How can you doubt it? A mind so sensitive as his——
Kroll.
I thought that an emancipated man, so called, was above all such scruples.—But there we have it! Oh yes—I admit I knew how it would be. The descendant of the men that look down on us from these walls—how could he hope to cut himself adrift from all that has been handed down without a break from generation to generation?
Rebecca.
[Looks down thoughtfully.] Johannes Rosmer’s spirit is deeply rooted in his ancestry. That is very certain.
Kroll.
Yes, and you should have taken that fact into consideration, if you had felt any affection for him. But that sort of consideration was no doubt beyond you. There is such an immeasurable difference between your antecedents and his.
Rebecca.
What antecedents do you mean?
Kroll.