Rebecca. No, stay where you are, dear Mr. Kroll. (To ROSMER.) Well, this was how it was. I wanted to play my part in the new day that was dawning—to have a share in all the new ideas. Mr. Kroll told me one day that Ulrik Brendel had had a great influence over you once, when you were a boy. I thought it might be possible for me to resume that influence here.
Rosmer. Did you come here with a covert design?
Rebecca. What I wanted was that we two should go forward together on the road towards freedom—always forward, and further forward! But there was that gloomy, insurmountable barrier between you and a full, complete emancipation.
Rosmer. What barrier do you mean?
Rebecca. I mean, John, that you could never have attained freedom except in the full glory of the sunshine. And, instead of that, here you were—ailing and languishing in the gloom of such a marriage as yours.
Rosmer. You have never spoken to me of my marriage in that way, before to-day.
Rebecca. No, I did not dare, for fear of frightening you.
Kroll (nodding to ROSMER). You hear that!
Rebecca (resuming). But I saw quite well where your salvation lay—your only salvation. And so I acted.
Rosmer. How do you mean—you acted?