RITA. [Continuing.] And I should be very glad indeed if he and Asta were
to make a match of it.
ALLMERS. [Annoyed.] Oh, why should you be?
RITA. [With increasing excitement.] Why, for then she would have to go
far, far away with him! And she could never come out here to us, as she
does now.
ALLMERS. [Stares at her in astonishment.] What! Can you really wish Asta
to go away?
RITA. Yes, yes, Alfred!
ALLMERS. Why in all the world--?
RITA. [Throwing her arms passionately round his neck.] For then, at
last, I should have you to myself alone! And yet--not even then!
Not wholly to myself! [Bursts into convulsive weeping.] Oh, Alfred,
Alfred--I cannot give you up!
ALLMERS. [Gently releasing himself.] My dearest Rita, do be reasonable!
RITA. I don't care a bit about being reasonable! I care only for you!
Only for you in all the world! [Again throwing her arms round his neck.]
For you, for you, for you!
ALLMERS. Let me go, let me go--you are strangling me!
RITA. [Letting him go.] How I wish I could! [Looking at him with
flashing eyes.] Oh, if you knew how I have hated you--!
ALLMERS. Hated me--!
RITA. Yes--when you shut yourself up in your room and brooded over your
work--till long, long into the night. [Plaintively.] So long, so late,
Alfred. Oh, how I hated your work!
ALLMERS. But now I have done with that.
RITA. [With a cutting laugh.] Oh yes! Now you have given yourself up to
something worse.
ALLMERS. [Shocked.] Worse! Do you call our child something worse?
RITA. [Vehemently.] Yes, I do. As he comes between you and me, I call
him so. For the book--the book was not a living being, as the child is.
[With increasing impetuosity.] But I won't endure it, Alfred! I will not
endure it--I tell you so plainly!
ALLMERS. [Looks steadily at her, and says in a low voice.] I am often
almost afraid of you, Rita.
RITA. [Gloomily.] I am often afraid of myself. And for that very reason
you must not awake the evil in me.
ALLMERS. Why, good Heavens, do I do that?
RITA. Yes, you do--when you tear to shreds the holiest bonds between us.
ALLMERS. [Urgently.] Think what you're saying, Rita. It is your own
child--our only child, that you are speaking of.
RITA. The child is only half mine. [With another outburst.] But you
shall be mine alone! You shall be wholly mine! That I have a right to
demand of you!
ALLMERS. [Shrugging his shoulders.] Oh, my dear Rita, it is of no use
demanding anything. Everything must be freely given.
RITA. [Looks anxiously at him.] And that you cannot do henceforth?
ALLMERS. No, I cannot. I must divide myself between Eyolf and you.
RITA. But if Eyolf had never been born? What then?
ALLMERS. [Evasively.] Oh, that would be another matter. Then I should
have only you to care for.
RITA. [Softly, her voice quivering.] Then I wish he had never been born.
ALLMERS. [Flashing out.] Rita! You don't know what you are saying!
RITA. [Trembling with emotion.] It was in pain unspeakable that I
brought him into the world. But I bore it all with joy and rapture for
your sake.
ALLMERS. [Warmly.] Oh yes, I know, I know.
RITA. [With decision.] But there it must end. I will live my
life--together with you--wholly with you. I cannot go on being only
Eyolf's mother--only his mother and nothing more. I will not, I tell
you! I cannot! I will be all in all to you! To you, Alfred!