nt to do."

BORKMAN.
And so it was. If only I could get my foot in the stirrup----
And that depended on that one man. He could and would secure me
the control of the bank--if I on my side----

ELLA RENTHEIM.
Yes, just so! If you on your side would renounce the woman you
loved--and who loved you beyond words in return.

BORKMAN.
I knew his consuming passion for you. I knew that on no other
condition would he----

ELLA RENTHEIM.
And so you struck the bargain.

BORKMAN.
[Vehemently.] Yes, I did, Ella! For the love of power is
uncontrollable in me, you see! So I struck the bargain; I had to.
And he helped me half-way up towards the beckoning heights that I
was bent on reaching. And I mounted and mounted; year by year
I mounted----

ELLA RENTHEIM.
And I was as though wiped out of your life.

BORKMAN.
And after all he hurled me into the abyss again. On account of
you, Ella.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[After a short thoughtful silence.] Borkman, does it not seem
to you as if there had been a sort of curse on our whole relation?

BORKMAN.
[Looking at her.] A curse?

ELLA RENTHEIM.
Yes. Don't you think so?

BORKMAN.
[Uneasily.] Yes. But why is it? [With an outburst.] Oh Ella,
I begin to wonder which is in the right--you or I!

ELLA RENTHEIM.
It is you who have sinned. You have done to death all the
gladness of my life in me.

BORKMAN.
[Anxiously.] Do not say that, Ella!

ELLA RENTHEIM.
All a woman's gladness at any rate. From the day when your image
began to dwindle in my mind, I have lived my life as though under
an eclipse. During all these years it has grown harder and harder
for me--and at last utterly impossible--to love any living creature.
Human beings, animals, plants: I shrank from all--from all but one----

BORKMAN.
What one?

ELLA RENTHEIM.
Erhart, of course.

BORKMAN.
Erhart?

ELLA RENTHEIM.
Erhart--your son, Borkman.

BORKMAN.
Has he really been so close to your heart?

ELLA RENTHEIM.
Why else should I have taken him to me, and kept him as long as
ever I could? Why?

BORKMAN.
I thought it was out of pity, like all the rest that you did.

ELLA RENTHEIM.
[In strong inward emotion.] Pity! Ha, ha! I have never known
pity, since you deserted me. I was incapable of feeling it. If
a poor starved child came into my kitchen, shivering, and crying,
and begging for a morsel of food, I let the servants look to it.
I never