Good-bye, Mrs. Wangel! [He vaults over the fence.] Henceforth you[[23]] are nothing but—a bygone shipwreck in my life.
[He goes out to the left.
Wangel.
[Looks at her awhile.] Ellida—your mind is like the sea: it has its ebb and flow. What brought the transformation?
Ellida.
Oh, do you not understand that the transformation came,—that it had to come—when I could choose in freedom.
Wangel.
And the unknown,—it fascinates you no longer?
Ellida.
It neither fascinates nor frightens me. I could have seen into it—gone into it—if I had wished to. I was free to choose it; and therefore I was able to reject it.