MRS. BORKMAN.
[Drawing herself up menacingly.] But I tell you this, Ella,
I do not give in yet! I shall redeem myself yet—you may make
up your mind to that!
ELLA RENTHEIM.
[Eagerly.] Redeem yourself! What do you mean by that?
MRS. BORKMAN. Redeem my name, and honour, and fortune! Redeem my ruined life— that is what I mean! I have some one in reserve, let me tell you— one who will wash away every stain that he has left.
ELLA RENTHEIM.
Gunhild! Gunhild!
MRS. BORKMAN. [With rising excitement.] There is an avenger living, I tell you! One who will make up to me for all his father's sins!
ELLA RENTHEIM.
Erhart you mean.
MRS. BORKMAN. Yes, Erhart, my own boy! He will redeem the family, the house, the name. All that can be redeemed.—And perhaps more besides.
ELLA RENTHEIM.
And how do you think that is to be done?
MRS. BORKMAN. It must be done as best it can; I don't know how. But I know that it must and shall be done. [Looks searchingly at her.] Come now, Ella; isn't that really what you have had in mind too, ever since he was a child?
ELLA RENTHEIM.
No, I can't exactly say that.