Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 9).djvu/47

 really fine for a woman to sacrifice her whole youth to others as you have done.

Rebecca.

Oh, what else should I have had to live for?

Kroll.

First, there was your untiring devotion to your paralytic and exacting foster-father

Rebecca.

You mustn't suppose that Dr. West was such a charge when we were up in Finmark. It was those terrible boat-voyages up there that broke him down. But after we came here—well yes, the two years before he found rest were certainly hard enough.

Kroll.

And the years that followed—were they not even harder for you?

Rebecca.

Oh how can you say such a thing? When I was so fond of Beata—and when she, poor dear, stood so sadly in need of care and forbearance.

Kroll.

How good it is of you to think of her with so much kindness!

Rebecca.

[Moves a little nearer.] My dear Rector, you say that with such a ring of sincerity that I cannot think there is any ill-feeling lurking in the background.

Kroll.

Ill-feeling? Why, what do you mean?