HELMER. But _I_ will believe. Tell me! We must so change that——? NORA. That communion between us shall be a marriage. Good-bye. [_She goes out by the hall door._ HELMER. [_Sinks into a chair by the door with his face in his hands._] Nora! Nora! [_He looks round and rises._] Empty. She is gone. [_A hope springs up in him._] Ah! The miracle of miracles——?! [_From below is heard the reverberation of a heavy door closing._ THE END GHOSTS (1881) CHARACTERS. MRS. HELEN ALVING, _widow of Captain Alving, late Chamberlain[10] to the King_. OSWALD ALVING, _her son, a painter._ PASTOR MANDERS. JACOB ENGSTRAND, _a carpenter_. REGINA ENGSTRAND, _Mrs. Alving’s maid_. _The action takes place at Mrs. Alving’s country house, beside one of the large fjords in Western Norway._ ----- Footnote 10: Chamberlain (Kammerherre) is the only title of honour now existing in Norway. It is a distinction conferred by the King on men of wealth and position, and is not hereditary. GHOSTS: A FAMILY-DRAMA IN THREE ACTS. ACT FIRST. _A spacious garden-room, with one door to the left, and two doors to the right. In the middle of the room a round table, with chairs about it. On the table lie books, periodicals, and newspapers. In the foreground to the left a window, and by it a small sofa, with a work-table in front of it. In the background, the room is continued into a somewhat narrower conservatory, the walls of which are formed by large panes of glass. In the right-hand wall of the conservatory is a door leading down into the garden. Through the glass wall a gloomy fjord-landscape is faintly visible, veiled by steady rain._ _ENGSTRAND, the carpenter, stands by the garden door. His left leg is somewhat bent; he has a clump of wood under the sole of his boot. REGINA, with an empty garden syringe in her hand, hinders him from advancing._ REGINA. [_In a low voice._] What do you want? Stop where you are. You’re positively dripping. ENGSTRAND. It’s the Lord’s own rain, my girl. REGINA. It’s the devil’s rain, _I_ say. ENGSTRAND. Lord, how you talk, Regina. [_Limps a step or two forward into the room._] It’s just this as I wanted to say—— REGINA. Don’t clatter so with that foot of yours, I tell you! The young master’s asleep upstairs.