Oh Wangel—if only I could love you as I gladly would! As tenderly as you deserve! But I feel quite clearly—it will never be.

Wangel.

A divorce then? It is a divorce,—a formal, legal divorce,—that you want?

Ellida.

My dear, you do not understand me at all. It is not the forms that I care about. These external things seem to me to matter nothing. What I wish is that we two should agree, of our own free will, to release each other.

Wangel.

[Bitterly, nods slowly.] To cancel the bargain,—yes.

Ellida.

[Eagerly.] Precisely! To cancel the bargain.

Wangel.