Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 6).djvu/410

 of society? We are the tools of society, neither more nor less.

Lona.

Why do you only see this now?

Bernick.

Because I have been thinking much of late—since you came home—and most of all this evening.—Oh, Lona, why did I not know you through and through, then—in the old days?

Lona.

What then?

Bernick.

I should never have given you up; and, with you by my side, I should not have stood where I stand now.

Lona.

And do you never think what she might have been to you—she, whom you chose in my stead?

Bernick.

I know, at any rate, that she has not been anything that I required.

Lona.

Because you have never shared your life-work with her. Because you have never placed her in a free and true relation to you. Because you have allowed her to go on pining under the weight of shame you had cast upon those nearest her.

Bernick.

Yes, yes, yes; falsehood and hollowness are at the bottom of it all.