Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 7).djvu/168

 Helmer.

I don't want any melodramatic airs. [Locks the outer door.] Here you shall stay and give an account of yourself. Do you understand what you have done? Answer! Do you understand it?

Nora.

[Looks at him fixedly, and says with a stiffening expression.] Yes; now I begin fully to understand it.

Helmer.

[Walking up and down.] Oh! what an awful awakening! During all these eight years—she who was my pride and my joy—a hypocrite, a liar—worse, worse—a criminal. Oh, the unfathomable hideousness of it all! Ugh! Ugh!

[Nora says nothing, and continues to look fixedly at him.

Helmer.

I ought to have known how it would be. I ought to have foreseen it. All your father's want of principle—be silent!—all your father's want of principle you have inherited—no religion, no morality, no sense of duty. How I am punished for screening him! I did it for your sake; and you reward me like this.

Nora.

Yes—like this.

Helmer.

You have destroyed my whole happiness. You have ruined my future. Oh, it's frightful to think of! I am in the power of a scoundrel; he can do whatever he pleases with me, demand whatever