e you give your own
nature free rein. Otherwise you may get hurt, and then there will
be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

TEKLA. You can never forgive:--

GUSTAV. Yes, I have forgiven you!

TEKLA. You!

GUSTAV. Of course! Have I raised a hand against you during all
these years? No! And now I came here only to have a look at you,
and it was enough to burst your bubble. Have I uttered a single
reproach? Have I moralised or preached sermons? No! I played a
joke or two on your dear consort, and nothing more was needed to
finish him.--But there is no reason why I, the complainant,
should be defending myself as I am now--Tekla! Have you nothing at
all to reproach yourself with?

TEKLA. Nothing at all! Christians say that our actions are
governed by Providence; others call it Fate; in either case, are
we not free from all liability?

GUSTAV. In a measure, yes; but there is always a narrow margin
left unprotected, and there the liability applies in spite of all.
And sooner or later the creditors make their appearance.
Guiltless, but accountable! Guiltless in regard to one who is no
more; accountable to oneself and one's fellow beings.

TEKLA. So you came here to dun me?

GUSTAV. I came to take back what you had stolen, not what you had
received as a gift. You had stolen my honour, and I could recover
it only by taking yours. This, I think, was my right--or was it
not?

TEKLA. Honour? Hm! And now you feel satisfied?

GUSTAV. Now I feel satisfied. [Rings for a waiter.]

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 yo