_Hilda._ Wrong--_straws!_ Poor TESMAN _didn't_ fancy that--so he shot himself, _un_-beautifully, through his ticket-pocket. And I went on and took Rosmersholm for the Summer. There had been misfortune in the house, so it was to let. Dear good old Rector KROLL acted as my reference; his wife and children had no sympathy with his views, so I used to see him every day. And I persuaded him, too, to attempt the impossible--he had never ridden anything but a rocking-horse in his life, but I made him promise to mount the White Horse of the Rosmersholms. He didn't get over _that_. They found his body, a fortnight afterwards, in the mill-dam. Thrilling! _Dr. Herd._ (_shakes his finger at her_). What a girl you are, Miss WANGEL! But you mustn't play these games _here_, you know. _Hilda_ (_laughs to herself_). Of course not. But I suppose I _am_ a strange sort of bird. _Dr. Herd._ You are like a strong tonic. When I look at you I seem to be regarding an effervescing saline draught. Still, I really must decline to take you. _Hilda_ (_a little sulky_). That is not how you spoke ten years ago, up at the mountain station, when you were such a flirt! _Dr. Herd._ _Was_ I a flirt? Deuce take me if I remember. But I am not like that _now_. _Hilda._ Then you have really forgotten how you sat next to me at the _table d'hote_, and made pills and swallowed them, and were so splendid and buoyant and free that all the old women who knitted left next day? _Dr. Herd._ What a memory you have for trifles, Miss WANGEL, it's quite wonderful! _Hilda._ Trifles! There was no trifling on _your_ part. When you promised to come back in ten years, like a troll, and fetch me! _Dr. Herd._ Did I say all that? It _must_ have been _after table d'hote_! _Hilda._ It was. I was a mere chit then--only twenty-three; but I remember. And now _I_ have come for _you_. _Dr. Herd._ Dear, dear! But there is nothing of the troll about me now I have married Mrs. SOLNESS. _Hilda_ (_looking sharply at him_). Yes, I remember you were always dropping in to tea in those days. _Dr. Herd._ (_seems hurt_). Every visit was duly put down in the ledger and charged for--as poor little SENNA will tell you. _Hilda._ Little SENNA? Oh, Dr. HERDAL, I believe there is a bit of the troll left in you still! _Dr. Herd._ (_laughs a little_). No, no; my conscience is perfectly robust--always was. _Hilda._ Are you quite _quite_ sure that, when you went indoors with dear Mrs. SOLNESS that afternoon, and left me alone with my Master Builder, you did not foresee--perhaps wish--intend, even a little, that----H'm? _Dr. Herd._ That you would talk the poor man into clambering up that tower? You want to drag _Me_ into that business now! _Hilda_ (_teasingly_). Yes, I certainly think that then you went on exactly like a troll.