Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 11).djvu/282



[Uneasily.] Yes. But why is it? [''With an outburst.''] Oh Ella, I begin to wonder which is in the right—you or I!

It is you who have sinned. You have done to death all the gladness of life in me.

[Anxiously.] Do not say that, Ella!

All a woman's gladness at any rate. From the day when your image began to dwindle in my mind, I have lived my life as though under an eclipse. During all these years it has grown harder and harder for me—and at last utterly impossible—to love any living creature. Human beings, animals, plants: I shrank from all—from all but one

What one?

Erhart, of course.

Erhart?

Erhart—your son, Borkman.

Has he really been so close to your heart?