[_Every Nobleman says "Cold Punch," and follows her out in search of it with enthusiasm. GREGERS approaches his father, who wishes he would go._ _Gregers_. Father, a word with you in private. I loathe you. I am nothing if not candid. Old EKDAL was your partner once, and it's my firm belief you deserved a prison quite as much as he did. However, you surely need not have married our GINA to my old friend HIALMAR. You know very well she was no better than she should have been! _Old Werle_. True--but then no more is Mrs. SÖRBY. And _I_ am going to marry _her_--if you have no objection, that is. _Gregers_. None in the world! How can I object to a stepmother who is playing Blind Man's Buff at the present moment with the Norwegian nobility? I am not so overstrained as all that. But really I can_not_ allow my old friend HIALMAR, with his great, confiding, childlike mind, to remain in contented ignorance of GINA's past. No, I see my mission in life at last! I shall take my hat, and inform him that his home is built upon a lie. He will be _so_ much obliged to me! [_Takes his hat, and goes out._ _Old Werle_. Ha!--I am a wealthy merchant, of dubious morals, and I am about to marry my housekeeper, who is on intimate terms with the Norwegian aristocracy. I have a son who loathes me, and who is either an Ibsenian satire on the Master's own ideals, or else an utterly impossible prig--I don't know or care which. Altogether, I flatter myself my household affords an accurate and realistic picture of Scandinavian Society! ACT II. _HIALMAR EKDAL's Photographic Studio. Cameras, neck-rests, and other instruments of torture lying about. GINA EKDAL and HEDWIG, her daughter, aged 14, and wearing spectacles, discovered sitting up for HIALMAR._ _Hedvig_. Grandpapa is in his room with a bottle of brandy and a jug of hot water, doing some fresh copying work. Father is in society, dining out. He promised he would bring me home something nice! _Hialmar_ (_coming in, in evening dress_). And he has not forgotten his promise, my child. Behold! (_he presents her with the menu card; HEDVIG gulps down her tears_; HIALMAR _notices her disappointment, with annoyance._) And this all the gratitude I get! After dining out and coming home in a dress-coat and boots, which are disgracefully tight! Well, well, just to show you how hurt I am, I won't have any _beer_ now! What a selfish brute I am! (_Relenting._) You may bring me just a little drop. (_He bursts into tears._) I will play you a plaintive Bohemian dance on my flute. (_He does._) No beer at such a sacred moment as this! (_He drinks._) Ha, this is real domestic bliss! [_GREGERS WERLE comes in, in a countrified suit._ _Gregers_. I have left my father's home--dinner-party and all--for ever. I am coming to lodge with you.