ealous?

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 Stroemstad.

TEKLA. What's his name?

ADOLPH. Sjoeberg.

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 hi