is affection--his soul--his whole heart!

MRS. BORKMAN.
[With an outburst.] That you shall never have in this world!

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[Looking at her.] You have seen to that?

MRS. BORKMAN.
[Smiling.] Yes, I have taken that liberty. Could you not see
that in his letters?

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[Nods slowly.] Yes. I could see you--the whole of you--in his
letters of late.

MRS. BORKMAN.
[Gallingly.] I have made the best use of these eight years. I
have had him under my own eye, you see.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[Controlling herself.] What have you said to Erhart about me?
Is it the sort of thing you can tell me?

MRS. BORKMAN.
Oh yes, I can tell you well enough.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
Then please do.

MRS. BORKMAN.
I have only told him the truth.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
Well?

MRS. BORKMAN.
I have impressed upon him, every day of his life, that he must
never forget that it is you we have to thank for being able to
live as we do--for being able to live at all.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
Is that all?

MRS. BORKMAN.
Oh, that is the sort of thing that rankles; I feel that in my
own heart.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
But that is very much what Erhart knew already.

MRS. BORKMAN.
When he came home to me, he imagined that you did it all out
of goodness of heart. [Looks malignly at her.] Now he does not
believe that any longer, Ella.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
Then what does he believe now?

MRS. BORKMAN.
He believes what is the truth. I asked him how he accounted
for the fact that Aunt Ella never came here to visit us----

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[Interrupting.] He knew my reasons already!

MRS. BORKMAN.
He knows them better now. You had got him to believe that it
was to spare me and--and him up there in gallery----

ELLA RENTHEIM.
And so it was.

MRS. BORKMAN.
Erhart does not believe that for a moment, now.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
What have you put in his head?

MRS. BORKMAN.
He thinks, what is the truth, that you are ashamed of us--that
you despise us. And do you pretend that you don't? Were you not
once planning to take him quite away from me? Think, Ella; you
cannot have forgotten.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[With a gesture of negation.] That was at the height of the
scandal--when the case was before the courts. I have no such
designs now.

MRS. BORKMAN.
And it would not matter if you had. For in that case what would
become of his mission? No, thank you. It is me that Erhart needs--
not you