RITA. No, you have not. At first you were so utterly taken up by that book of yours—about Responsibility.
ALLMERS. [Forcibly.] Yes, I was. But my very book—I sacrificed for Eyolf's sake.
RITA. Not out of love for him.
ALLMERS. Why then, do you suppose?
RITA. Because you were consumed with mistrust of yourself. Because you had begun to doubt whether you had any great vocation to live for in the world.
ALLMERS. [Observing her closely.] Could you see that in me?
RITA. Oh, yes—little by little. And then you needed something new to fill up your life.—It seems I was not enough for you any longer.
ALLMERS. That is the law of change, Rita.
RITA. And that was why you wanted to make a prodigy of poor little Eyolf.
ALLMERS. That was not what I wanted. I wanted to make a happy human being of him.—That, and nothing more.