SOLNESS.
[Gloomily.] Happy? Do you say that, too--like all the rest of them?
HILDA.
Yes, I should say you must be. If you could only cease thing about
the two little children---
SOLNESS.
[Slowly.] The two little children--they are not so easy to forget,
Hilda.
HILDA.
[Somewhat uncertainly.] Do you still feel their loss so much--after
all these years?
SOLNESS.
[Looks fixedly at her, without replying.] A happy man you said---
HILDA.
Well, now, are you not happy--in other respects?
SOLNESS.
[Continues to look at her.] When I told you all this about the fire--
h'm---
HILDA.
Well?
SOLNESS.
Was there not one special thought that you--that you seized upon?
HILDA.
[Reflects in vain.] No. What thought should that be?
SOLNESS.
[With subdued emphasis.] It was simply and solely by that fire that
I was enabled to build homes for human beings. Cosy, comfortable,
bright homes, where father and mother and the whole troop of children
can live in safety and gladness, feeling what a happy thing it is to
be alive in the world--and most of all to belong to each other--in
great things and in small.
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