ALLMERS. Yes; I mistook the direction—for there was no path or track. And all day I went on—and all the next night. And at last I thought I should never see the face of man again.
RITA. Not come home to us? Oh, then, I am sure your thoughts were with us here.
ALLMERS. No—they were not.
RITA. Not?
ALLMERS. No. It was so strange. Both you and Eyolf seemed to have drifted far, far away from me—and Asta, too.
RITA. Then what did you think of?
ALLMERS. I did not think. I dragged myself along among the precipices—and revelled in the peace and luxury of death.
RITA. [Springing up.] Oh, don't speak in that way of that horror!
ALLMERS. I did not feel it so. I had no fear. Here went death and I, it seemed to me, like two good fellow-travellers. It all seemed so natural—so simple, I thought. In my family, we don't live to be old—
RITA. Oh, don't say such things, Alfred! You see you came safely out of it, after all.