Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 9).djvu/258

 Wangel.

Oh yes. Yours is an upright nature, Ellida. You have a loyal heart.

Ellida. Yes, I have.

Wangel.

Any relation in which you can feel secure and happy must be a full and perfect one.

Ellida. [Looking anxiously at him.] Well,—and then?

Wangel. You are not fitted to be a man's second wife.

Ellida. What makes you think of that now?

Wangel.

The suspicion has often crossed my mind; but to-day I saw it clearly. The children's little commemoration—you looked on me as a sort of accomplice.—Well yes; a man's memories are not to be wiped out—not mine, at all events. It is not in my nature.

Ellida.

I know that. Oh, I know it so well.

Wangel.

But you are mistaken, none the less. It seems to you almost as though the children's mother were still alive. You feel her invisible presence in our midst. You think that my heart is equally divided between you and her. It is this idea that