[Growls.] H'm! May I ask, then, what sort of a conscience one ought
to have?
HILDA.
I should like your conscience to be--to be thoroughly robust.
SOLNESS.
Indeed? Robust, eh? Is your own conscience robust, may I ask?
HILDA.
Yes, I think it is. I have never noticed that it wasn't.
SOLNESS.
It has not been put very severely to the test, I should think.
HILDA.
[With a quivering of the lips.] Oh, it was no such simple matter to
leave father--I am so awfully fond of him.
SOLNESS.
Dear me! for a month or two---
HILDA.
I think I shall never go home again.
SOLNESS.
Never? Then why did you leave him?
HILDA.
[Half-seriously, half-banteringly.] Have you forgotten again that
the ten year are up?
SOLNESS.
Oh nonsense. Was anything wrong at home? Eh?
HILDA.
[Quite seriously.] It was this impulse within me that urged and
goaded me to come--and lured and drew me on, as well.
SOLNESS.
[Eagerly.] There we have it! There we have it, Hilda! There is
the troll in you too, as in me. For it's the troll in one, you
see--it is that that calls to the powers outside us.
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