Mrs. Borkman.
[Looking at him.] You?
Borkman.
Not of what I have done amiss. All the world knows that.
Mrs. Borkman.
[With a bitter sigh.] Yes, that is true; all the world knows that.
Borkman.
But it does not know why I did it; why I had to do it. People do not understand that I had to, because I was myself—because I was John Gabriel Borkman—myself, and not another. And that is what I will try to explain to you.
Mrs. Borkman.
[Shaking her head.] It is of no use. Temptations and promptings acquit no one.