Don't you think she did it in order to be with her sweetheart?
That was what occurred to me at first. But no, that was not it. She seemed to drift quite away from him—when once she had come here to me.
She drifted over to you, then?
Yes, entirely. If I happen to look at her when her back is turned, I can tell that she feels it. She quivers and trembles the moment I come near her. What do you think of that?
H'm—that's not very hard to explain.
Well, but what about the other thing? That she believed I had said to her what I had only wished and willed—silently—inwardly—to myself? What do you say to that? Can you explain that, Dr. Herdal?
No, I won't undertake to do that.
I felt sure you would not; and so I have never cared to talk about it till now.—But it's a cursed nuisance to me in the long run, you understand. Here have I got to go on day after day, pretending—. And it's a shame to treat her so, too, poor girl. [Vehemently.] But I cannot do anything else. For if she runs away from me—then Ragnar will be off too.
And you have not told your wife the rights of the story?
No.