If rumours should get about of anything that offends people's prejudices, you may be quite certain that the whole cause of freedom of thought will suffer for it. Good-bye, Mr. Rosmer.
Rosmer. Good-bye.
Mortensgaard. I shall go straight to the printing-office now and have the great piece of news inserted in the "Searchlight".
Rosmer. Put it all in.
Mortensgaard. I will put in as much as there is any need for the public to know. (Bows, and goes out. ROSMER stands at the door, while MORTENSGAARD goes downstairs. The front door is heard shutting.)Rosmer (still standing in the doorway, calls softly). Rebecca!
Reb--ahem! (Calls loudly.) Mrs. Helseth--is Miss West downstairs?
Mrs. Helseth (from below). No, sir, she is not here.
(The curtain at the end of the room is drawn back, disclosing REBECCA standing in the doorway.)Rebecca. John!
Rosmer (turning round). What! Were you in there, in my bedroom!
My dear, what were you doing there?
Rebecca (going up to him). I have been listening.
Rosmer. Rebecca! Could you do a thing like that?
Rebecca. Indeed I could. It was so horrid the way he said that--about my morning wrapper.
Rosmer. Ah, so you were in there too when Kroll--?
Rebecca. Yes. I wanted to know what was at the bottom of his mind.
Rosmer. You know I would have told you.
Rebecca. I scarcely think you would have told me everything--certainly not in his own words.
Rosmer. Did you hear everything, then?
Rebecca. Most of it, I think. I had to go down for a moment when Mortensgaard came.
Rosmer. And then came up again?
Rebecca. Do not take it ill of me, dear friend.
Rosmer. Do anything that you think right and proper. You have full freedom of action.--But what do you say to it all, Rebecca?
Ah, I do not think I have ever stood so much in need of you as Ido to-day.
Rebecca. Surely both you and I have been prepared for what would happen some day.
Rosmer. No, no--not for this.
Rebecca. Not for this?
Rosmer. It is true that I used to think that sooner or later our beautiful pure friendship would come to be attacked by calumny and suspicion--not on Kroll's part, for I never would have believed such a thing of him--but on the part of the coarse-minded and ignoble-eyed crowd. Yes, indeed; I had good reason enough for so jealously drawing a veil of concealment over our compact. It was a dangerous secret.
Rebecca. Why should we pay any heed to what all these other people think? You and I know that we have nothing to reproach ourselves with.
Rosmer. I? Nothing to reproach myself with? It is true enough that I thought so until to-day. But now, now, Rebecca--Rebecca. Yes? Now?
Rosmer. How am I to account to myself for Beata's horrible accusation?
Rebecca (impetuously). Oh, don't talk about Beata! Don't think about Beata any more! She is dead, and you seemed at last to have been able to get away from the thought of her.
Rosmer. Since I have learnt of this, it seems just as if she had come to life again in some uncanny fashion.
Rebecca. Oh no--you must not say that, John! You must not!
Rosmer. I tell you it is so. We must try and get to the bottom of it. How can she have strayed into such a woeful misunderstanding of me?
Rebecca. Surely you too are not beginning to doubt that she was very nearly insane?
Rosmer. Well, I cannot deny it is just of that fact that I feel Icannot be so altogether certain any longer. And besides if it were so--Rebecca. If it were so? What then?
Rosmer. What I mean is--where are we to look for the actual cause of her sick woman's fancies turning into insanity?
Rebecca. What good can it possibly do for you to indulge in such speculations!
Rosmer. I cannot do otherwise, Rebecca. I cannot let this doubt go on gnawing at my heart, however unwilling I may be to face it.
Rebecca. But it may become a real danger to you to be perpetually dwelling on this one lugubrious topic.
Rosmer (walking about restlessly and absorbed in the idea). Imust have betrayed myself in some way or other. She must have noticed how happy I began to feel from the day you came to us.
Rebecca. Yes; but dear, even if that were so--Rosmer. You may be sure she did not fail to notice that we read the same books; that we sought one another's company, and discussed every new topic together. But I cannot understand it--because I was always so careful to spare her. When I look back, it seems to me that I did everything I could to keep her apart from our lives. Or did I not, Rebecca?
Rebecca. Yes, yes--undoubtedly you did.
Rosmer. And so did you, too. And notwithstanding that--! Oh, it is horrible to think of! To think that here she was--with her affection all distorted by illness --never saying a word--watching us--noticing everything and--and--misconstruing everything.
Rebecca (wringing her hands). Oh, I never ought to have come to Rosmersholm.
Rosmer. Just think what she must have suffered in silence! Think of all the horrible things her poor diseased brain must have led her to believe about us and store up in her mind about us! Did she never speak to you of anything that could give you any kind of clue?
Rebecca (as if startled). To me! Do you suppose I should have remained here a day longer, if she had?
Rosmer. No, no--that is obvious. What a fight she must have fought--and fought alone, Rebecca! In despair, and all alone. And then, in the end, the poignant misery of her victory--which was also her accusation of us--in the mill-race! (Throws himself into a chair, rests his elbows on the table, and hides his face in his hands.)Rebecca (coming quietly up behind him). Listen to me, John. If it were in your power to call Beata back--to you--to Rosmersholm--would you do it?
Rosmer. How can I tell what I would do or what I would not do! Ihave no thoughts for anything but the one thing which is irrevocable.
Rebecca. You ought to be beginning to live now, John. You were beginning. You had freed yourself completely on all sides. You were feeling so happy and so light--hearted Rosmer. I know--that is true enough. And then comes this overwhelming blow.
