Borkman.
Perhaps not. But that would have been because they had not my brains. And if they had done it, it would not have been with my aims in view. The act would have been a different act. In short, I have acquitted myself.
Ella Rentheim.
[Softly and appealingly.] Oh, can you say that so confidently, Borkman?
Borkman.
[Nodding.] Acquitted myself on that score. But then comes the great, crushing self-accusation.
Mrs. Borkman.
What is that?
Borkman.
I have skulked up there and wasted eight precious years of my life! The very day I was set free, I should have gone forth into the world—out into the steel-hard, dreamless world of reality! I should have begun at the bottom and swung myself up to the heights anew—higher than ever before—in spite of all that lay between.