ELLA RENTHEIM.
[With emotion.] He cannot bring himself to go out?

MRS. BORKMAN.
I suppose not. He has his great cloak and his hat hanging in
the cupboard--the cupboard in the hall, you know----

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[To herself.] The cupboard we used to hide in when we were
little.

MRS. BORKMAN.
[Nods.] And now and then--late in the evening--I can hear him
come down as though to go out. But he always stops when he is
halfway downstairs, and turns back--straight back to the gallery.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[Quietly.] Do none of his old friends ever come up to see him?

MRS. BORKMAN.
He has no old friends.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
He had so many--once.

MRS. BORKMAN.
H'm! He took the best possible way to get rid of them. He was
a dear friend to his friends, was John Gabriel.