STRANGER. The fact that life, however it shaped itself—I have been rich and poor, exalted and humbled; I have suffered a shipwreck and passed through an earthquake—but, however life shaped itself, I always became aware of connections and repetitions. I saw in one situation the result of another, earlier one. On meeting this person I was reminded of that one whom I had met in the past. There have been incidents in my life that have come back time and again, so that I have been forced to say to myself: this I have been through before. And I have met with occurrences that seemed to me absolutely inevitable, or predestined.
RUDOLPH. What have you done during all these years?
STRANGER. Everything! I have beheld life from every quarter, from every standpoint, from above and from below, and always it has seemed to me like a scene staged for my particular benefit. And in that way I have at last become reconciled to a part of the past, and I have come to excuse not only my own but also other people's so-called "faults." You and I, for instance, have had a few bones to pick with each other——
RUDOLPH recoils with a darkening face.
STRANGER. Don't get scared now——
RUDOLPH. I never get scared!
STRANGER. You are just the same as ever.
RUDOLPH. And so are you!
STRANGER. Am I? That's interesting!—Yes, you are still living in that delusion about your own bravery, and I remember exactly how this false idea became fixed in your mind. We were learning to swim, and one day you told how you had dived into the water, and then mother said: "Yes, Rudolph, he has courage!" That was meant for me—for me whom you had stripped of all courage and self-assurance. But then came the day when you had stolen some apples, and you were too cowardly to own up to it, and so you put it on me.
RUDOLPH. Haven't you forgotten that yet?