Rosmer (getting up). New ties! (Walks across the room, turns at the door and comes back again.) A question occurs to my mind. Has it not occurred to you too, Rebecca?
Rebecca (catching her breath). Let me hear what it is.
Rosmer. What do you suppose will become of the tie between us, after to-day?
Rebecca. I think surely our friendship can endure, come what may.
Rosmer. Yes, but that is not exactly what I meant. I was thinking of what brought us together from the first, what links us so closely to one another—our common belief in the possibility of a man and a woman living together in chastity.
Rebecca. Yes, yes—what of it?
Rosmer. What I mean is—does not such a tie as that—such a tie as ours—seem to belong properly to a life lived in quiet, happy peacefulness?
Rebecca. Well?
Rosmer. But now I see stretching before me a life of strife and unrest and violent emotions. For I mean to live my life, Rebecca! I am not going to let myself be beaten to the ground by the dread of what may happen. I am not going to have my course of life prescribed for me, either by any living soul or by another.
Rebecca. No, no—do not! Be a free man in everything, John!