_Dr. Herd._ If I could only pay her off a little bit of the huge, immeasurable debt I owe her--but I can't!
_Hilda_ (_looks hard at him_). Can't _I_ help you? I helped RAGNAR BROVIK. Didn't you know I stayed with him and poor little KAIA--after that accident to my Master Builder? I did. I made RAGNAR build me the loveliest castle in the air--lovelier, even, than poor Mr. SOLNESS'S would have been--and we stood together on the very top. The steps were rather too much for KAIA. Besides, there was no room for her on top. And he put towering spires on all his semi-detached villas. Only, somehow, they didn't let. Then the castle in the air tumbled down, and RAGNAR went into liquidation, and I continued my walking-tour.
[Illustration: "Beautiful rainbow-coloured powders that will give one a real grip on the world!"]
_Dr. Herd._ (_interested against his will_). And where did you go after _that_, may I ask, Miss WANGEL?
_Hilda._ Oh, ever so far North. There I met Mr. and Mrs. TESMAN--the second Mrs. TESMAN--she who was Mrs. ELVSTED, with the irritating hair, you know. They were on their honeymoon, and had just decided that it was impossible to reconstruct poor Mr. LÖVBORG'S great book out of Mrs. ELVSTED'S rough notes. But I insisted on GEORGE'S attempting the impossible--with Me. And what _do_ you think Mrs. TESMAN wears in her hair _now_?
_Dr. Herd._ Why, really I could not say. Vine-leaves, perhaps.
_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.