e is no forgiveness. I have never understood
what it could be; but now I understand. The great, unpardonable
sin is to murder the love-life in a human soul.

BORKMAN.
And you say I have done that?

ELLA RENTHEIM.
You have done that. I have never rightly understood until
this evening what had really happened to me. That you deserted
me and turned to Gunhild instead--I took that to be mere common
fickleness on your part, and the result of heartless scheming
on hers. I almost think I despised you a little, in spite of
everything. But now I see it! You deserted the woman you loved!
Me, me, me! What you held dearest in the world you were ready to
barter away for gain. That is the double murder you have
committed! The murder of your own soul and of mine!

BORKMAN.
[With cold self-control.] How well I recognise your passionate,
ungovernable spirit, Ella. No doubt it is natural enough that
you should look at the thing in this light. Of course, you are
a woman, and therefore it would seem that your own heart is the
one thing you know or care about in this world.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
Yes, yes it is.

BORKMAN.
Your own heart is the only thing that exists for you.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
The only thing! The only thing! You are right there.

BORKMAN.
But you must remember that I am a man. As a woman, you were the
dearest thing in the world to me. But if the worst comes to the
worst, one woman can always take the place of another.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[Looks at him with a smile.] Was that your experience when you
had made Gunhild your wife?

BORKMAN.
No. But the great aims I had in life helped me to bear even
that. I wanted to have at my command all the sources of power
in this country. All the wealth that lay hidden in the soil,
and the rocks, and the forests, and the sea-- I wanted to gather
it all into my hands to make myself master of it all, and so to
promote the well-being of many, many thousands.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[Lost in recollection.] I know it. Think of all the evenings
we spent in talking over your projects.

BORKMAN.
Yes, I could talk to you, Ella.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
I jested with your plans, and asked whether you wanted to awaken
all the sleeping spirits of the mine.

BORKMAN.
[Nodding.] I remember that phrase. [Slowly.] All the sleeping
spirits of the mine.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
But you did not take it as a jest. You said: "Yes, yes, Ella,
that is just what I wa