Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 11).djvu/288

 must just let it take its course. They cannot possibly check it; at most, they can allay the suffering. And that is always something.

Oh, but it will take a long time to run its course. I am sure it will.

I may perhaps last out the winter, they told me.

[Without thinking.] Oh, well, the winter is long.

[Quietly.] Long enough for me, at any rate.

[Eagerly, changing the subject.] But what in all the world can have brought on this illness? You, who have always lived such a healthy and regular life? What can have brought it on?

[Looking at him.] The doctors thought that perhaps at one time in my life I had had to go through some great stress of emotion.

[Firing up.] Emotion! Aha, I understand! You mean that it is my fault?