GUSTAV. Not an everything?
TEKLA. He isn't well just now.
GUSTAV. Well, why should little brother put his nose into other people's
hives?
TEKLA. [Laughing] You crazy thing!
GUSTAV. Poor chap!--Do you remember once when we were just married--we
lived in this very room. It was furnished differently in those days.
There was a chest of drawers against that wall there--and over there
stood the big bed.
TEKLA. Now you stop!
GUSTAV. Look at me!
TEKLA. Well, why shouldn't I?
[They look hard at each other.]
GUSTAV. Do you think a person can ever forget anything that has made a
very deep impression on him?
TEKLA. No! And our memories have a tremendous power. Particularly the
memories of our youth.
GUSTAV. Do you remember when I first met you? Then you were a pretty
little girl: a slate on which parents and governesses had made a few
scrawls that I had to wipe out. And then I filled it with inscriptions
that suited my own mind, until you believed the slate could hold nothing
more. That's the reason, you know, why I shouldn't care to be in your
husband's place--well, that's his business! But it's also the reason why
I take pleasure in meeting you again. Our thoughts fit together exactly.
And as I sit here and chat with you, it seems to me like drinking old
wine of my own bottling. Yes, it's my own wine, but it has gained a
great deal in flavour! And now, when I am about to marry again, I have
purposely picked out a young girl whom I can educate to suit myself. For
the woman, you know, is the man's child, and if she is not, he becomes
hers, and then the world turns topsy-turvy.
TEKLA. Are you going to marry again?
GUSTAV. Yes, I want to try my luck once more, but this time I am going
to make a better start, so that it won't end again with a spill.
TEKLA. Is she good looking?
GUSTAV. Yes, to me. But perhaps I am too old. It's queer--now when
chance has brought me together with you again--I am beginning to doubt
whether it will be possible to play the game over again.
TEKLA. How do you mean?
GUSTAV. I can feel that my roots stick in your soil, and the old wounds
are beginning to break open. You are a dangerous woman, Tekla!
TEKLA. Am I? And my young husband says that I can make no more
conquests.
GUSTAV. That means he has ceased to love you.
TEKLA. Well, I can't quite make out what love means to him.
GUSTAV. You have been playing hide and seek so long that at last you
cannot find each other at all. Such things do happen. You have had to
play the innocent to yourself, until he has lost his courage. There
ARE some drawbacks to a change, I tell you--there are drawbacks to it,
indeed.