BRACK.
This — the event did not happen at his lodgings.
HEDDA.
Oh, that can make no difference.
BRACK.
Perhaps it may. For I must tell you — Eilert Lovborg was found shot in — in Mademoiselle Diana's boudoir.
HEDDA.
[Makes a motion as if to rise, but sinks back again.] That is impossible, Judge Brack! He cannot have been there again to-day.
BRACK.
He was there this afternoon. He went there, he said, to demand the return of something which they had taken from him. Talked wildly about a lost child — -
HEDDA.
Ah — so that is why — -
BRACK.
I thought probably he meant his manuscript; but now I hear he destroyed that himself. So I suppose it must have been his pocket- book.
HEDDA.
Yes, no doubt. And there — there he was found?
BRACK.
Yes, there. With a pistol in his breast-pocket, discharged. The ball had lodged in a vital part.
HEDDA.
In the breast — yes?
BRACK.
No — in the bowels.
HEDDA.
[Looks up at him with an expression of loathing.] That too! Oh, what curse is it that makes everything I touch turn ludicrous and mean?
BRACK.
There is one point more, Mrs. Hedda — another disagreeable feature in the affair.
HEDDA.
And what is that?
BRACK.
The pistol he carried — -
HEDDA.
[Breathless.] Well? What of it?
BRACK.
He must have stolen it.
HEDDA.
[Leaps up.] Stolen it! That is not true! He did not steal it!
BRACK.
No other explanation is possible. He must have stolen it — -. Hush!
TESMAN and MRS. ELVSTED have risen from the table in the back- room, and come into the drawing-room.
TESMAN.
[With the papers in both his hands.] Hedda, dear, it is almost impossible to see under that lamp. Think of that!
HEDDA.
Yes, I am thinking.
TESMAN.
Would you mind our sitting at you writing-table — eh?
HEDDA.
If you like. [Quickly.] No, wait! Let me clear it first!
TESMAN.
Oh, you needn't trouble, Hedda. There is plenty of room.
