seventieth birthday, however, she telegraphed her congratulations,
to which he returned a very cordial reply. And here their relations
ended.

That she was right, however, in regarding herself as his principal
model for Hilda appears from an anecdote related by Dr. Elias.(3)
It is not an altogether pleasing anecdote, but Dr. Elias is an
unexceptionable witness, and it can by no means be omitted from an
examination into the origins of _The Master Builder_. Ibsen had come
to Berlin in February 1891 for the first performance of _Hedda Gabler_.
Such experiences were always a trial to him, and he felt greatly
relieved when they were over. Packing, too, he detested; and Elias
having helped him through this terrible ordeal, the two sat down to
lunch together, while awaiting the train. An expansive mood descended
upon Ibsen, and chuckling over his champagne glass, he said: "Do you
know, my next play is already hovering before me--of course in vague
outline. But of one thing I have got firm hold. An experience: a
woman's figure. Very interesting, very interesting indeed. Again
a spice of the devilry in it." Then he related how he had met in the
Tyrol a Viennese girl of very remarkable character. She had at once
made him her confidant. The gist of her confessions was that she
did not care a bit about one day marrying a well brought-up young
man--most likely she would never marry. What tempted and charmed
and delighted her was to lure other women's husbands away from them.
She was a little daemonic wrecker; she often appeared to him like a
little bird of prey, that would fain have made him, too, her booty.
He had studied her very, very closely. For the rest, she had had no
great success with him. "She did not get hold of me, but I got hold
of her--for my play. Then I fancy" (here he chuckled again) "she
consoled herself with some one else." Love seemed to mean for her