Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 9).djvu/143

 ROSMER.

[Takes up his hat.] Yes, come. Let us go together.

Rebecca.

No, dear, I can't just now. You must go alone. But shake off all these gloomy thoughts. Promise me.

Rosmer.

I am afraid I shall never shake them off.

Rebecca.

Oh, that such baseless fancies should take so strong a hold of you!

Rosmer.

Not so baseless I am afraid, Rebecca. I lay awake all night thinking it over and over. Perhaps Beata saw clearly after all.

Rebecca. In what?

Rosmer. In her belief that I loved you, Rebecca.

Rebecca. Right in that!

Rosmer.

[Lays his hat down on the table.] The question that haunts me is this: were we two not deceiving ourselves all the time—when we called our relation friendship?

Rebecca.

You mean that it might as well have been called?