and we have more serious business to settle. You have
allowed this scoundrel partially to pay for my household, and in doing
so you have completely ruined my reputation. What have you done with the
money?

BERTHA. The whole thing is a lie.

AXEL. Have you squandered it on luncheon and dinner parties?

BERTHA. No, I have saved it; and that's something you have no conception
of, spendthrift!

AXEL. Oh, you saving soul! That negligee cost two hundred francs, and my
dressing-gown cost twenty-five.

BERTHA. Have you anything else to say to me?

AXEL. Nothing else, except that you must think about supporting yourself
from now on. I don't care to decorate wooden panels any more and let you
reap the earnings.

BERTHA. A-ha, you think you can so easily get out of the duty that you
made yourself responsible for when you fooled me into becoming your
wife? You shall see!

AXEL. Now that I've had my eyes opened, the past is beginning to take on
another color. It seems to me almost as if you conjured that courtship
of ours; it seems almost as if I had been the victim of what you women
call seduction; it now seems to me as if I had fallen into the hands of
an adventuress, who lured my money away from me in a _hotel garni_; it
seems almost as if I had lived in vice ever since I was united with you!
[Rising.] And now, as you stand there with your back turned to me and
I see your neck with your short hair, it is--yes, it is exactly as
if--ugh!--as if you were Judith and had given your body to be able to
behead me! Look, there is the dress I was going to wear, that you wished
to humiliate me with. Yes, you felt that it was debasing to wear those
things, and thought it disguised your desire to irritate,--this low-cut
bodice and the corsets which were to advertise your woman's wares. No,
I return your love-token and shake off the fetters. [He throws down the
wedding-ring. Bertha looks at him in wonderment. Axel pushes back his
hair.] You didn't want to see that my forehead is higher than yours, so
I let my hair conceal it, so as not to humble and frighten you. But now
I am going to humble you, and since you were not willing to be my equal
when I lowered myself to your level, you shall be my inferior, which you
are.

BERTHA. And all this--all this noble revenge because _you_ were _my_
inferior!

AXEL. Yes, I was your inferior, even when I painted your picture!

BERTHA. Did you paint my picture? If you repeat that, I'll strike y