Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 9).djvu/154

 Kroll.

[Smiles incredulously.] Really! I am surprised! What can be the reason of that?

Rebecca.

When I had passed twenty-five, it seemed to me I was getting altogether too old for an unmarried woman. And so I began to lie about my age.

Kroll.

You? An emancipated woman! Have you prejudices about the age for marriage?

Rebecca.

Yes, it was idiotic of me—idiotic and absurd. But some folly or other will always cling to us, not to be shaken off. We are made so.

Kroll.

Well, so be it; but my calculation may be right, none the less. For Dr. West was up there on a short visit the year before he got the appointment.

Rebecca. [With a vehement outburst.] It is not true!

Kroll. Is it not true?

Rebecca. No. My mother never spoke of any such visit.

Kroll. Did she not?

Rebecca.

No, never. Nor Dr. West either; not a word about it