TEKLA. There we are again! Who has put it into his head that he is not
to paint any longer?
ADOLPH. Who? You are always looking for somebody else behind me and my
thoughts. Are you jealous?
TEKLA. Yes, I am. I'm afraid somebody might take him away from me.
ADOLPH. Are you really afraid of that? You who know that no other woman
can take your place, and that I cannot live without you!
TEKLA. Well, I am not afraid of the women--it's your friends that fill
your head with all sorts of notions.
ADOLPH. [Watching her] You are afraid then? Of what are you afraid?
TEKLA. [Getting up] Somebody has been here. Who has been here?
ADOLPH. Don't you wish me to look at you?
TEKLA. Not in that way: it's not the way you are accustomed to look at
me.
ADOLPH. How was I looking at you then?
TEKLA. Way up under my eyelids.
ADOLPH. Under your eyelids--yes, I wanted to see what is behind them.
TEKLA. See all you can! There is nothing that needs to be hidden.
But--you talk differently, too--you use expressions--[studying him] you
philosophise--that's what you do! [Approaches him threateningly] Who has
been here?
ADOLPH. Nobody but my physician.
TEKLA. Your physician? Who is he?
ADOLPH. That doctor from Stromstad.
TEKLA. What's his name?
ADOLPH. Sjoberg.
TEKLA. What did he have to say?
ADOLPH. He said--well--among other things he said--that I am on the
verge of epilepsy--
TEKLA. Among other things? What more did he say?
ADOLPH. Something very unpleasant.
TEKLA. Tell me!
ADOLPH. He forbade us to live as man and wife for a while.
TEKLA. Oh, that's it! Didn't I just guess it! They want to separate us!
That's what I have understood a long time!
ADOLPH. You can't have understood, because there was nothing to
understand.
TEKLA. Oh yes, I have!
ADOLPH. How can you see what doesn't exist, unless your fear of
something has stirred up your fancy into seeing what has never existed?
What is it you fear? That I might borrow somebody else's eyes in order
to see you as you are, and not as you seem to be?
TEKLA. Keep your imagination in check, Adolph! It is the beast that
dwells in man's soul.
ADOLPH. Where did you learn that? From those chaste young men on the
boat--did you?
TEKLA. [Not at all abashed] Yes, there is something to be learned from
youth also.
ADOLPH. I think you are already beginning to have a taste for youth?
TEKLA. I have always liked youth. That's why I love you. Do you object?
ADOLPH. No, but I should prefer to have no partners.
TEKLA. [Prattling roguishly] My heart is so big, little brother, that
there is room in it for many more than him.
ADOLPH. But little brother doesn't want any more brothers.
TEKLA. Come here to Pussy now and get his hair pulled because he is
jealous--no, envious is the right word for it!
(Two knocks with a chair are heard from the adjoining room, where GUSTAV
is.)
ADOLPH. No, I don't want to play now. I want to talk seriously.
TEKLA. [Prattling] Mercy me, does he want to talk seriously? Dreadful,
how serious he's become! [Takes hold of his head and kisses him] Smile a
little--there now!
ADOLPH. [Smiling against his will] Oh, you're the--I might almost think
you knew how to use magic!
TEKLA. Well, can't he see now? That's why he shouldn't start any
trouble--or I might use my magic to make him invisible!
ADOLPH. [Gets up] Will you sit for me a moment, Tekla? With the side of
your face this way, so that I can put a face on my figure.
TEKLA. Of course, I will.
[Turns her head so he can see her in profile.]
ADOLPH. [Gazes hard at her while pretending to work at the figure] Don't
think of me now--but of somebody else.
TEKLA. I'll think of my latest conquest.
ADOLPH. That chaste young man?
TEKLA. Exactly! He had a pair of the prettiest, sweetest moustaches,
and his cheek looked like a peach--it was so soft and rosy that you just
wanted to bite it.
ADOLPH. [Darkening] Please keep that expression about the mouth.
TEKLA. What expression?
ADOLPH. A cynical, brazen one that I have never seen before.
TEKLA. [Making a face] This one?
ADOLPH. Just that one! [Getting up] Do you know how Bret Harte pictures
an adulteress?
TEKLA. [Smiling] No, I have never read Bret Something.
ADOLPH. As a pale creature that cannot blush.
TEKLA. Not at all? But when she meets her lover, then she must blush, I
am sure, although her husband or Mr. Bret may not be allowed to see it.
ADOLPH. Are you so sure of that?
TEKLA. [As before] Of course, as the husband is not capable of bringing
the blood up to her head, he cannot hope to behold the charming
spectacle.
ADOLPH. [Enraged] Tekla!
TEKLA. Oh, you little ninny!
ADOLPH. Tekla!
TEKLA. He should call her Pussy--then I might get up a pretty little
blush for his sake. Does he want me to?
ADOLPH. [Disarmed] You minx, I'm so angry with you, that I could bite
you!
TEKLA. [Playfully] Come and bite me then!--Come!
[Opens her arms to him.]
ADOLPH. [Puts his hands around her neck and kisses her] Yes, I'll bite
you to death!
TEKLA. [Teasingly] Look out--somebody might come!
ADOLPH. Well, what do I care! I care for nothing else in the world if I
can only have you!
TEKLA. And when, you don't have me any longer?
ADOLPH. Then I shall die!
TEKLA. But you are not afraid of losing me, are you--as I am too old to
be wanted by anybody else?
ADOLPH. You have not forgotten my words yet, Tekla! I take it all back
now!
TEKLA. Can you explain to me why you are at once so jealous and so
cock-sure?
ADOLPH. No, I cannot explain anything at all. But it's possible that
the thought of somebody else having possessed you may still be gnawing
within me. At times it appears to me as if our love were nothing but a
fiction, an attempt at self-defence, a passion kept up as a matter of
honor--and I can't think of anything that would give me more pain than
to have HIM know that I am unhappy. Oh, I have never seen him--but the
mere thought that a person exists who is waiting for my misfortune to
arrive, who is daily calling down curses on my head, who will roar
with laughter when I perish--the mere idea of it obsesses me, drives me
nearer to you, fascinates me, paralyses me!
TEKLA. Do you think I would let him have that joy? Do you think I would
make his prophecy come true?
ADOLPH. No, I cannot think you would.
TEKLA. Why don't you keep calm then?
ADOLPH. No, you upset me constantly by your coquetry. Why do you play
that kind of game?
TEKLA. It is no game. I want to be admired--that's all!
ADOLPH. Yes, but only by men!
TEKLA. Of course! For a woman is never admired by other women.
ADOLPH. Tell me, have you heard anything--from him--recently?
TEKLA. Not in the last sis months.
ADOLPH. Do you ever think of him?
TEKLA. No!--Since the child died we have broken off our correspondence.
ADOLPH. And you have never seen him at all?
TEKLA. No, I understand he is living somewhere down on the West Coast.
But why is all this coming into your head just now?
ADOLPH. I don't know. But during the last few days, while I was alone, I
kept thinking of him--how he might have felt when he was left alone that
time.
TEKLA. Are you having an attack of bad conscience?
ADOLPH. I am.
TEKLA. You feel like a thief, do you?
ADOLPH. Almost!
TEKLA. Isn't that lovely! Women can be stolen as you steal children or
chickens? And you regard me as his chattel or personal property. I am
very much obliged to you!
ADOLPH. No, I regard you as his wife. And that's a good deal more than
property--for there can be no substitute. TEKLA. Oh, yes! If you only
heard that he had married again, all these foolish notions would leave
you.--Have you not taken his place with me?
ADOLPH. Well, have I?--And did you ever love him?
TEKLA. Of course, I did!