Gina. Well, I suppose it’s best you should know it. He didn’t let me alone until he’d had his will of me.
Hjalmar (clasping his hands). And this is the mother of my child! How could you conceal such a thing from me!
Gina. Yes, that was wrong of me; I ought certainly to have told you long ago.
Hjalmar. You ought to have told it me at once. Then I should have known what sort of a creature you were.
Gina. But would you have married me all the same?
Hjalmar. How can you imagine such a thing!
Gina. No; that is why I did not dare tell you anything then. For I grew to care so very much for you, as you know. And I couldn’t go and make myself absolutely wretched——
Hjalmar (walking about). And this is my Hedvig’s mother. And to know all that I see before my eyes—— (Kicking a chair.)—All my home—I owe it all to a favored predecessor. Ah! that seducer, Werle!
Gina. Do you repent the fourteen or fifteen years that we have lived together?
Hjalmar (standing in front of her). Tell me, have you not repented every day, every hour, for the web of deceit that, like a spider, you have spun around me? Answer me that! Have you not really gone about here remorseful and penitent?