What the deuce! Miss Wangel, you _mustn't_. I'm a married man! There's my wife! [MRS. HERDAL _enters_. HILDA. As if _that_ mattered--it's only dear, sweet Mrs. Solness. _She_ doesn't mind--_do_ you, dear Mrs. Solness? MRS. HERDAL. It does not seem to be of much _use_ minding, Miss Wangel. I presume you have come to stay? HILDA. [_In amused surprise._] Why, of course--what else should I come for? I _always_ come to stay, until--h'm! [_Nods slowly, and sits down at table._ DR. HERDAL. [_Involuntarily._] She's drinking my punch! If she thinks I'm going to stand this sort of thing, she's mistaken. I'll soon show her a pill-doctor is a very different kind of person from a mere Master Builder! [HILDA _finishes the punch with an indefinable expression in her eyes, and_ Dr. HERDAL _looks on gloomily as the Curtain falls_. * * * * * ACT SECOND Dr. HERDAL'S _drawing-room and dispensary, as before. It is early in the day._ Dr. HERDAL _sits by the little table, taking his own temperature with a clinical thermometer. By the door stands the_ NEW BOOK-KEEPER; _he wears blue spectacles and a discoloured white tie, and seems slightly nervous_. DR. HERDAL. Well, now you understand what is necessary. My late book-keeper, Miss Blakdraf, used to keep my accounts very cleverly--she charged every visit twice over. THE NEW BOOK-KEEPER. I am familiar with book-keeping by double entry. I was once employed at a bank. DR. HERDAL. I am discharging my assistant, too; he was always trying to push me out with his pills. Perhaps you will be able to dispense? THE NEW BOOK-KEEPER. [_Modestly._] With an additional salary, I should be able to do that too. DR. HERDAL. Capital! You _shall_ dispense with an additional salary. Go into the dispensary, and see what you can make of it. You may mistake a few drugs at first--but everything must have a beginning. [_As the_ NEW BOOK-KEEPER _retires_, MRS. HERDAL _enters in a hat and cloak with a watering-pot, noiselessly_. MRS. HERDAL. Miss Wangel got up early, before breakfast, and went for a walk. She is so wonderfully vivacious! DR. HERDAL. So I should say. But tell me, Aline, is she _really_ going to stay with us here? [_Nervously._ MRS. HERDAL. [_Looks at him._] So she tells me. And, as she has brought nothing with her except a tooth-brush and a powder-puff, I am going into the town to get her a few articles. We _must_ make her feel at home. DR. HERDAL. [_Breaking out._] I _will_ make her not only _feel_ but _be_ at home, wherever that is, this very day! I will _not_ have a perambulating Allegory without a portmanteau here on an indefinite visit. I say, she shall go--do you hear, Aline? Miss Wangel will go! [_Raps with his fist on table._ MRS. HERDAL. [_Quietly._] If you say so, Haustus, no doubt she will _have_ to go. But you must tell her so yourself.