Source Text: DOLL2.4Nora: Is he waiting in the kitchen?
Maid: Yes, madam, he came up the back way --
Nora: But didn't you tell him I had a visitor?
Maid: Yes, but he wouldn't go.
Nora: Wouldn't go?
Maid: No, madam, not until he'd spoken with you.
Nora: Very well, show him in; but quietly. Helen, you mustn't tell anyone about this. It's a surprise for my husband.
Maid: Very good, madam. I understand.
Nora: It's happening. It's happening after all. No, no, no, it can't happen, it mustn't happen.
Nora: Speak quietly. My husband's at home.
Krogstad: Let him hear.
Nora: What do you want from me?
Krogstad: Information.
Nora: Hurry up, then. What is it?
Krogstad: I suppose you know I've been given the sack.
Nora: I couldn't stop it, Mr. Krogstad. I did my best for you, but it didn't help.
Krogstad: Does your husband love you so little? He knows what I can do to you, and yet he dares to --
Nora: Surely you don't imagine I told him?
Krogstad: No, I didn't really think you had. It wouldn't have been like my old friend Torvald Helmer to show that much courage --
Nora: Mr. Krogstad, I'll trouble you to speak respectfully of my husband.
Krogstad: Don't worry, I'll show him all the respect he deserves. But since you're so anxious to keep this matter hushed up, I presume you're better informed than you were yesterday of the gravity of what you've done?
Nora: I've learned more than you could ever teach me.
Krogstad: Yes, a bad lawyer like me --
Nora: What do you want from me?
Krogstad: I just wanted to see how things were with you, Mrs. Helmer. I've been thinking about you all day. Even duns and hack journalists have hearts, you know.
Nora: Show some heart, then. Think of my little children.
Krogstad: Have you and your husband thought of mine? Well, let's forget that. I just wanted to tell you, you don't need to take this business too seriously. I'm not going to take any action for the present.
Nora: Oh, no -- you won't, will you? I knew it.
Krogstad: It can all be settled quite amicably. There's no need for it to become public. We'll keep it among the three of us.
Nora: My husband must never know about this.
Krogstad: How can you stop him? Can you pay the balance of what you owe me?
Nora: Not immediately.
Krogstad: Have you any means of raising the money during the next few days?
Nora: None that I would care to use.
Krogstad: Well, it wouldn't have helped anyway. However much money you offered me now I wouldn't give you back that paper.
Nora: What are you going to do with it?
Krogstad: Just keep it. No one else need ever hear about it. So in case you were thinking of doing anything desperate --
Nora: I am.
Krogstad: Such as running away --
Nora: I am.
Krogstad: Or anything more desperate --
Nora: How did you know?
Krogstad: --just give up the idea.
Nora: How did you know?
Krogstad: Most of us think of that at first. I did. But I hadn't the courage --
Nora: Neither have I.
Krogstad: It's true, isn't it? You haven't the courage either?
Nora: No. I haven't. I haven't.
Krogstad: It'd be a stupid thing to do anyway. Once the first little domestic explosion is over . . . I've got a letter in my pocket here addressed to your husband --
Nora: Telling him everything?
Krogstad: As delicately as possible.
Nora: He must never see that letter. Tear it up. I'll find the money somehow --
Krogstad: I'm sorry, Mrs. Helmer, I thought I'd explained --
Nora: Oh, I don't mean the money I owe you. Let me know how much you want from my husband, and I'll find it for you.
Krogstad: I'm not asking your husband for money.
Nora: What do you want, then?
Krogstad: I'll tell you. I want to get on my feet again, Mrs. Helmer. I want to get to the top. And your husband's going to help me. For eighteen months now my records been clean. I've been in hard straits all that time; I was content to fight my way back inch by inch. Now I've been chucked back into the mud, and I'm not going to be satisfied with just getting back my job. I'm going to get to the top, I tell you. I'm going to get back into the bank, and it's going to be higher up. Your husband's going to create a new job for me --
Nora: He'll never do that!
Krogstad: Oh, yes he will. I know him. He won't dare to risk a scandal. And once I'm in there with him, you'll see! Within a year I'll be his right-hand man. It'll be Nils Krogstad who'll be running that bank, not Torvald Helmer! RESP Nora. That will never happen.
Krogstad: Are you thinking of -- ?
Nora: Now I have the courage.
Krogstad: Oh, you can't frighten me. A pampered little pretty like you --
Nora: You'll see! You'll see!
Krogstad: Under the ice? Down in the cold, black water? And then, in the spring, to float up again, ugly, unrecognizable, hairless -- ?
Nora: You can't frighten me.
Krogstad: And you can't frighten me. People don't do such things Mrs. Helmer. And anyway, what'd be the use? I've got him in my pocket.
Nora: But afterwards? When I'm no longer -- ?
Krogstad: Have you forgotten then that your reputation will be in my hands? Well, I've warned you. Don't do anything silly. When Helmer's read my letter, he'll get in touch with me. And remember, it's your husband who's forced me to act like this. And for that I'll never forget him. Goodbye, Mrs. Helmer.
Nora: He's going. He's not going to give him the letter. Oh, no, no, it couldn't possibly happen. What'd he doing? Standing outside the front door. He's not going downstairs. Is he changing his mind? Yes, he -- !
Nora: In the letter-box. There it is! Oh, Torvald, Torvald! Now we're lost!