RELLING. Bosh! HIALMAR. [_Becomes calm, goes over to the sofa, folds his arms, and looks at HEDVIG._] There she lies so stiff and still. RELLING. [_Tries to loosen the pistol._] She’s holding it so tight, so tight. GINA. No, no, Relling, don’t break her fingers; let the pigstol be. HIALMAR. She shall take it with her. GINA. Yes, let her. But the child mustn’t lie here for a show. She shall go to her own room, so she shall. Help me, Ekdal. [HIALMAR _and_ GINA _take_ HEDVIG _between them._ HIALMAR. [_As they are carrying her._] Oh Gina, Gina, can you survive this! GINA. We must help each other to bear it. For _now_ at least she belongs to both of us. MOLVIK. [_Stretches out his arms and mumbles._] Blessed be the Lord; to earth thou shalt return; to earth thou shalt return—— RELLING. [_Whispers._] Hold your tongue, you fool; you’re drunk. [HIALMAR _and_ GINA _carry the body out through the kitchen door._ RELLING _shuts it after them._ MOLVIK _slinks out into the passage._ RELLING. [_Goes over to GREGERS and says_:] No one shall ever convince me that the pistol went off by accident. GREGERS. [_Who has stood terrified, with convulsive twitchings._] Who can say how the dreadful thing happened? RELLING. The powder has burnt the body of her dress. She must have pressed the pistol right against her breast and fired. GREGERS. Hedvig has not died in vain. Did you not see how sorrow set free what is noble in him? RELLING. Most people are ennobled by the actual presence of death. But how long do you suppose this nobility will last in _him_? GREGERS. Why should it not endure and increase throughout his life? RELLING. Before a year is over, little Hedvig will be nothing to him but a pretty theme for declamation. GREGERS. How dare you say that of Hialmar Ekdal? RELLING. We will talk of this again, when the grass has first withered on her grave. Then you’ll hear him spouting about “the child too early torn from her father’s heart;” then you’ll see him steep himself in a syrup of sentiment and self-admiration and self-pity. Just you wait! GREGERS. If you are right and I am wrong, then life is not worth living. RELLING.