. Then I will
tell you all about it.

Rosmer (sitting down involuntarily). What has come over you, Rebecca?
You are so unnaturally calm--What is it?

Rebecca. The calmness of determination. (Sits down.) Please sit down
too, Mr. Kroll. (He takes a seat on the couch.)

Rosmer. Determination, you say. Determination to do what?

Rebecca. I want to give you back what you need in order to live your
life. You shall have your happy innocence back, dear friend.

Rosmer. But what do you mean?

Rebecca. I will just tell you what happened. That is all that is
necessary.

Rosmer. Well?

Rebecca. When I came down here from Finmark with Dr. West, it seemed to
me that a new, great, wide world was opened to me. Dr. West had given
me an erratic sort of education--had taught me all the odds and ends
that I knew about life then. (Has an evident struggle with herself, and
speaks in barely audible tones.) And then--

Kroll. And then?

Rosmer. But, Rebecca--I know all this.

Rebecca (collecting herself). Yes--that is true enough. You know it
only too well.

Kroll (looking fixedly at her). Perhaps it would be better if I left
you.

Rebecca. No, stay where you are, dear Mr. Kroll. (To ROSMER.) Well,
this was how it was. I wanted to play my part in the new day that was
dawning--to have a share in all the new ideas. Mr. Kroll told me one
day that Ulrik Brendel had had a great influence over you once, when
you were a boy. I thought it might be possible for me to resume that
influence here.

Rosmer. Did you come here with a covert design?

Rebecca. What I wanted was that we two should go forward together on
the road towards freedom--always forward, and further forward! But
there was that gloomy, insurmountable barrier between you and a full,
complete emancipation.

Rosmer. What barrier do you mean?

Rebecca. I mean, John, that you could never have attained freedom
except in the full glory of the sunshine. And, instead of that, here
you were--ailing and languishing in the gloom of such a marriage as
yours.

Rosmer. You have never spoken to me of my marriage in that way, before
to-day.

Rebecca. No, I did not dare, for fear of frightening you.

Kroll (nodding to ROSMER). You hear that!

Rebecca (resuming). But I saw quite well where your salvation lay--your
only salvation. And so I acted.

Rosmer. How do you mean--you acted?

Kroll. Do you mean that?

Rebecca. Yes, John. (Gets up.) No, do not get up. Nor you either,