GERDA. Exactly, and yet different—there is a difference
MASTER. [Feeling unhappy] Are you satisfied—with your life?
GERDA. Yes. I have what I was looking for.
MASTER. And the child?
GERDA. Oh, she's growing, and thriving, and lacks nothing.
MASTER. Then I won't ask anything more. [Pause] Did you want anything—of me—can I be of any service?
GERDA. It's very kind of you, but—I need nothing at all now when I have seen that you lack nothing either. [Pause] Do you wish to see Anne-Charlotte?
MASTER. I don't think so, now when I have heard that she is doing well. It's so hard to begin over again. It's like having to repeat a lesson at school—which you know already, although the teacher doesn't think so—I have got so far away from all that—I live in a wholly different region—and I cannot connect with the past. It goes against me to be impolite, but I am not asking you to be seated—you are another man's wife—and you are not the same person as the one from whom I parted.
GERDA. Am I then so—altered?
MASTER. Quite strange to me! Your voice, glance, manner——