Ellida.
You call that my own life! Oh no, my own true life slid into a wrong groove when I joined it to yours. [Clenches her hands together in fear and agitation.] And now—to-night—in half an hour—the man I have forsaken will be here—the man to whom my faith should have been inviolable, as his has been to me! Now he is coming to offer me—for the last and only time—a chance of beginning life afresh—of living my own real life—the life that at once frightens and fascinates me—and that I cannot forgo. Not of my own free will!
Wangel.
That is just why you require your husband—and your physician also—to take the power out of your hands, and to act on your behalf.
Ellida.
Yes, Wangel, I understand that very well. Oh, there are times, you may be sure, when I feel as though there would be safety and peace in clinging close to you, and trying to defy all the powers that frighten and fascinate me. But I cannot do it. No, no,—I cannot do it!
Wangel.
Come, Ellida—let us walk up and down a little.
Ellida.
I should like to; but I dare not. You know he said that I was to wait for him here.