Mrs. Helseth. Oh, you mustn't sit there and make game of me, miss. (Listens.) Hush, hush--Mr. Rosmer is coming down. He doesn't like to see brooms about. (Goes out by the door on the right.
ROSMER, with his stick and hat in his hand, comes in from the lobby.)Rosmer. Good-morning, Rebecca.
Rebecca. Good-morning, dear. (She goes on working for a little while in silence.) Are you going out?
Rosmer. Yes.
Rebecca. It is such a lovely day.
Rosmer. You did not come up to see me this morning.
Rebecca. No--I didn't. Not to-day.
Rosmer. Don't you mean to do so in future, either? Rebecca. Icannot say yet, dear.
Rosmer. Has anything come for me?
Rebecca. The "County News" has come.
Rosmer. The "County News"!
Rebecca. There it is, on the table.
Rosmer (putting down his hat and stick). Is there anything--?
Rebecca. Yes.
Rosmer. And you did not send it up to me Rebecca. You will read it quite soon enough.
Rosmer. Well, let us see. (Takes up the paper and stands by the table reading it.) What!--"cannot pronounce too emphatic a warning against unprincipled deserters." (Looks at her.) They call me a deserter, Rebecca.
Rebecca. They mention no names at all.
Rosmer. It comes to the same thing. (Goes on reading.) "Secret traitors to the good cause."--"Judas-like creatures, who shamelessly confess their apostasy as soon as they think the most opportune and most profitable moment has arrived."--"A reckless outrage on the fair fame of honoured ancestors"--"in the expectation that those who are enjoying a brief spell of authority will not disappoint them of a suitable reward." (Lays the paper down on the table.) And they write that of me--these men who have known me so long and so intimately--write a thing that they do not even believe themselves! They know there is not a single word of truth in it--and yet they write it.
Rebecca. There is more of it yet.
Rosmer (taking up the paper again). "Make some allowance for inexperience and want of judgment"--"a pernicious influence which, very possibly, has extended even to matters which for the present we will refrain from publicly discussing or condemning." (Looks at her.) What does that mean?
Rebecca. That is a hit at me, obviously.
Rosmer (laying down the paper). Rebecca, this is the conduct of dishonourable men.
Rebecca. Yes, it seems to me they have no right to talk about Mortensgaard.
Rosmer (walking up and down the room). They must be saved from this sort of thing. All the good that is in men is destroyed, if it is allowed to go on. But it shall not be so! How happy--how happy I should feel if I could succeed in bringing a little light into all this murky ugliness.
Rebecca (getting up). I am sure of it. There is something great, something splendid, for you to live for!
Rosmer. Just think of it--if I could wake them to a real knowledge of themselves--bring them to be angry with and ashamed of themselves--induce them to be at one with each other in toleration, in love, Rebecca!
Rebecca. Yes! Give yourself up entirely to that task, and you will see that you will succeed.
Rosmer. I think it might be done. What happiness it would be to live one's life, then! No more hateful strife--only emulation;every eye fixed on the same goal; every man's will, every man's thoughts moving forward-upward--each in its own inevitable path Happiness for all--and through the efforts of all! (Looks out of the window as he speaks, then gives a start and says gloomily:)Ah! not through me.
Rebecca. Not--not through you?
Rosmer. Nor for me, either.
Rebecca. Oh, John, have no such doubts.
Rosmer. Happiness, dear Rebecca, means first and foremost the calm, joyous sense of innocence.
Rebecca (staring in front of her). Ah, innocence--Rosmer. You need fear nothing on that score. But I--Rebecca. You least of all men!
Rosmer (pointing out of the window). The mill-race.
Rebecca. Oh, John!--(MRS. HELSETH looks in in through the door on the left.)Mrs. Helseth. Miss West!
Rebecca. Presently, presently. Not now.
Mrs. Helseth. Just a word, miss! (REBECCA goes to the door. MRS.
HELSETH tells her something, and they whisper together for a moment; then MRS. HELSETH nods and goes away.)Rosmer (uneasily). Was it anything for me?
Rebecca. No, only something about the housekeeping. You ought to go out into the open air now, John dear. You should go for a good long walk.
Rosmer (taking up his hat). Yes, come along; we will go together.
Rebecca. No, dear, I can't just now. You must go by yourself. But shake off all these gloomy thoughts--promise me that!
Rosmer. I shall never be able to shake them quite off, I am afraid.
Rebecca. Oh, but how can you let such groundless fancies take such a hold on you!
Rosmer. Unfortunately they are not so groundless as you think, dear. I have lain, thinking them over, all night. Perhaps Beata saw things truly after all.
Rebecca. In what way do you mean?
Rosmer. Saw things truly when she believed I loved you, Rebecca.
Rebecca. Truly in THAT respect?
Rosmer (laying his hat down on the table). This is the question Ihave been wrestling with--whether we two have deluded ourselves the whole time, when we have been calling the tie between us merely friendship.
Rebecca. Do you mean, then, that the right name for it would have been--?
Rosmer. Love. Yes, dear, that is what I mean. Even while Beata was alive, it was you that I gave all my thoughts to. It was you alone I yearned for. It was with you that I experienced peaceful, joyful, passionless happiness. When we consider it rightly, Rebecca, our life together began like the sweet, mysterious love of two children for one another--free from desire or any thought of anything more. Did you not feel it in that way too? Tell me.
Rebecca (struggling with herself). Oh, I do not know what to answer.
Rosmer. And it was this life of intimacy, with one another and for one another, that we took to be friendship. No, dear--the tie between us has been a spiritual marriage--perhaps from the very first day. That is why I am guilty. I had no right to it--no right to it for Beata's sake.
