begin. There is something I want to tell you. Helmer's refined nature
gives him an unconquerable disgust of everything that is ugly; I won't
have him in my sick-room.

_Nora_. Oh, but, Doctor Rank--

_Rank_. I won't have him there. Not on any account. I bar my door to
him. As soon as I am quite certain that the worst has come, I shall send
you my card with a black cross on it, and then you will know that the
loathsome end has begun.

_Nora_. You are quite absurd to-day. And I wanted you so much to be in a
really good humour.

_Rank_. With death stalking beside me?--To have to pay this penalty for
another man's sin! Is there any justice in that? And in every single
family, in one way or another, some such inexorable retribution is being
exacted--

_Nora_ (_putting her hands over her ears_). Rubbish! Do talk of
something cheerful.

_Rank_. Oh, it's a mere laughing matter, the whole thing. My poor
innocent spine has to suffer for my father's youthful amusements.

_Nora_ (_sitting at the table on the left_). I suppose you mean that he
was too partial to asparagus and pate de foie gras, don't you?

_Rank_. Yes, and to truffles.