wretched I may feel, I want to prolong the agony as long as possible. All my patients are like that. And so are those who are morally diseased; one of them, and a bad case too, is at this very moment with Helmer— MRS LINDE. _[sadly]_. Ah! NORA. Whom do you mean? RANK. A lawyer of the name of Krogstad, a fellow you don’t know at all. He suffers from a diseased moral character, Mrs Helmer; but even he began talking of its being highly important that he should live. NORA. Did he? What did he want to speak to Torvald about? RANK. I have no idea; I only heard that it was something about the Bank. NORA. I didn’t know this—what’s his name—Krogstad had anything to do with the Bank.