] You never really and truly
loved him--never!

RITA. [With cold self-control.] Eyolf would never let me take him really
and truly to my heart.

ALLMERS. Because you did not want to.

RITA. Oh yes, I did. I did want to. But some one stood in the way--even
from the first.

ALLMERS. [Turning right round.] Do you mean that _I_ stood in the way?

RITA. Oh, no--not at first.

ALLMERS. [Coming nearer her.] Who, then?

RITA. His aunt.

ALLMERS. Asta?

RITA. Yes. Asta stood and barred the way for me.

ALLMERS. Can you say that, Rita?

RITA. Yes. Asta--she took him to her heart--from the moment that
happened--that miserable fall.

ALLMERS. If she did so, she did it in love.

RITA. [Vehemently.] That is just it! I cannot endure to share anything
with any one! Not in love.

ALLMERS. We two should have shared him between us in love.

RITA. [Looking scornfully at him.] We? Oh, the truth is you have never
had any real love for him either.

ALLMERS. [Looks at her in astonishment.] _I_ have not--!

RITA. No, you have not. At first you were so utterly taken up by that
book of yours--about Responsibility.

ALLMERS. [Forcibly.] Yes, I was. But my very book--I sacrificed for
Eyolf's sake.

RITA. Not out of love for him.

ALLMERS. Why then, do you suppose?

RITA. Because you were consumed with mistrust of yourself. Because you
had begun to doubt whether you had any great vocation to live for in the
world.

ALLMERS. [Observing her closely.] Could you see that in me?

RITA. Oh, yes--little by little. And then you needed something new to
fill up your life.--It seems _I_ was not enough for you any longer.

ALLMERS. That is the law of change, Rita.

RITA. And that was why you wanted to make a prodigy of poor little
Eyolf.

ALLMERS. That was not what I wanted. I wanted to make a happy human
being of him.--That, and nothing more.

RITA. But not out of love for him. Look into yourself! [With a certain
shyness of expression.] Search out all that lies under--and behind your
action.

ALLMERS. [Avoiding her eyes.] There is something you shrink from saying.

RITA. And you too.

ALLMERS. [Looks thoughtfully at her.] If it is as you say, then we two
have never really possessed our own child.

RITA. No. Not in perfect love.

ALLMERS. And yet we are sorrowing so bitterly for him.

RITA. [With sarcasm.] Yes, isn't it curious that we should grieve like
this over a little stranger boy?

ALLMERS. [With an outburst