taken. She and I have no
secrets from one another about anything whatever.

Kroll. Then has she confessed to you that she has been corresponding
with the editor of the "Searchlight"?

Rosmer. Oh, you mean the couple of lines she wrote to him on Ulrik
Brendel's behalf?

Kroll. You have found that out, then? And do you approve of her being
on terms of this sort with that scurrilous hack, who almost every week
tries to pillory me for my attitude in my school and out of it?

Rosmer. My dear fellow, I don't suppose that side of the question has
ever occurred to her. And in any case, of course she has entire freedom
of action, just as I have myself.

Kroll. Indeed? Well, I suppose that is quite in accordance with the new
turn your views have taken--because I suppose Miss West looks at things
from the same standpoint as you?

Rosmer. She does. We two have worked our way forward in complete
companionship.

Kroll (looking at him and shaking his head slowly). Oh, you blind,
deluded man!

Rosmer. I? What makes you say that?

Kroll. Because I dare not--I WILL not--think the worst. No, no, let me
finish what I want to say. Am I to believe that you really prize my
friendship, Rosmer? And my respect, too? Do you?

Rosmer. Surely I need not answer that question.

Kroll. Well, but there are other things that require answering--that
require full explanation on your part. Will you submit to it if I hold
a sort of inquiry--?

Rosmer. An inquiry?

Kroll. Yes, if I ask you questions about one or two things that it may
be painful for you to recall to mind. For instance, the matter of your
apostasy--well, your emancipation, if you choose to call it so--is
bound up with so much else for which, for your own sake, you ought to
account to me.

Rosmer. My dear fellow, ask me about anything you please. I have
nothing to conceal.

Kroll. Well, then, tell me this--what do you yourself believe was the
real reason of Beata's making away with herself?

Rosmer. Can you have any doubt? Or perhaps I should rather say, need
one look for reasons for what an unhappy sick woman, who is
unaccountable for her actions, may do?

Kroll. Are you certain that Beata was so entirely unaccountable for her
actions? The doctors, at all events, did not consider that so
absolutely certain.

Rosmer. If the doctors had ever seen her in the state in which I have
so often seen her, both night and day, they would have had no doubt
about it.

Kroll. I d