RANK. You? Well, if you want me to sleep well! And thanks for the light. [He nods to them both and goes out.]

HEL. [in a subdued voice]. He has drunk more than he ought.

NORA [absently]. Maybe. [Helmer takes a bunch of keys out of his pocket and goes into the hall.] Torvald! What are you going to do there?

HEL. Empty the letter box; it is quite full; there will be no room to put the newspaper in tomorrow morning.

NORA. Are you going to work tonight?

HEL. You know quite well I’m not. What is this? Someone has been at the lock.

NORA. At the lock?

HEL. Yes, someone has. What can it mean? I should never have thought the maid—— Here is a broken hairpin. Nora, it is one of yours.

NORA [quickly]. Then it must have been the children.

HEL. Then you must get them out of those ways. There, at last I have got it open. [Takes out the contents of the letter box and calls to the kitchen.] Helen! Helen, put out the light over the front door. [Goes back into the room and shuts the door into the hall. He holds out his hand full of letters.] Look at that—look what a heap of them there are. [Turning them over.] What on earth is that?

NORA [at the window]. The letter—— No! Torvald, no!

HEL. Two cards—of Rank’s.

NORA. Of Doctor Rank’s?

HEL. [looking at them]. Doctor Rank. They were on the top. He must have put them in when he went out.

NORA. Is there anything written on them?

HEL. There is a black cross over the name. Look there—what an uncomfortable idea! It looks as if he were announcing his own death.

NORA. It is just what he is doing.

HEL. What? Do you know anything about it? Has he said anything to you?

NORA. Yes. He told me that when the cards came it would be his leave-taking from us. He means to shut himself up and die.

HEL. My poor old friend. Certainly I knew we should not have him very long with us. But so soon! And so he hides himself away like a wounded animal.

NORA. If it has to happen, it is best it should be without a word—don’t you think so, Torvald?

HEL. [walking up and down]. He had so grown into our lives. I can’t think of him as having gone out of them. He, with his sufferings and his loneliness, was like a cloudy background to our sunlit happiness. Well, perhaps it is best so. For him, anyway. [Standing still.] And perhaps for us too, Nora. We two are thrown quite upon each other now. [Puts his arms round her.] My darling wife, I don’t feel as if I could