Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 9).djvu/337

 my dear Ellida. I asked you honestly if you would share with me and the children the little I could call my own.

Ellida.

Yes, you did. But, little or much, I ought not to have accepted! I should never have accepted at any price! I should never have sold myself! Better the meanest labour—better the deepest poverty—of my own free will—by my own choice!

Wangel.

[Rising.] Then have the five or six years we have lived together been utterly wasted for you?

Ellida.

Oh, you must not think that, Wangel! I have had all from you that any one could possibly desire. But I did not come into your home of my own free will,—that is the thing.

Wangel.

[Looks at her.] Not of your free will?

Ellida.

No; it was not of my own free will that I cast in my lot with yours.

Wangel.

[Softly.] Ah, I remember—the phrase he used yesterday.

Ellida.

The whole secret lies in that phrase. It has thrown a new light on things for me; so that I see it all now.

Wangel.

What do you see?