Svava. No, I cannot! My faith in you is destroyed—so that I can never think of this as a home again. It makes me feel as if I were merely living with you as a lodger—from yesterday onwards, merely a lodger in the house.
Riis. Don't say that! My child!
Svava. Yes, I am your child. It only needed you to say it like that, for me to feel it deeply. To think of all the experiences we two have had together—all the happy times we have had on our travels, in our amusements—and then to think that I can never look back on them again, never take them up again! That is why I cannot stay here.
Riis. You cannot stay here!
Svava. It would remind me of everything too painfully. I should see everything in a distorted light.
Mrs. Riis. But you will see that you cannot bear to go away, either!
Riis. But—I can go!
Mrs Riis. You?
Riis. Yes, and your mother and you stay here?—Oh, Svava—!
Svava. No, I cannot accept that—come what may!