"On the eve of his marriage to me, he told you----"
"He told me that he loved me. And since then, if he has not said it in words he has said it in other ways again and again. He loves me still----"
"No, no, no, it is not true."
"He will always love me."
"It is not true, it is not true."
"And he loves you no more than a man loves his dog or his horse, or the man of the Bible days loved the handmaiden of his wife."
"Helga, for shame! Are you without conscience or truth that you can lie to me like that? If Oscar had never loved me do you think I should not have found it out long ago? And if he loved you do you think I should not know it--I who am bearing his child?"
"Oh, you needn't taunt me with that, Thora. Yes, yours are the lips that kiss him, but it isn't the lips that matter. It is the love behind the lips, and that love is mine, and every time he kisses you the kiss is meant for me."
"You lie, Helga, you lie."
"And the child too, it is not your child, because the love that gave it life was my love."