_Nora_. What do you mean by that? As much of it as you can.

_Rank_. Well, does that alarm you?

_Nora_. It was such a strange way of putting it. Is anything likely to
happen?

_Rank_. Nothing but what I have long been prepared for. But I certainly
didn't expect it to happen so soon.

_Nora_ (_gripping him by the arm_). What have you found out? Doctor
Rank, you must tell me.

_Rank_ (_sitting down by the stove_). It is all up with me. And it can't
be helped.

_Nora_ (_with a sigh of relief_). Is it about yourself?

_Rank_. Who else? It is no use lying to one's self. I am the most
wretched of all my patients, Mrs. Helmer. Lately I have been taking
stock of my internal economy. Bankrupt! Probably within a month I shall
lie rotting in the church-yard.

_Nora_. What an ugly thing to say!

_Rank_. The thing itself is cursedly ugly, and the worst of it is that I
shall have to face so much more that is ugly before that. I shall only
make one more examination of myself; when I have done that, I shall know
pretty certainly when it will be that the horrors of dissolution will