Or what----?

MRS. WILTON.
I should rather say that it seems highly improbable. But it's
so, none the less.

MRS. BORKMAN.
[Turning.] Are you really in earnest about this, Erhart?

ERHART.
This means happiness for me, mother--all the beauty and
happiness of life. That is all I can say to you.

MRS. BORKMAN.
[Clenching her hands together; to MRS. WILTON.] Oh, how you
have cajoled and deluded my unhappy son!

MRS. WILTON.
[Raising her head proudly.] I have done nothing of the sort.

MRS. BORKMAN.
You have not, say you!

MRS. WILTON.
No. I have neither cajoled nor deluded him. Erhart came to me
of his own free will. And of my own free will I went out half-way
to meet him.

MRS. BORKMAN.
[Measuring her scornfully with her eye.] Yes, indeed! That I
can easily believe.

MRS. WILTON.
[With self-control.] Mrs. Borkman, there are forces in human
life that you seem to know very little about.

MRS. BORKMAN.
What forces, may I ask?

MRS. WILTON.
The forces which ordain that two people shall join their lives
together, indissolubly--and fearlessly.

MRS. BORKMAN.
[With a smile.] I thought you were already indissolubly bound--
to another.

MRS. WILTON.
[Shortly.] That other has deserted me.

MRS. BORKMAN.
But he is still living, they say.

MRS. WILTON.
He is dead to me.

ERHART.
[Insistently.] Yes, mother, he is dead to Fanny. And besides,
this other makes no difference to me!

MRS. BORKMAN.
[Looking sternly at him.] So you know all this--about the other.

ERHART.
Yes, mother, I know quite well--all about it!

MRS. BORKMAN.
And yet you can say that it makes no difference to you?

ERHART.
[With defiant petulance.] I can only tell you that it is
happiness I must have! I am young! I want to live, live, live!

MRS. BORKMAN.
Yes, you are young, Erhart. Too young for this.

MRS. WILTON.
[Firmly and earnestly.] You must not think, Mrs. Borkman,
that I haven't said the same to him. I have laid my whole life
before him. Again and again I have reminded him that I am seven
years older than he----

ERHART.
[Interrupting.] Oh, nonsense, Fanny--I knew that all the time.

MRS. WILTON.
But nothing--nothing was of any use.

MRS. BORKMAN.
Indeed? Nothing? Then why did you not dismiss him without
more ado? Close your door to him? You should have done that,
and done it in time!

MRS. WILTON.
[Looks at her, and says in a