Page:The collected works of Henrik Ibsen (Volume 8).djvu/360

This page needs to be proofread.

Gina. But would you have married me all the same?

Hialmar. How can you dream that I would?

Gina. That's just why I didn't dare tell you anything, then. For I'd come to care for you so much, you see; and I couldn't go and make myself utterly miserable——

Hialmar. [Walks about.] And this is my Hedvig's mother. And to know that all I see before me—[Kicks at a chair]—all that I call my home—I owe to a favoured predecessor! Oh that scoundrel Werle!

Gina. Do you repent of the fourteen—the fifteen years as we've lived together?

Hialmar. [Placing himself in front of her.] Have you not every day, every hour, repented of the spider's-web of deceit you have spun around me? Answer me that! How could you help writhing with penitence and remorse?

Gina. Oh, my dear Ekdal, I've had all I could do to look after the house and get through the day's work——

Hialmar. Then you never think of reviewing your past?