Ida.
Forgive me! I don’t—I—flung what?
William.
Mother—mother was supposed to—my mother—supposed to—just think, they actually dared to accuse her of it openly, she—a secret understanding with—that she—I taxed her with it—the girl who said it—insolent—the coachman had told her. I went to the coachman, and he—he stuck to it—had it from the master, from the master himself—, naturally I—was it possible I could believe such a thing! At least I tried not to—until I myself overheard—in the stables—father and the stable boy—you may believe my very hands tingled when I heard him—about my mother.
Ida.
Only do be—try—don’t excite yourself so fearfully. You are quite—
William.
I don’t know any more—I only know there is something in a man—his will is a mere wisp of straw. One must go through it to—It swept over me like a flood. A state like—and in this state I found myself suddenly in father’s room. I saw him. He was doing something—I can’t remember what. And then I—literally—I thrashed him—with these hands.
[He can scarcely hold himself up.