.] Oh, how can you say such things!--You!

MRS. BORKMAN.
[With a venomous expression.] And how could you make up your
mind to take charge of the child of a--a John Gabriel! Just as
if he had been your own? To take the child away from me--home
with you--and keep him there year after year, until the boy was
nearly grown up. [Looking suspiciously at her.] What was your
real reason, Ella? Why did you keep him with you?

ELLA RENTHEIM.
I came to love him so dearly----

MRS. BORKMAN.
More than I--his mother?

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[Evasively.] I don't know about that. And then, you know,
Erhart was rather delicate as a child----

MRS. BORKMAN.
Erhart--delicate!

ELLA RENTHEIM.
Yes, I thought so--at that time at any rate. And you know the
air of the west coast is so much milder than here.

MRS. BORKMAN.
[Smiling bitterly.] H'm--is it indeed? [Breaking off.] Yes,
it is true you have done a great deal for Erhart. [With a change
of tone.] Well, of course, you could afford it. [Smiling.] You
were so lucky, Ella; you managed to save all your money.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[Hurt.] I did not manage anything about it, I assure you. I
had no idea--until long, long afterwards--that the securities
belonging to me--that they had been left untouched.

MRS. BORKMAN.
Well, well; I don't understand anything about these things! I
only say you were lucky. [Looking inquiringly at her.] But when
you, of your own accord, undertook to educate Erhart for me--what
was your motive in that?

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[Looking at her.] My motive?

MRS. BORKMAN.
Yes, some motive you must have had. What did you want to do
with him? To make of him, I mean?

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[Slowly.] I wanted to smooth the way for Erhart to happiness
in life.

MRS. BORKMAN.
[Contemptuously.] Pooh--people situated as we are have something
else than happiness to think of.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
What, then?

MRS. BORKMAN.
[Looking steadily and earnestly at her.] Erhart has in the first
place to make so brilliant a position for himself, that no trace
shall be left of the shadow his father has cast upon my name--and
my son's.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[Searchingly.] Tell me, Gunhild, is this what Erhart himself
demands of his life?

MRS. BORKMAN.
[Slightly taken aback.] Yes, I should hope so!

ELLA RENTHEIM.
Is it not rather what you demand of him?

MRS. BORKMAN.
[Curtly.] Erhart and I always make the same demand