"Are you nearly through?" "I'll be with you soon." "Good evening, Mr. Starck." "Good evening, sir." "It continues to be warm." "Yes, it's so hot, and we've been making preserves all day long." "Is that so - is it a good fruit year?" "Fairly good...we had a cold spring but the summer's been intolerably hot..." "We city folk have been made to feel it." "I came from the country yesterday... when the evenings get dark, you long to get inside." "Neither I nor my wife have been outside the city limits." "The business is at a standstill, but you must stay at your post." "... get ready for winter." "First there's the strawberries, and then the cherries, the raspberries and the gooseberries, the melons and the whole autumn harvest." "Tell me something, Mr. Starck, are they going to sell this house?" "No, not that I've heard!" "Are there many people living here?" "I think there are ten families counting those that live on the court side... but none of them know each other... there's very little gossip in this house it seems rather as if they want to hide themselves." "And it's called the silent house!" "Yes, they don't do much talking here." "But many a drama has been played out here." "Tell me, Mr. Starck, who lives here, one flight up, over my brother?" "Up there where the red curtains are shining... that's where the tenant died last summer when it stood empty for a month... and about a week ago a couple moved in... but I haven't seen them..." "I don't think they go out even." "What makes you ask, consul?" "Oh" " I don't know!" "..." "The four red curtains look as if bloody dramas were rehearsed behind them... so I imagine!" "There's a phœnix-palm there like an iron whip throwing its shadow on the shade." "If you could only see some human figures." "I've seen plenty of them, but only late at night!" "Were they women - or men?" "There were both kinds." "But now I must go down to my pots." "I'll be ready soon..." "Louise is sewing a button on my glove." "Do you intend to go down town then?" "We might walk down a bit." "Whom were you talking with?" "It was only the confectioner." "Oh, yes, he's a pleasant man... my only companion here all summer, for that matter." "Thanks, my child...you can leave the windows open...no mozzies." "I'm coming now." " Good evening Louise." " Good evening, Consul." "Have you really sat here at home every evening, never been out?" "These light summer evenings make me nervous..." "It's beautiful in the country, of course, ...but in the city it has the effect of being unnatural, almost terrible." "When they light the first street lamp I feel tranquil once more and able to go for my evening walk" "Then I get tired, and sleep better." "But tell me, why do you stay here in the city when you could be in the country?" "I don't know!" "I've become fixed." "I'm bound to these rooms by memories." "I feel peace and protection only in there." "In there!" "It's interesting to see your home from outside" "I fancy I see someone else wandering about in there" "Think of it" " I've wandered in there for ten years." "Is it ten years now?" "Yes, time flies, when it's really past, but while it's passing it seems long." "The house was new at that time..." "and I saw them lay the parquet floor in the drawing-room..." "saw them paint the panels and doors and she chose the wall-papers that are still on." "Yes, that's the way it is!" "The confectioner and I are the oldest tenants in the house and he too has had his vicissitudes." "He's the sort of human being who never has any luck." "Always in some tangle." "It's as if I lived his life and carried his burden with mine." "Does he drink then?" "No!" "Nor is he ever negligent, but he has no drive." "Yes, he and I know the chronicles of the house." "They've driven in here with wedding chariots... and out with hearses." "and that letter-box on the corner has received the secrets." "Didn't you have a death here around midsummer?" "Yes, we had a typhoid case, it was a bank clerk." "And then the rooms were empty for a month." "The coffin came out first, then the widow... and the children and the furniture last." "Was that one flight up?" "Yes, up there, where there's a light... the new tenants, whom I don't know yet." "Haven't you even seen them?" "I never ask about the tenants" "Whatever offers itself voluntarily I accept... without hassle and without involvement." "for I'm careful about the peace of old age." "Yes, old age!" "I think it's beautiful to be old... for then you haven't very much of the record left to make." "I'm balancing my book with life and fellow beings and have already begun to pack for the journey." "Solitude is not what it might be, but when no one has any claim on you, then freedom is won." "The freedom to come and go, to think and act to eat and sleep according to your choice." "They're stirring up there!" "Yes, it's so mysterious, but it's worse at night." "Sometimes they have music, but very bad." "Sometimes I imagine that they play cards and later, after midnight, cabs come." "I never complain about the tenants for then they revenge themselves." "It's best not to know anything!" "What a tremendous post that fellow had!" "It seemed to be a lot of circulars!" "But who was he?" "Musician?" "It couldn't be anyone but the new tenant one flight up." "Musician, manager, a bit operatic, bordering on vaudeville, gambler..." "Adonis, a little of each" "With that white skin he ought to have black hair but it was brown..." "it was dyed or else a wig" "A smoking jacket at home suggests lack of wardrobe and the movements of his hands as he dropped the letters suggested shuffling, cut and deal." "Always waltzes, perhaps they have a dancing school." "but almost always it's the same waltz..." "what's it called?" "Upon my word, if it isn't... "La Pluie d'Or"..." "I know that by heart." "Yes, that one and "Alcazar"." "Are you still satisfied with Louise?" "Very much so." "Isn't she going to marry?" "Not to my knowledge." "No sweetheart around?" "Why do you ask that?" "I?" "NO thanks!" "I was too old the last time I married, considering we had a child immediately..." "But I am now, and I wish to grow older in peace..." "Do you think I'd want a mistress in my house to make away with my life, my honour, and my goods?" "Your life and goods remained to you." "Was there any doubt about the honour?" "Don't you know that there was?" "What are you trying to say?" "She murdered your honour when she left." "So I've gone about murdered and didn't know it?" "You didn't know?" "NO, but now you'll know the real circumstances..." "When, at the age of fifty, I married a comparatively young girl... whose affection I had won, and who gladly gave me her hand" "I promised her that when my age became heavy for her youth" "I should go my way, restoring her freedom." "When in good time the child came and neither cared for anything more of that sort and after our daughter began to grow away from me, and I felt I was unnecessary, I left, that is to say..." "I took a boat, as we were staying on an island at the time..." "I'd kept my promise, and saved my honour... hadn't I?" "Yes, but she considered her honour attacked, because she wanted to be the one to leave, and that's why she murdered you, with silent accusations, that you never knew about." "Did she accuse herself?" "No, she had no reason to do so." "Then there's no danger." "Do you know anything about hers or the child's fate?" "I don't want to know anything!" "After I'd gone through all the agonies of the loss," "I considered the matter ended, and as only the beautiful memories remained in our apartment, I remained." "Think, that I got out of all that with my life!" "And now it's all over!" "Shall we take a turn on the Avenue?" "Let's do so, and we'll see them lighting the first street lamp." "Louise..." "Be so good as to give me my stick!" "The light summer stick, just to hold in my hand." "Moonlight to-night!" "The August moon?" "I believe it's really a full moon." "Here, sir!" "We'll be gone for a while, can't say how long." "Good evening, Miss..." "It's rather warm..." "Have your gentlemen gone?" "Yes, they've gone down the Avenue" "The first evening that the master has been out this summer." "We old ones love dusk." "It hides so many faults in ourselves and in others too." "Do you know, Miss, that my old woman is going blind, but she doesn't want an operation!" "There's nothing worth looking at she says... and sometimes she wishes she were deaf too." "I sometimes feel that way." "You lead a quiet and beautiful life in there in prosperity and without worry." "I never hear a loud voice nor the slamming of a door... perhaps a little too quiet for a young lady like you?" "Not at all." "You never have callers either?" "No, only the consul comes..." "and I've never seen such brotherly love." "Where are you going, my girl?" "I'm just going for a little walk!" "That's alright, but come back soon." "Do you think your master still mourns his loved ones?" "He doesn't mourn, nor does he miss them, as he doesn't long for their return but he lives with them in memories... just the beautiful ones." "But the daughter's fate must worry him sometimes..." "Yes, he must fear the mother's marrying again... raising the question of who the step-father would be." "I've been told that the wife refused all support at first but after five years had passed she sent a lawyer with a long bill amounting to thousands." "I don't know about that." "I believe she's more beautiful in his memory than..." "Excuse me..." "does Mr. Fischer live here?" "Mr. Fischer?" "Not that I know of." "Perhaps it's Fischer who lives one flight up." "Ring one flight up around the corner." "One flight up." "Thanks." "Now it'll be a sleepless night again... when they carry up bottles." "What sort of people are they?" "Why are they never seen?" "They must go out the back way..." "I've never seen them." "But I hear them!" "Me too." "Corks popping, doors slamming and other sorts of banging perhaps." "That was lightning!" "One, two, three..." "They're just heat flashes..." "There's no thunder." "Starck dear, come down and help me melt the sugar." "I'm coming, old girl." "See...we're making jam" "I'm coming!" "I'm coming!" "Hasn't my brother returned?" "No, sir." "He went in to telephone so I came ahead." "Well, he'll be here soon of course." "What's this?" "What does it say?" ""Boston Club after midnight - at Fischers"" "Who's Fischers, do you know, Louise?" "A man was just here with wine... looking for someone called Fischer one flight up." "One flight up, Fischers!" "Red curtains lit up like a cigar sign at night..." "I believe you've had bad company come into the house." "What's a Boston Club?" "It might be something quite innocent" "But in this case I'm not so sure." "But how did the post card...?" "It was he who dropped it a while ago putting them in the box." "Fischer?" "I've heard that name before in connection with something I've forgotten." "What in heaven's name are they doing up there?" "Killing each other?" "There's another scream..." "in the stairway." "Is it really you, my one-time sister-in-law?" "How did you get here in this house, and why begrudge my brother his peace?" "I believed he'd moved... it's not my fault." "Don't be afraid of me, you mustn't be afraid of me, Gerda" "Can I help you?" "What's going on up there?" "He struck me!" "Is your little girl with you?" "Yes." "She has a step-father then?" "Yes!" "Put up your hair and calm yourself, and I'll try to straighten this out... but spare my brother." "He hates me, of course." "No, he doesn't hate you." "Where's he now?" "Out walking on the avenue, he'll soon be here with his paper." "But you must go back up to your..." "I can't go back." "I can't go back to that man." "Who and what is he?" "He's been...a singer." ""Has been", and is now...?" "A swindler!" "Yes." "Keeps gambling rooms." "Yes." "And the child?" "...a decoy!" "Don't say that!" "You're too harsh!" "Yes, we must handle unclean things delicately...so delicately!" "But a righteous matter can be dirtied." "Why did you defile his honour and why did you deceive me into being your accomplice?" "He deserted me..." "and that was an insult." "Not for you!" "Your youth saved you from humiliation." "He should've allowed ME to leave HIM." "Why did you want him to have the dishonour?" "Why would it have to be me?" "I can't follow your thoughts, which only turn on hate..." "But if we let the matter of restoring his honour go and think about saving his child." "What shall we do then?" "She is my child." "The law gave her to me, and my husband is her father." "Quiet...he's coming." "Yes...it's him!" "Come here and see your home!" "How he has kept everything just as you arranged it." "Don't be afraid..." "he can't see us here in the dark" "The light blinds him you see." "Just think how he's lied to me." "In what respect?" "He hasn't aged any!" "He just grew tired of me." "See the collar he wears and the very latest scarf!" "I'm sure he has a sweetheart!" "Her portrait's on the mantel..." "between the candelabras." "That's me...and the child!" "Does he still love me?" "The memory of you." "How strange!" "He's looking at us." "Stand still!" "He's looking right in my eyes." "Stand still!" "He can't see you!" "He looks like a dead man." "Wasn't he murdered?" "Don't say that!" "Karl Fredrik!" "Are you alone?" "I thought..." "Are you really alone?" "As you can see!" "It's so close, and the flowers give me headache." "Now I'll just finish my paper." "Now, about you..." "do you want me to go up with you?" "Perhaps." "But there'll be a lot of trouble." "But the child must be saved..." "And I am a lawyer." "Very well, for the child's sake." "Follow me." "Karl Fredrik!" "..." "Come and play chess!" "Where did my brother go?" "He was outside just now." "He can't be far away." "What a dreadful racket they're making up there." "It's as if they were tramping on my head." "Now they are pulling out bureau drawers as if they intended to move, run away perhaps." "If you could only play chess Louise!" "I can...a little..." "Well...if you only know how to move the pieces...it's something." "Sit down, my child!" "They are making such a clatter up there the chandelier shakes, and below the confectioner is stoking his fire." "I think I'll move out soon." "I've thought for a long time you ought to move, sir, anyway." ""Anyway?"" "It isn't good to sit too long among old memories." "Why not?" "When it's all over, all memories are beautiful." "But you might live twenty years yet, sir... and that'll be too long to live in memories that fade nevertheless and some day perhaps may change colour." "How wise you are, little child!" "Begin now..." "Move a pawn." "But not the queen's... then you'll weaken yourself in two moves." "Then I'll begin with the knight" "Just as dangerous, my dear." "But I think I'll begin with the knight anyway" "Good!" "Then I'll move my jumping-pawn." "It's Mr. Starck with the biscuits." "He walks as quietly as a little mouse." "It seems like only yesterday Starck was first up here." "Well, it's ten years ago." "When you came with the wedding cake." "Does it look the same?" "Just the same..." "the palms have grown of course." "Otherwise quite the same." "And will be so until you come with the funeral cake." "After a certain age nothing changes... everything comes to a standstill but life slides along like a sled down a slope." "Yes, that's the way it is!" "And in that way it's quiet." "No love, no friends... just a bit of company in the solitude." "and then human beings become just people... without the proprietary rights to your feelings and sympathies." "And then you loosen like an old tooth without pain and without being missed." "There's Louise, for example... a young and beautiful girl through whose presence I experience satisfaction like that of a work of art you don't expect to own." "Nothing disturbs our relationship!" "My brother and I associate with each other like two elderly gentlemen who never become too familiar or force each other's confidences." "Through keeping a neutrality with people you get a certain distance and at a distance we always make a better impression!" "In a word, I'm satisfied with old age and its peace and quiet." "Louise!" "The washing has just come back and I must check it." "Well, Mr. Starck, won't you sit down and talk or perhaps you can play chess?" "I can't stay away from my pots, and at eleven I must fire the bake-oven." "Thanks, however, for your hospitality." "If you should see my brother, ask him to come in and keep me company." "I'll be sure to do that." "The peace and quiet of old age!" "Can't you postpone whatever you're doing about the washing?" "That's impossible... the washwoman's in a hurry and her husband and children are waiting for her." "Is that you, Karl Fredrik?" "No, it's the postman." "Excuse my coming in but the doors are open." "Is there a letter for me?" "Only a post-card." "Mr. Fischer again..." "Boston Club." "That's him up above!" "With the white hands and the smoking jacket!" "And to me!" "It's scandalous !" "I have to move!" "Is that you, Karl Fredrik?" "It's the ice-man!" "It's fine to get ice in this heat!" "But be careful of the bottles in the ice-box." "And put the piece on edge, so I can hear the water drops fall as it melts." "It's my water clock, that measures out the time." "the long time." "Look here, where do you get that ice?" "Has he gone?" "They all go home... to be able to hear their own voices and have company." "Is that you, Karl Fredrik?" "Who's playing?" "My impromptu!" "Is it you, Karl Fredrik?" "It's me." "Where have you been so long?" "I had a bit of business to straighten out." "Have you been alone?" "Yes!" "Come and play chess with me now." "I'd rather talk!" "And you too may need to hear your voice." "Quite true, but it's so easy for us to get into the past." "Then we forget the present." "The present doesn't exist... what is now passing is empty nothingness." "The future or the past..." "The future preferably, for hope exists there." "Hope, for what?" "A change!" "Good !" "You mean to say that you have had enough of the peace of old age?" "Perhaps!" "Quite so!" "And if you were able to choose between solitude and the past..." "No ghosts however!" "What about your memories then?" "They don't disturb... they are my poems about certain realities." "but if the dead should appear again, that would be ghosts." "However - in your memory which of the two gives the most beautiful mirage... the woman or the child?" "Both!" "I cannot separate them... and that's why I never sought to keep the child." "But was that right?" "Didn't you think of the possibility of a step-father?" "I didn't think so far ahead then, but since..." "I have...reflected..." "about...that...matter." "A step-father, who misused..." "perhaps degraded your child!" "Hush!" "What did you hear?" "I thought I heard " the little feet,"" "the little tripping feet in the hall when she came to find me." "It was the child that was the best." "To see this dauntless little being who feared nothing... who divined nothing of life's treachery... who had no secrets at all." "I remember her first realization of human evil." "She noticed a beautiful child in the park... and she ran with open arms to kiss the stranger." "The beautiful child returned the friendliness by biting her cheek and sticking out her tongue." "You should have seen my little Anne-Charlotte then." "She stood petrified..." "not by the pain... but with terror to see this abyss, which is called the human heart, open itself." "But why are we here talking about this?" "Is it on account of the heat or the thunder, or what?" "Loneliness brings heavy thoughts and you ought to have company." "This summer in the city seems to have broken you down." "It's only these last few weeks..." "The illness...and the corpse they had up there affected me...as if it were me going through it all." "The confectioner's troubles have also become mine." "So much so that I worry about his business, his wife's eye trouble..." "his future." "And lately..." "I dream every night about my little Anne-Charlotte." "I see her in dangers..." "strange, unthinkable, nameless." "And before I sleep, when the ear is most sensitive," "I hear her little feet, and sometimes I hear her voice." "Where is she then?" "Yes, where !" "Suppose you should meet her in the street?" "I imagine I'd lose my reason or fall to the ground." "Five years at that age make you unrecognizable!" "Imagine not recognizing your own child!" "No, I wouldn't survive it!" "No, I'd rather keep my little four-year-old on the home altar." "I don't want any other." "Is that you, Louise, arranging things in the linen-closet?" "It smells so clean, and it reminds me of" " Yes... the mother of the house at the linen-closet the good fairy, who takes care of things" "the housekeeper with the flat-iron who smooths the rough places and takes out the wrinkles." "Yes, the wrinkles." "Now I think..." "I'll...go...in and write a letter." "If you care to stay I'll be right back." "Are you..." "Oh God!" "That sound that I've carried in my ears for ten years!" "That clock, that never kept time but tolled the hours, nights and days for five long years." "My piano... my palms... the dining-table!" "He's kept it all in memory..." "clean as a new pin!" "My sideboard !" "With the knight and Eve..." "Eve with the basket of apples." "In the right drawer, way back, was a thermometer." "Yes, there it is!" "What's that signify?" "Oh, it became a symbol in the end..." "Of inconstancy." "When set up our house, the thermometer was missed." "It should have been put outside the window." "I promised to put it out..." "and forgot." "He promised to do it..." "and forgot." "Then we nagged each other, and finally, to get away from it" "I hid it in this drawer." "I began to hate it and him as well." "Do you know what it signified?" "Well, no one believed in the permanency of our relationship when we threw off our masks so soon and showed our antipathies." "In the first days we lived as if we were on springs... ready to jump at any time." "Like the thermometer..." "and here it is still!" "Up and down, always changing, like the weather." "My chess-board!" "He bought that to pass away the long days of waiting before the little one came!" "Who does he play with now?" "With me." "Where is he?" "He's in his room writing a letter!" "Where?" "There!" "And here he's been..." "for five long years?" "Ten years..." "five years alone!" "But he loves solitude, doesn't he?" "I believe he's had enough of it." "Will he show me the door?" "Try!" "You risk nothing..." "he's always courteous." "I haven't done anything to that deserter!" "You'll risk his asking about the child." "But it's he who must help me find the child." "First to get out of this disagreeable neighbourhood" "Then to get me to run after him." "He's taken the girl as hostage... to be raised in the ballet... that she has shows a natural ability for." "The ballet!" "The father mustn't know that... as he hates the stage!" "The stage!" "I've been on it, too!" "You?" "!" "Yes...as accompanist." "Poor Gerda." "Why so?" "I loved the life... and when I was imprisoned here it wasn't the jailer's fault but the prison's..." "that I didn't thrive." "But now you've had enough of it?" "Now I love quiet and solitude... my child above everything." "Hush, he's coming!" "Now I'll leave you!" "Don't think of what you should say... it will come of itself... like the next move in a chess game." "I fear his first glances most, for in them I'll read whether I've changed for the better or worse whether I've become old and ugly." "If he finds you aged, he'll dare approach you." "If he finds you just as young, he'll lose hope and he's more humble than you think." "He went out to the letter-box." "I can never go through with this!" "How shall I be able to ask him about getting this divorce?" "I'm going!" "It's too brazen!" "Stay!" "You know his kindness is unlimited." "He'll help you, for the child's sake." "No, no!" "He's the only one who can help." "All through?" "Set up the board again Louise..." "and we'll start over." "Hello!" " Good evening, is it you, mother..." "Yes, thanks" "Louise is already sitting at the chess-board but is a bit tired from things she's had to do." "Yes, it's all done now, everything's finished." "Just little things." "If it's warm?" "The thunder storm passed over our heads, right over us, but it didn't strike!" "A false alarm!" "What did you say?" "Fischers!" "Yes, but I think they're about to move!" "Yes, it goes at....6.15." "The outer route through the islands... and arrives at..." "let me see...8.25!" "Did you have a nice time?" "Yes, he's too ridiculous when he gets started." "What did Maria say about it?" "How has it been this summer?" "Louise and I have kept each other company." "She's so nice and sweet-tempered." "No thanks...not that!" "My eyes?" "Yes, I'm getting near-sighted... but I say like the confectioner's old wife:" "there's nothing to look at!" "Wish I were a little deaf too!" "Deaf and blind!" "The neighbours up above make a horrible lot of noise at night." "It's some kind of gambling club." "There...now they're on the line to listen !" "Think of it, breaking into our conversation by listening." "To-morrow then, at 6.15." "Thanks so much, mother." "Same to you!" "I'll be sure to." "Good-by, mother!" "Was it you?" "Wasn't it Louise, just now?" "Forgive me, I was passing through, walked by... and I felt a longing to see my old home again." "The windows were open." "Do you find it the same?" "It's the same, but something else..." "There's something else." "Are you satisfied..." "with your life?" "Oh...yes!" "..." "It's as I wanted it." "And the child?" "Oh...she grows and thrives." "She's fine." "Then I shan't ask any more." "Do you wish anything of me?" "Can I be of service to you in any way?" "I thank you, but..." "I need nothing, after seeing that things are well with you too!" "Would you like to see Anne-Charlotte?" "I don't think so." "Now when I hear that all is well with her." "No...it's so hard to begin again." "It's like revision lessons, that you really know... although the teacher doesn't think so." "I'm so far away from all that..." "I was away in wholly other places." "and I can't connect with the past..." "It's hard for me to be discourteous but I can't ask you to sit down." "You are another man's wife." "And you aren't the same woman I parted from." "Am I so...changed?" "Like a stranger!" "Voice, look, manner." "Have I aged?" "I don't know!" "I find you so strange I can barely use "thou" ." "I guess it'd be the same with my daughter." "Don't talk like that!" "..." "I'd rather see you angry." "Why should I be angry?" "All the wicked things I've done to you." "Have you?" "..." "I don't feel you have." "Didn't you read the complaint?" "Not at all..." "I left that to my lawyer." "And the decision?" "I haven't read that either." "As I didn't intend to marry again, I wasn't interested in such papers." "What did the papers say?" "That I was too old?" "That was only the truth, so that need not embarrass you." "I wrote precisely the same thing in my answer and requested that the judge give you your freedom." "Did you write that for YOU!" "For me?" "Yes !" ".." "I couldn't say I was too old when we were married for then the child's arrival might have been misinterpreted." "And it was OUR child, wasn't it?" "You know that!" "..." "But..." "Do you mean I should be ashamed of my age?" "Yes, if I took to dancing the Boston and playing cards all night," "I'd soon be in a wheelchair or on an operating table." "That'd be shameful." "You don't look like that." "Did you think the separation would be the death of me?" "There are those who believe that you murdered me." "Do I look as if I were murdered?" "You needn't let your conscience torture you on my account." "Why did you marry me?" "You know well enough why a man marries... and that I didn't have to beg for your love, you know too." "And you must remember how we smiled together at all the wise counsellors who warned you." "But why you ever tempted me I could never understand for after the wedding ceremony you didn't see me... but behaved as if you were at someone else's wedding." "I thought that you must have made a wager to murder me." "All of my business subordinates hated me for being their chief." "But they soon became your friends." "As soon as I acquired an enemy, he became your friend!" "you should not hate your enemies, true... but you should not love MY enemies!" "However, when I realized how things were," "I began to pack up, but first I wanted a living witness to your having spread a falsehood" "and that's why I waited until the baby arrived." "To think that you could be so deceitful." "I became secretive but I never lied." "You gradually transformed my friends into detectives and you seduced my own brother to faithlessness toward me." "But, worst of all you awakened doubt about your child's legitimacy... with your thoughtless chatter." "I've taken that back!" "An escaped word can't be caught on the wing again." "And worst is, the false report has reached the child who sees her mother as just a..." "Oh, no!" "Yes, that's the way it is!" "You built a high tower on the foundation of a lie." "and now the tower is crashing down on you." "It isn't true!" "The truth is..." "I just met Anne-Charlotte." "You met...?" "We met on the stairs, and she called me "uncle"..." "Do you know what an "uncle" is?" "He's an old friend of the family and the mother." "And I know I pass for "uncle" at her school too." "This is horrible ...for the child!" "Did you meet?" "Yes!" "But I wasn't obliged to tell anyone." "Haven't I the right to keep silent?" "For that matter, the meeting was so distressing that I blotted it out of my mind, as if it had never existed." "What can I do to make reparation?" "YOU!" "..." "YOU can't make reparation." "That's to say, reparation has already been made." "Can't I make amends..." "Can't I ask you to forgive?" "What do you mean?" "To restore...make reparation." "Do you mean to re-unite..." "begin again... make you mistress of the house?" "I don't want you!" "I don't have to listen to this!" "Accept it!" "That's a beautiful maid you've got." "Yes, she IS beautiful." "Where did you get her?" "Is it a bill?" "...twenty-five!" "Just the right change !" "Poor Gerda!" "What do you mean?" "That I should be jealous of your servant?" "That's not what I meant!" "Yes, and you meant you were too old for me, but not for her." "I understand the insult." "She is beautiful though, for a servant." "Poor Gerda!" "Why do you say that?" "Because I pity you." "Jealous of my servant..." "that's reparation!" "Me... jealous!" "Mr. Fischer?" "Wrong apartment." "Oh yes, that's me." "He's eloped?" "Who has he eloped with?" "The confectioner Starck's daughter!" "Oh, good God!" "How old was she?" "Just eighteen!" "Just a child." "I knew he'd run away... but with a woman!" "Now you are happy?" "No, I'm not at all happy." "Although it comforts me to see there's justice in the world." "Life runs fast, and now you're in the boat that I was in." "Her eighteen years against my twenty-nine..." "I'm old...too old for him!" "Everything's relative." "But now to another matter!" "Where's your child?" "My child!" "I had forgotten." "My child!" "Good Lord!" "Help me!" "He's taken my child away with him..." "He loved Anne-Charlotte as his own daughter!" "Come with me to the police..." "come with me!" "Me?" "Now you ask too much!" "Help me !" "Karl Fredrik, fetch a cab..." "Will you do it?" "For Christ's sake..." "aren't we human beings?" "It's beginning to rain lend me an umbrella." "Eighteen years old..." "only eighteen!" "The peace of old age!" "Louise!" "Come and play chess with me!" "Has the consul...?" "He's gone out on an errand." "Is it still raining?" "No, not now!" "Then I'll go out and cool off a little." "Do you know the confectioner's daughter?" "Yes...very slightly." "Was she beautiful?" "Yes." "Did you know the people upstairs?" "I've never seen them!" "Tactful as ever!" "I've learned to not see nor hear in this house." "I must admit that acquired deafness" "Keep tea in readiness..." "and I'll go out and cool off." "And one thing... you see what's going on here... but don't ask me anything." "No, sir..." "I'm not inquisitive." "Thanks my child." "That was a good little shower we had." "Quite a blessing" "Now we'll soon get some raspberries." "Then you must let me order a few litres." "We're tired of doing our own preserving..." "It just stands and ferments and gets mouldy." "Yes, I know all about that..." "You have to keep an eye on the jars" "There are those who put in salicylic acid... but that's a new trick that I won't touch." "Salicylic...that's said to be antiseptic and that might be good." "Yes, but you can taste it..." "so it's cheating." "Have you a telephone Mr. Starck?" "No." "I don't have a telephone." "Why do you ask that?" "Oh, I was just thinking... you needs a telephone sometimes... orders..." "important communications." "That may be, but sometimes it's good to escape..." "Quite so quite so!" "Yes, my heart always thumps when it rings." "You never know what you'll hear." "And I want peace, peace, above all things" "Me too!" "It's time they lit the street lamp!" "He's probably forgotten us, as it's lit down the avenue." "No!" "..." "Then he'll soon be here." "It'll be really fun to see our lamp being lit again." "Anything new?" "Nothing new." "Was it my brother?" "No, it was the lady." "What did she want?" "To talk to you, sir!" "But I don't want to!" "Do I comfort my executioner?" "I used to do that, but now I'm tired of it." "And the confectioner's Agnes do you think he knows anything yet?" "It's hard to say... he never speaks of his sorrows... nor does anyone else..." "in this silent house." "Should he be told?" "No, for heaven's sake." "But it's probably not the first time she's given him worry." "He never talks about her." "It's horrible!" "No..." "leave it." "I don't want to know anything!" "It's terrible..." "Poor Gerda!" "It would be better to know..." "I can't make myself act." "I can defend myself... but strike back, no!" "But if you avoid a danger, it'll force itself on you and if you don't resist, you're crushed." "But if you don't allow yourself to take part... you're unassailable." "Unassailable?" "Everything takes care of itself, if you don't... muddle it by interference." "How can they expect me to guide them, where so many passions rage!" "I can neither subdue their passions nor change their course." "But the child?" "I've relinquished my rights and for that matter..." "to be honest, I'm not eager... certainly not now..." "since she came in and destroyed my memories." "She obliterated everything beautiful that I had hidden away... and there's nothing left." "Who's this coming?" "Agnes..." "Good evening my child." "Where have you been?" "I've been out for a walk." "Mama has asked for you several times" "Has she?" "Well, I'm here now." "Be a good girl and go down and help her fire the little oven." "Is she angry with me?" "She couldn't be angry with you." "Oh yes she can... but she never says anything." "Isn't that good, my child... to escape scolding!" "Does he know, or doesn't he?" "It's best he never knows!" "But what has happened?" "A rupture?" "What did the lady say on the telephone?" "She wanted to talk to you." "How did she sound?" "Was she excited?" "Yes." "It seems rather brazen to appeal to me in a situation of this kind." "But the child!" "Imagine..." "I met my daughter on the stairs..." "When I asked her if she recognized me... she called me "uncle"... and then informed me that her daddy was upstairs." "But to be sure..." "he's her step-father and he has all the rights!" "They've set about eradicating me slandered me." "A cab's stopped at the corner." "I do pray they're not coming back imagine hearing my child singing her new father's praises," "Then to have the old story start again..." ""Why did you marry me? "" "" You know well enough but why did you want me?"" ""You know well enough"" "and so on..." "until the end of time." "It's the consul coming." "How does he look?" "He doesn't seem to be in a hurry." "Rehearsing what he's going to say..." "Does he look satisfied?" "More thoughtful than..." "Oh, yes..." "It was always like that" "If he came anywhere near that woman he became unfaithful to me!" "She could charm everyone..." "but me." "To me she was coarse, simple, ugly, stupid... and to the others she was refined...elegant..." "beautiful...intelligent." "All the hatred my independence aroused... gathered about her in endless sympathy!" "..." "For the one who treated me unjustly!" "Through her they sought to influence and control me, wound me... and in the end, kill me." "I'll go and open the door for the consul." "This storm should soon be over!" "People can't endure independence." "They want you to obey them." "All my business subordinates down to the watchman wanted me to obey them and as I didn't care to obey them, they called me a despot!" "The result!" "..." "No details!" "Can't we sit down..." "I'm a bit tired." "Where is my child?" "May I start at the beginning?" "Begin!" "I reached the station with Gerda." "I saw him and Agnes at the ticket window." "Agnes was there then?" "Yes... and your child!" "Gerda stayed outside and I approached them." "At that moment he gave Agnes the tickets but when she saw that the tickets were 3rd class she threw them in his face and rushed out for a cab." "I began to get an explanation from the gentleman when Gerda ran up and took the child... and disappeared into the crowd." "What did the gentleman say?" "Well...you know how it is when you hear the other side..." "I want to hear!" "He was of course not as bad as we'd thought... he also has his good points!" "Just so." "Might have known!" "But you'll hardly expect me to sit here and listen to a eulogy of my enemy?" "No, not a eulogy, but... mitigating circumstances." "Would you ever listen to me when I informed you of the true conditions?" "Yes, you listened and answered in disapproving silence... as if I sat there telling lies." "You always stood up for the wrong side and you believed the lies because you were infatuated with Gerda." "But there was also another motive." "Say no more, dear brother..." "You see things only from your point of view." "Do you want me to see my position from my enemy's point of view?" "I can hardly lift my hand against myself, can I?" "I'm not your enemy" "Yes, when you're friendly with the one who's been unjust to me." "Where's my child?" "I don't know." "How did it finish at the station?" "The gentleman took a train south." "And the others?" "Disappeared." "Then I may have them stuck in my craw again." "Did you notice whether the others went with him?" "No, he went alone." "Then we're rid of him at least!" "Number two!" "The mother and child!" "Do you think they'll come back?" "She won't..." "She'd have to make up to you in front of Louise." "I'd forgotten that!" "She really honoured me by being jealous!" "I believe there's justice in the world after all." "She found out Agnes was younger, as well." "Poor..." "Gerda!" "But in such a case as this you can't tell people that justice exists for it's not true they love justice!" "And their dirt must be handled delicately." "And Nemesis..." "that's only for others!" "There it goes ringing again." "It sounds like a rattlesnake" "Did the snake bite you?" "The lady's going to her mother in Dalarna to settle down there with the child." "The mother and child in the country, and in a good home!" "Now it's cleared up!" "And the lady asked me to go up and put out the lights in the apartment." "Do it right away." "And draw the curtains." "I think that storm has passed over." "It really seems to have cleared then the moon will be out." "It was a glorious shower of rain!" "Splendid!" "Look, there's the lamp-lighter!" "At last!" "The first light..." "Now it's autumn!" "That's our time of year, chaps!" "Twilight's beginning... but with it comes understanding... that lights the way like a dark lantern... and keeps you from going astray." "Louise!" "Close the windows and pull down the shades." "Then the memories can go to sleep, in peace!" "The...peace...of...old...age!" "And this autumn I'll move from the Silent House." "Subtitles by FatPlank [RLB] for KG"