Part 26 (1/2)

Soon after, Madam Helseth enters from the right._)

_Madam Helseth._ I suppose I'd better begin to lay the table, Miss?

_Rebecca West._ Yes, please do. The Pastor must soon be in now.

_Madam Helseth._ Do you feel the draught, Miss, where you're sitting?

_Rebecca._ Yes, there is a little draught. Perhaps you had better shut the window.

(_Madame Helseth shuts the door into the hall, and then comes to the window._)

_Madam Helseth._ (_About to shut the window, looks out._) Why, isn't that the Pastor over there?

_Rebecca._ (_Hastily._) Where? (_Rises._) Yes, it's he. (_Behind the curtain._) Stand aside, don't let him see us.

_Madam Helseth._ (_Keeping back from the window._) Only think, Miss, he's beginning to take the path by the mill again.

_Rebecca._ He went that way the day before yesterday, too. (_Peeps out between the curtains and the window frame._) But let us see whether--

_Madam Helseth._ Will he venture across the foot-bridge?

_Rebecca._ That's what I want to see. (_After a pause._) No, he's turning. He's going by the upper road again. (_Leaves the window._) A long way round.

_Madam Helseth._ Dear Lord, yes. No wonder the Pastor thinks twice about setting foot on _that_ bridge. A place where a thing like that has happened--

_Rebecca._ (_Folding up her work._) They cling to their dead here at Rosmersholm.

_Madam Helseth._ Now _I_ would say, Miss, that it's the dead that clings to Rosmersholm.

_Rebecca._ (_Looks at her._) The dead?

_Madam Helseth._ Yes, it's almost as if they couldn't tear themselves away from the folk that are left.

_Rebecca._ What makes you fancy that?

_Madam Helseth._ Well, if it weren't for that, there would be no white horse, I suppose.

_Rebecca._ Now what _is_ all this about the white horse, Madam Helseth?

_Madam Helseth._ Oh, I don't like to talk about it. And, besides, you don't believe in such things.

_Rebecca._ Do _you_ believe in them?

_Madam Helseth._ (_Goes and shuts the window._) Now you're making fun of me, Miss. (_Looks out._) Why, isn't that Mr. Rosmer on the mill path again--?

_Rebecca._ (_Looks out._) That man there? (_Goes to the window._) No, it's the Rector!

_Madam Helseth._ Yes, so it is.

_Rebecca._ How glad I am! You'll see, he's coming here.

_Madam Helseth._ He goes straight over the foot-bridge, _he_ does, and yet she was his sister, his own flesh and blood. Well, I'll go and lay the table then, Miss West.