But that day I did it.
HILDA.
[Leaping up.] Yes, yes, you did!
SOLNESS.
And when I stood there, high over everything, and was hanging the
wreath over the vane, I said to him: Hear me now, thou Mighty One!
From this day forward I will be a free builder--I too, in my sphere--
just as thou in thine. I will never more build churches for thee--
only homes for human beings.
HILDA.
[With great sparkling eyes.] That was the song that I heard through
the air!
SOLNESS.
But afterwards his turn came.
HILDA.
What do you mean by that?
SOLNESS.
[Looks despondently at her.] Building homes for human beings--is not
worth a rap, Hilda.
HILDA.
Do you say that now?
SOLNESS.
Yes, for now I see it. Men have no use for these homes of theirs--
to be happy in. And I should not have had any use for such a home,
if I had had one. [With a quiet, bitter laugh.] See, that is the
upshot of the whole affair, however far back I look. Nothing really
built; nor anything sacrificed for the chance of building. Nothing,
nothing! the whole is nothing!
HILDA.
Then you will never build anything more?
SOLNESS.
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