Part 90

No; I thought I had better not. But you ought to have told him. Fancy, if, in desperation, he should go and do himself some injury! Let me have the manuscript, Hedda! I will take it to him at once. Where is it?

HEDDA.

TESMAN.

Have not got it? What in the world do you mean?

HEDDA.

I have burnt it--every line of it.

TESMAN.

HEDDA.

Don't scream so. The servant might hear you.

TESMAN.

Burnt! Why, good God--! No, no, no! It's impossible!

HEDDA.

It is so, nevertheless.

TESMAN.

Do you know what you have done, Hedda? It's unlawful appropriation of lost property. Fancy that! Just ask Judge Brack, and he'll tell you what it is.

HEDDA.

I advise you not to speak of it--either to Judge Brack or to anyone else.

TESMAN.

But how could you do anything so unheard-of? What put it into your head? What possessed you? Answer me that--eh?

HEDDA.

TESMAN.

For my sake!

HEDDA.

This morning, when you told me about what he had read to you--

TESMAN.

Yes yes--what then?

HEDDA.

You acknowledged that you envied him his work.