Ah! how seriously you take everything, William! Believe me, you will speak differently to-morrow,—as soon as you’ve once seen them all again. Then you’ll at any rate have done your part; you will have proved that you were in earnest in your wish to live at peace with your family.
William.
To see it all again! all the old places! Everything comes back—so vividly, you know—the past comes so close to me—so oppressively close—one can—one is quite helpless—
Ida (embracing him with tears).
When I see you like this, William—ah, don’t think—for pity’s sake don’t think I would have urged you. I am so frightfully sorry for you!
William.
Ida, I can tell you!—I assure you—I must get away from here! That’s evident.—I’m not equal to this struggle evidently; it might wreck me altogether! You are such a child, Ida! a sweet, innocent child—how should you know! Thank God indeed that you cannot even dream what I—what this man whom you know—I can tell you—Hatred!—Bitterness!—the very moment I came in—
Ida.
Shall we go? shall we go away? this minute?