TEKLA. And now you are going home to your fiancee?
GUSTAV. I have no fiancee! Nor am I ever going to have one. I am not
going home, for I have no home, and don't want one.
(A WAITER comes in.)
GUSTAV. Get me my bill--I am leaving by the eight o'clock boat.
(THE WAITER bows and goes out.)
TEKLA. Without making up?
GUSTAV. Making up? You use such a lot of words that have lost
their--meaning. Why should we make up? Perhaps you want all three of us
to live together? You, if anybody, ought to make up by making good what
you took away, but this you cannot do. You just took, and what you took
you consumed, so that there is nothing left to restore.--Will it satisfy
you if I say like this: forgive me that you tore my heart to pieces;
forgive me that you disgraced me; forgive me that you made me the
laughing-stock of my pupils through every week-day of seven long years;
forgive me that I set you free from parental restraints, that I released
you from the tyranny of ignorance and superstition, that I set you to
rule my house, that I gave you position and friends, that I made a woman
out of the child you were before? Forgive me as I forgive you!--Now I
have torn up your note! Now you can go and settle your account with the
other one!
TEKLA. What have you done with him? I am beginning to suspect--something
terrible!
GUSTAV. With him? Do you still love him?
TEKLA. Yes!
GUSTAV. And a moment ago it was me! Was that also true?
TEKLA. It was true.
GUSTAV. Do you know what you are then?
TEKLA. You despise me?
GUSTAV. I pity you. It is a trait--I don't call it a fault--just a
trait, which is rendered disadvantageous by its results. Poor Tekla! I
don't know--but it seems almost as if I were feeling a certain regret,
although I am as free from any guilt--as you! But perhaps it will be
useful to you to feel what I felt that time.--Do you know where your
husband is?
TEKLA. I think I know now--he is in that room in there! And he has heard
everything! And seen everything! And the man who sees his own wraith
dies!
(ADOLPH appears in the doorway leading to the veranda. His face is white
as a sheet, and there is a bleeding scratch on one cheek. His eyes are
staring and void of all expression. His lips are covered with froth.)
GUSTAV. [Shrinking back] No, there he is!--Now you can settle with him
and see if he proves as generous as I have been.--Good-bye!
(He goes toward the left, but stops before he reaches the door.)
TEKLA. [Goes to meet ADOLPH with open arms] Adolph!
(ADOLPH leans against the door-jamb and sinks gradually to the floor.)
TEKLA. [Throwing herself upon his prostrate body and caressing him]
Adolph! My own child! Are you still alive--oh, speak, speak!--Please
forgive your nasty Tekla! Forgive me, forgive me, forgive me!--Little
brother must say something, I tell him!--No, good God, he doesn't hear!
He is dead! O God in heaven! O my God! Help!
GUSTAV. Why, she really must have loved HIM, too!--Poor creature!
(Curtain.)