What the devil do you mean by dæmonic! It’s only a piece of gibberish I've invented to keep up a spark of life in him. But for that, the poor harmless creature would have succumbed to self-contempt and despair many a long year ago. And then the old lieutenant! But he has hit upon his own cure, you see. GREGERS. Lieutenant Ekdal? What of him? RELLING. Just think of the old bear-hunter shutting himself up in that dark garret to shoot rabbits! I tell you there is not a happier sportsman in the world than that old man pottering about in there among all that rubbish. The four or five withered Christmas-trees he has saved up are the same to him as the whole great fresh Höidal forest; the cock and the hens are big game-birds in the fir-tops; and the rabbits that flop about the garret floor are the bears he has to battle with—the mighty hunter of the mountains! GREGERS. Poor unfortunate old man! Yes; he has indeed had to narrow the ideals of his youth. RELLING. While I think of it, Mr. Werle, junior—don’t use that foreign word: ideals. We have the excellent native word: lies. GREGERS. Do you think the two things are related? RELLING. Yes, just about as closely as typhus and putrid fever. GREGERS. Dr. Relling, I shall not give up the struggle until I have rescued Hialmar from your clutches! RELLING. So much the worse for him. Rob the average man of his life-illusion, and you rob him of his happiness at the same stroke. [_To HEDVIG, who comes in from the sitting-room._] Well, little wild-duck-mother, I'm just going down to see whether papa is still lying meditating upon that wonderful invention of his. [_Goes out by the passage door._ GREGERS. [_Approaches HEDVIG._] I can see by your face that you have not yet done it. HEDVIG. What? Oh, that about the wild duck! No. GREGERS. I suppose your courage failed when the time came. HEDVIG. No, that wasn’t it. But when I awoke this morning and remembered what we had been talking about, it seemed so strange. GREGERS. Strange? HEDVIG. Yes, I don’t know——. Yesterday evening, at the moment, I thought there was something so delightful about it; but since I have slept and thought of it again, it somehow doesn’t seem worth while. GREGERS. Ah, I thought you could not have grown up quite unharmed in this house. HEDVIG. I don’t care about that, if only father would come up—— GREGERS.